Generation Now: Job Search Reflections
I’m only just out of the Generation Y age group, but ideologically I’m right in the middle. I’m super networked digitally, my twitter account bleaps constantly with new messages, email seems like snail mail and I use Skype for just about every phone call I can and I have a progressive attitude to life and it’s purposes. Yet I am trained and have grown up with the traditional ideas of baby boomers and the lost Generation X. And from this view a few things have become more evident to me this week:
• Traditional job search and career strategies still work for Generation Y but the results, methods and packaging need a total rethink. Older generations are missing the effect on mental processes that such immediacy taps into regarding the brain process and streams of thought and consciousness.
• There are many who are successful in reaching this generation on their own ground but they are not offering the best assistance. It works within the philosophy of the generation but the wisdom of time is lacking.
• Generation Y needs to learn depth marketing and networking from older generations, older generations need to accept the idea of sharing ideas to be relevant and valued, even at times involving inter-organizational collaboration.
My website to check out this week are a mixed bag again. Some informative, some just interesting news:
How to find a Job – By CNN Money. Is this the future of online news stories? Nothing amazingly new for assisting jobseekers but really well presented and a good summary of the type of news articles out there. Definately worth a read/listen/look/interact!
Stress Interviews – Recruiters are suggesting that people are accepting jobs they may not necessarily have accepted before. Apparently, interviewers are using these stress interviews to weed out those who will be best.
The Obama Effect - Jobfox (the fastest growing job site) predicts the top industries to grow in the U.S. based on the Obama administration’s economic initiatives.
Businesses turn to Twitter to cut recruitment costs – Title says it all. Facebook, Linkedin have been used for this purpose, makes sense twitter would as well. The success in general is still to be seen.
The Art of your Story – Nice article on making sure your story on why and how you transition into new and different careers works for you.
Feel free to leave a comment below with any sites of interest. Also, feel free to let me know if would you like more or less sites each week.
Photo by xflickrx
Technorati Tags:
generation Y, Linkedin, links, networking, methods, job search
Thanks for the post. Great response and information. Thank you so much for commenting.
I completely agree that there was a lot of information about Gen X’s. I don’t think Generation X is actually lost in terms of attention. I refer more to the concept of the generation being what some have defined as a nomad, wandering generation and for harsher commentators as amoral and lacking external signposts, goals or solidity to their journey (a perspective I would actually disagree with). In this sense I meant lost but by no means forgotten.
Having said that however, it does seem that while it was cool to talk about Gen X’s in the past talk about Gen Y has replaced that “coolness” in media reporting and the community needs of the baby boomers due to their number is still spoken of. I suspect this discussion of the latest generation will always be the case as we try and get a grasp on the role and perspective of each generation.
Interesting blog and post, but how is Generation X “lost”?! It’s gotten an enormous amount of attention over these last 18 years. The real lost generation, for many years, has been Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X.
Finally, however, that’s changed. Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see now it’s gotten a lot of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term.
It is important to distinguish between the post-WWII demographic boom in births vs. the cultural generations born during that era. Generations are a function of the common formative experiences of its members, not the fertility rates of its parents. Many experts now believe it breaks down this way:
DEMOGRAPHIC boom in babies: 1946-1964
Baby Boom GENERATION: 1942-1953
Generation Jones: 1954-1965
Generation X: 1966-1978
Here is a recent op-ed about GenJones as the new generation of leadership in USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm