Dear members of Generation Y (or more simply stated, 20-somethings),
I am concerned about some members of your generation. It seems like the enthusiasm, optimism and excitement that has branded you is fading fast. The past two posts I wrote about cockpit parenting and being naively optimistic about your careers inspired hundreds of comments. These comments, along with my work coaching and speaking to 20-somethings, affirmed my suspicion that many of you Gen Y'ers are beginning to get so discouraged you are becoming bitter at a premature age.
It's not all of you. In fact, I am noticing a distinct polarization of Gen Y that I am calling "Gen Yes" and "Gen whY me?" The Gen Yes'ers are those of you who are saying "yes" to your current situation. You are working, proactively looking for a job or embarking on an entrepreneurial path. You understand the opportunity your generation has to make an impact on the world. You are responding and taking responsibility. The Gen whY me'ers are those of you who are upset over your current situation. You hate your job, feel underemployed, are unemployed or resigned to living at home. You feel wronged by the government, educational system, corporations or your parents. You are angry that your generation is going to have to clean up the mess previous generations have made.
So if you are a Gen whY me'er, consider looking more in the direction of yes. I get it. Your challenging reality check is coming early in life. But reality is reality. You cannot change it, but you can change how you respond to it. You have two choices: either sit around and play the complain/blame game or accept it and respond in proactive ways.
A bad job market and economy is not new. It's something our nation has seen many times before; this is just the first time you are being affected by it. And your generation is going to be crucial to turning it around. Now, you may be thinking, "Hey it's not our fault that the economy is in the can, so why is it our responsibility to fix it?!" My encouragement (and request) is to look at this as an opportunity rather than a responsibility and break free of the entitled and coddled stereotype you have been painted with. Unfortunately, I see many 20-somethings admitting defeat before you have really even begun to play the game of life.
I am sorry that you have graduated into a recession and that all the advice about "finding your passion and the money will follow" has let you down. I apologize that a college degree does not come with a job guarantee. But is that the only reason you went to college? Think about the self-discoveries you made, the opportunities you had and the friends you have now. College is an incredible investment in your life experience, not just your work experience. Stop devaluing your education just because you don't feel like you're getting paid back for it now.
I wish I had the authority to apologize on behalf of the government, corporations, the educational system, the media, your parents and anyone and everyone else that you are blaming right now. As a younger member of Gen X dedicated to supporting members of Gen Y, I feel like an older sibling who is cheering for your success and cringing at the ways you are sabotaging yourself. Is complaining about the job market getting you hired? Is being angry at the "system" changing anything? Is living at home with your parents supporting you in creating your adult life?
The answer is no. So what can you do instead? Change your attitude and be proactive rather than reactive. Your attitude determines the choices you make, how you interact with the world and eventually the results you live with. Shift your perspective on how you are looking at your current situation. Gen Y is known for out-of-the-box thinking, so get creative in taking steps toward your future.
And just declaring your career goals like you did a major is not enough. Please don't just apply for jobs from your computer, call a few family friends and then give up, using the economy and job market as a scapegoat. Building a career takes time, an aggressive pursuit, creativity and a willingness to be adaptable. If you have a dream, it may require a moonlight pursuit while you work pay-the-bills type of jobs. You may even take a job that feels "beneath you." Don't look at this like a travesty that will leave a scarlet letter "U," for underemployment. It's a step, and it's not permanent. I realize that if you have a degree, and especially an advanced degree, this is hard on both your ego and your pocket book. Just take it in stride and know that it won't last forever. And I guarantee that the better your attitude is about it, the faster you will move into a job opportunity that feels more like a fit. You do not have to figure your entire life out right now; trust that the steps will unfold as you move forward. But please get moving!
Remember, complaining about all the ways in which life hasn't turned out like you planned is a terrible investment of your time and energy. To better prepare for any career, practice spending your time wisely. Better investments involve making yourself useful and seeking inspiration. There are always opportunities to serve and put yourself to work in the most uplifting ways simply by volunteering. Get out of your own head and go help someone else. Also, resist the temptation to judge Gen Yes'ers as privileged, lucky or possessing some quality that you do not have. Reach out to fellow members of your generation in the Gen Yes category and ask them to be your peer mentor. Rather than separating yourself from them by comparison, choose to learn from them instead.
Become part of "Generation Yes." You are not victims of this economy. Your life is truly just beginning. Say yes to this challenge instead of attending the pity-party. Say yes to accepting the reality of what is rather than wishing it was easier. Say yes to opportunities that come your way instead of thinking that they are beneath you. Say yes to all that creativity and inspiration that is within you, and say no to the fear.
We need you. You are the generation that will change the world, and I believe you can. Do you? What will you do to become part of Generation Yes? I look forward to your comments below.
Follow Christine Hassler on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Christinhassler
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It's no freakin' walk in the park, and it's a little difficult to remain positive when you have bill collectors calling you at 8 AM every morning. It's hard to be happy when you can't even get hired for a basic part time retail job because you've had mental health issues in the past, which kept you from graduating from college. Not like that degree in English would've helped you in the end. Your boyfriend just graduated with a degree in statistics, one of those degrees that's supposed to pretty much guarantee a job - two months, 100 resumes, and rejected unemployment benefits later (because he lost his student job when he graduated), he has nothing.
Oh, and my boyfriend and I have been together for four years now. We'd really like to get engaged or married or something, but we can't afford it.
It's hard to say "yes" when you're barely getting by, and you don't have a parent's house to move in to. It's hard to say "yes" when you have to call up your mom and dad, in tears, because you don't have enough money to cover your prescription co-pays that week. I'm sorry, but you can take your "yes" and shove it.
Great article Christine. We live in the land of the entitled. A land where hard work is a lost virtue. As a part of Generation Y, I'm rather unimpressed with the majority of my peers. Edison stated “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” He couldn't be more right.
Audry Hepburn also has some great insights: "Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."
Our entire world is experiencing unprecedented events more frequently than ever before. As these issues worsen, I am confident that Gen lazY will eventually step up to the plate. I just hope its not too late.
Also, the vast majority of our generation isn't lazy. I'm not sure who it is that you're hanging around with, but I know myself and my friends are hard-working but we've been handed a pile of crap and been told to make a life out of it. It's a little difficult to pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you haven't even got any boots.
I would add one big NO: Do not follow GenX in their rampant, manic consumerism, driven by ubiquitous advertising, always looking for more "stuff". Instead, become a "postconsumer", happy in the "satisfaction of enough".
The only constant is change.
All the phenomena in this world are marked by impermance.
The corollary to those statements is that empires rise and fall.
The 20th century was the American century, just like the 19th was the British century. It's looking like the 21st century is going to be the Chinese century.
Such massive social shifts have massive personal as well as political consequences. Inevitably, there is going to be a good deal of suffering for those who thought they were entitled to a good life, and are finding out that there is no such entitlement.
When times get tough, life becomes much more Darwinian. It sucks...but it is what it is.
Those coming of age right now have been born in such a time. Admitting that is the first step to finding some sort of personal empowerment, either to overcome adversity, or live with a stoic acceptance of it - or some combination thereof.
But, it's the so-called Boomers and Gen-Xers who are their parents, so you trace this behavior directly to them. Those two demographics are just as self-absorbed as the 20-somethings...so they get their behavior honestly.
So, that said...Gen X'ers and above, tell us how you're going to help. Since you are the big brothers/big sisters/cousins/uncles/aunts/parents that know what we need to do, are you going to back us up with the time comes? Because if you're telling us we have a job to do and then when we finish you say you would have done it a different way, I don't want to hear it. You should have stepped up and done it yourself. This goes for all generations, it isn't a generation thing, it is us, the people that are here now, who need to be the change we want to see in the world and start doing it one thing at a time. Don't just put it on our shoulders, Gen X will probably have people in office before our generation gets there. Do something your generation will be proud of. We understand the situation, maybe you should start doing something, too.
Never more so than in the advocates for a new economy who actually don't know whether others understand or not, because they won't and don't investigate.
So, "my parents don't understand" may easily translate to "my parents' generation don't understand" or "I don't understand other people"
Anyone coming to San Francisco?
http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=162049
to: All Gen Y'ers.
Congrats, you are a unique and beautiful flower, just like all the rest of us. :)
I couldn't care less about "changing the world"...
...yet somehow I'm not saying "why me?" or "poor me".
I think the blogger here is missing a large demographic of the 20-somethings who want to improve OUR world, not THE WORLD.
I'm not interested in some liberal (or conservative) social engineering plan. I couldn't care less what they're doing over in China... rather, I wish I never had to buy another product market made in China again. I don't really care about the problems in Sub-Saharan Africa... there's too many people there and not enough resource... I'm not interested in trying to fix that... the populations there will stabilize at sustainable levels.
I think you underestimate the number of us who have seem the "global community" that the Boomers and GenX have "created" at the expense of REAL community, and have very little interest in participating in it.
I'm interested in a more grounded, sustainable and intimate relationship with the world in which I live.
Telling that there are too many people in Africa for the land to ever support is not taking a shot at liberals, or the third world. In that particular instance it was the European imperial powers that brought 'modern' farming techniques (like petroleum-based fertilizers) and medicines that caused people to move away from their traditional sustenance, balance, sustainable ways of life, and caused a massive population boom.
Now there's too many people, not enough food (and there never will be: at least not sustainably), and a bunch of new deceases you get when you shove poor, sick, starving people into ghettos.
The fix is not to pretend Monsanto can save the world with GMO corn and feed everyone. It's to encourage positive behaviors where we can, non-invasivly, allow the population to return to a level the land can sustain.
I know. Nature is evil.
The government has caused us to grow accustomed to being at war in the Middle East. It has failed to harmonize international regulations for global carbon emissions. We are still one of the last developed nations not to have universal healthcare. Other countries are out competing us in K-12 education. The idea of $14 trillion in national debt is mind boggling if not outright depressing. The media is strewn with political scandal about political sex scandals. And we are the first generation to have access to all of these soundbites via the internet, a more astonishingly because if Wikileaks.
It is no wonder you have perceived us as "prematurely bitter." And again, we have a right to be. Older generations are always eager to critique and advise those below them. But just like every generation before us, we will figure it out.
I spent more than a year searching for a job, and then when I finally found one, I was severely underpaid and over worked. I then spent a year being miserable at this job before I realized that it is up to me take care of the "business" of being me. I'm working on building a life for myself that is based on my number one value: creative and personal freedom.
I think the shift from a "GenYMe'er" to a "GenYes'er" happens when you realize that you have to mind the business of YOU.
Corporations, companies, organizations, ect will always be about the business of taking care of their "business". Hence, they will under pay you, over work you, and lay you off as they see fit because they will always be about taking care of THEIR business.
Realize that yes, you are replaceable in the work force, but the unique talents you have as an individual are your asset. You CAN choose where/how you give of your gifts.
Life is short ya'll. Let's rock it out.
As a boomer, all I have to say to that from my current point-of-view (approaching 60) is EVERY generation has to deal with the world as they find it, and it is almost NEVER pretty. We were not that "special" and neither are you. We are all just humans making our way through life as best we can. So were our ancestors and theirs before them. You can either find it to be a fascinating journey or not. Your choice.