Millennials

Poor Career Advice For Young People.

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I got a couple of emails recently. Both had graduated from the same school decades apart.  One introduced to me a young man who had recently graduated and was looking for a job.

A solid networking strategy is to reach out to your Alumni.  I went to the University of Western Ontario which is a long way from where I sit in Orange County, CA.  Yet I can do a LinkedIn search and plug in my zip code and the school name and over 100 people who went to Western pop up. Continue reading

Are Millennials the Lost Generation?

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I received an infographic from a Millennial the other day.  The headline asked if Millennials are the lost generation.  It outlined that Millennials are the generation with the highest joblessness and debt out of school.

I reflected about the headline for a bit.  I wondered if she was making an analogy to the Lost Generation that was coined by Gertrude Stein and made popular by Ernest Hemingway.  The generation after World War 1 that had emerged from another senseless war where horses attacked tanks.  I doubt it.  Many Millennials have razor thin knowledge of history I have found although 4 out of 10 have tattoos.

I ask them about Marshall McLuhan and their faces are blank.  Marshall predicted the global village that they live in.  Ask my millennial friend Samed Yadegari who works for Ogilvy in Dubai. I met him when I spoke at UCI. He didn’t work in Dubai then.  He had received a degree in computer science in three years.   My college roommate’s sons live in Shanghai.

I ask Millennials about Ricky Nelson when we are sitting at a coffee shop in Laguna Beach where he used to hang with his parents. They say I have never heard of him.  Ricky Nelson offered the career advice that many Millennials live by.  He sang “You can’t please everybody so you’ve got to please yourself.” Indeed.  When your interior drum is banging youth can accomplish great things.

It plays into the fact Millennials are highly entrepreneurial. Just ask my millennial friend Juan Sebastian Vasquez in LA.  He works with URBAN Teens eXploring Technology.  They teach coding to inspire young men of color in the 7th to 11th grade to become tech leaders.  Ever looked for a Java developer these days?

The infographic also documented that Millennials are more educated than any other generation as 54% have finished college.  But there is all kinds of education.

I often recruit Millennials for positions in the marketing world and other fields. I see a lot of disparity. Some of my young friends are clearly destined to be lost.

I got a resume along with a cover letter mentioning their English degree and a passion for advertising.  Maybe that passion should have translated into one advertising course a year over four years which would have made my friend more marketable.

I got another resume from a person who worked as a server. I have walked in those shoes. What he lacked in experience he would make up with hard work.  You don’t want to discriminate yourself on hard work these days.  That will make you part of the proletariat and you don’t want to be offering that in the New Normal.

I often meet other Millennials who have graduated with four year degrees in advertising or marketing or PR or whatever.  They are active on social media.  They have hundreds of LinkedIn connections. Some don’t want to work.  They want to get funding for an app they are developing.

It’s not only about the luck of the draw and what generation you are part off.  It is what you do within your generation and that begins with you. Everyone including me started there.

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Read: Don’t Let Your Business Cards Weaken Your Personal Brand

The Slash Generation.

Watch this Video on Why Young People Shouldn’t try to Get a Job.