Career In Progress: For Me, Every Job REALLY Is Temporary

http://www.careerealism.com/career-in-progress-for-me-every-job-really-is-temporary/

Loving this new article from Susan Pogorzelski over at CareerRealism.com
See her personal blog at http://twentyorsomething.wordpress.com/
Just another complete testament of the manner Gen Y is looking at Careers.

"However, finding a job in my field after gradation was harder than I expected. I think that I naively believed that once I had the degree in hand, doors would be opened and all it would take was the gentle nudge of ambition (and a resume) and I would be on my way to the career of my dreams."
Pretty sure that's part of what they promise heading into college isn't it? I know that's exactly how I was thinking as well.

Shameless Promotion

Ok so I found about this through a Shameless self promotion by the gentlemen over making a comment to a group I am on in LinkedIn, but his promotion worked on me I guess.

http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/ca6630203.html

This one is specific to me as it is about Gen Y'ers in the Hospitality Industry.
Aptly titled - (De-)Generation Y

Which I'm not personally sure how I feel about, it's always interesting to see a perspective from the outside as well.
I will dissect this article in further posts.

How Can Gen Y beat the Downturn

As a Gen Y'er currently lucky enough to have a job. I can't speak from personal experience, but something I see and know regularly is that there are always ways to make things more efficient and different. Bringing in a Gen Y perspective can often open up idea's that perhaps have never been thought of.
Social Media? What about an Excel Macro to automate that annoying forecast each week.
OnRec.com - has a great article even though it's from the UK, many of the theories still apply.
"How can 'Generation Y' adapt to beat the downturn"
"Current Generation Y graduates and first jobbers - those born between the late 1970’s and 2000 - are being badly affected by staff cut backs. In times of recession the phrase 'last in first out' often rings true for many organisations, and for Generation Y having never experienced a recession the current economic climate may come as a shock."
The owner of my company and my boss always bring about the fact that we've been here before (albeit not necessarily to this extent) but that recessions happen and it often brings about the biggest chances for progress.

One of my favorite quotes is perfect for a time like this economy.

"Only when it gets dark enough can you see the stars." -Russell Lynes

So go out, and be the brightest star in the dark sky.

Donald Kohn on the BailOut

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Donald Kohn explains why we can't know who has our money.

A Generation Y Mentality

So just in browsing found a pretty interesting little site, which I really am loving because it is some Gen Y mentality versus the workplace. http://www.generationyblog.com/

Here is their latest article daftly named.
"3 Reasons to give the Middle Finger to Corporate America"

So this post is going to be focused on why I give the middle finger to Corporate America, and let me be the first to say that this post isn’t going to be a rant on Wal-Mart and all the sleezy messed up things corporations do, because personally I believe that without the corporations we wouldn’t have much of a life in America.

This post is going to be focused on the reasons why I don’t want to put myself through an extensive process to grabbing a one-of-a-kind, state-of-the-art, desk job, working nine to five at Price Water House Cooper making $55,000 a year plus benefits. To start my reasons why, I’m going to start with the first part of the extensive process.


Reason One: The Interview

Senior Year of college, where you should be in total drunken bliss, but instead you are worrying about your Interview, where someone inside a corporate company gets to sit and judge you over a period of an hour. Companies make judgments and decide if you are good for the company based on body language and mannerisms. So you are telling me that if I cross my legs to the left, but my employer likes his legs crossed to the right, I won’t get the job…basically. And all this.. Just to either let you know that you are going to have to come back for a second Interview or thanks but no thanks, and good bye.

Note: I have been through the Interview Process and have been accepted into a few companies so this is not a bashing rant because I’m pissed that I didn’t get a job

Reason Two: Your a piece of Sh$%

The second reason I give my middle finger to Corporate America is because it doesn’t matter how skilled you are, and what you can do for the company, you are simply a pawn that goes into their strategic chess game. You start as a pawn and you have to work and work and you get promoted a nice 5% increased salary, yet little do you know that the inflation rate was also 5%. After 20 years in the company you might make partner of some sort, and be making a nice $130k a year with benefits. The key thing to note is 20 years.

Reason Three : You can do so much more

Your destiny is not to work for a company for 40 years and then retire. You should make your life extraordinary and really make a difference somehow. My suggestion is to truly find out what you want to do in life. If you want to be in a certain industry, getting the corporate job might be good to get some experience under your belt before you start your own thing. However, don’t get a job just because of money. Money should be your last thought, you can make $250 everyday online and in life. Do something you love, and love what you do.

So there you have it, the mentality of one Gen Y'er.
The complete antithesis of what my parents were taught when they were younger.
I can't help but notice he never uses the word 'career' once in his article.

Gen Y - Career ADD

Generation Y - Career ADD

This is from a little article from The Oberlin Review from Sophia Yan December 2006.

I just loved the first sentence off of her review.
"College admissions offices, employers and marketing companies are going into a frenzy over Generation Y, a cohort of individuals characterized as Generation X on steroids."

The Hall of Fame ballot was out for baseball today and Mark McGuire made another appearence on the ballot only to not be accepted again. Oh the irony of Gen Y being "Generation X on steroids." In a time full of steroid controversy and the ante's being upped so high that "steroids" seem to be the only way to compete. We are raised to think we'll be the next LeBron James, the next Mark Zuckerberg(Mr. Facebook) or the next Paris Hilton(Apparently socialite is a profession now?). And what's to stop us? We've got the reigns of the google, youtube, wikipedia all at our finger tips and can be an expert in any topic within minutes of an internet search.

We enter the workplace with a thirst to make more efficient, more tech savvy, and don't sit well with the status quo. Likewise it can be easily frustrating in positions without opportunities for immediate advancement aren't presented, and will jump from one "career" to another at a whims notice to get a higher paycheck and more refined title. Long gone are the days of "tenure" and "life career" we're in, we make some money aim for the bonuses get bored then move on.

Gen Y too Demanding?

From CNN -
"Not too long ago, the generation gap meant parents didn't understand why ripped jeans cost twice as much as regular ones or why every other word coming out of their child's mouth was "like."
Now the gap means employers don't understand why twentysomethings straight out of college expect a high salary and lots of vacation time."

Is that too much to ask?

Who is a Gen Y'er?

In true Gen Y fashion I'm going to the most reputable source I know of, Wikipedia for our definition. (What ever happened to Encyclopedia Britannica, and do teachers even require you to cite sources in APA format anymore?? Or can you just list web pages for sources. Kids don't know how easy it is to use "The Google".)

As I stated, the reputable source Wikipedia -
Generation Y, sometimes referred to as "Millennials" or "Net Generation" is the group of people born anywhere between the second half of the 1970s and anywhere from the mid 1990s to around the year 2000. . . Several alternative terms include Echo Boomers, iGeneration, and Google Generation. Generation Y is generally considered to be the last generation of Americans wholly born in the 20th century. Using the broadest definition commonly cited as of 2005, Generation Y included Americans in their mid-twenties or younger who were born before January 1, 2000.

Well there ya have it, and if it's on the internet, it must be true.
And to a further extent if it's on Wikipedia, it's as good as science.

Brief Introduction

I am a Gen Y'er, working in a workplace primarily of all non-Y'ers and trying to fit in to the workplace flow.
Articles are everywhere about fitting in, to making it work, to what additional we can bring. This is my real life account of my thoughts versus what happens in the workplace.
An introduction from a Time Magazine Article, "What Gen Y Really Wants"

"With 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Gen Xers, there is already a yawning generation gap among American workers--particularly in their ideas of work-life balance. For baby boomers, it's the juggling act between job and family. For Gen X, it means moving in and out of the workforce to accommodate kids and outside interests. Now along come the 76 million members of Generation Y. For these new 20-something workers, the line between work and home doesn't really exist. They just want to spend their time in meaningful and useful ways, no matter where they are."