Our retort to a recent post on YPulse has created a lot of discussion and debate and Meredith over at the Y has pulled some of the great discussion points. Although some of the commenters (often older ones) supported my suggestion that maybe young adults leaving college should think about setting themselves up as a business rather than looking for a job, others (who seem to be the younger ones) argued that there’s more benefit in getting a job - particularly in a large company.
When I read the comments I couldn’t help to think that by receiving too many cups for being on the losing side at school, Gen Y’s sense of reality when it comes to work has been ruined. Some blunt thoughts in response to the discussion:
* You have the right to work. You do not have the right to have a job.
* There are no jobs waiting for you. Your education was designed to place you into factories that no longer exist. You must be responsible for your own re-training.
* The workforce is making a large shift to freelance / flexible working whether you like it or not. There will be far less permanent jobs available.
* Some commenters saw a difference between being a freelancer and running your own business. Being a freelancer is running your own business. You are both intern and CEO as a freelancer.
* It’s naive to think that you can’t afford to run your own business - being a freelancer or entrepreneur is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. If you have debts no one is going to pay them off but yourself. There will be fewer and fewer full time jobs that will be secure enough so that you can expect to pay off your loans quickly.
* Working for a large company does not mean that you’ll get the necessary experience to help your career. Often, the larger the company, the bigger a mess it is in internally with thousands of people doing the work that could be done by a few in a modern structured company. You’ll learn how to win at office politics and how to short cut bureaucracy.
* The Bay Area and other entrepreneurial hubs are full of people trying to run new companies without what traditionally would be considered ‘the right experience’. The folks there sit in coffee shops and co-working spaces and learn from each other.
* Working for a large company with much safety means less drive, less will to succeed, less fear of failure, less connectivity with the world, less lessons for a great career.
* The internet provides better career learning that your job ever will (Ypulse is a good starting point). A job is designed to make you produce something not learn something. In my experience, it is very rare to get training in a company - and in my opinion if you’re working in a company that spends a lot of money on training, then it’s probably a bloated pilot-less oil-tanker of a company and not one that’s going to teach you the right lessons for the future.
* Your 20s is the decade you need to least care about your healthcare. If you really think great healthcare coverage is high on your list when considering employment, get a job as a coffee grinder at Starbucks. America’s healthcare is in a woeful state but young folks could take the healthcare option I took for the first 5 years I lived in the US - if I needed healthcare I visited ER. (Sorry, I know that is a bad way to use the system but hey, I was just following the tradition of many, many other immigrants. And thank gawd, I never used it).
* Turn to your out-of-work peers and collaborate. Build a product or service together that people or other businesses want. Digital media has leveled the playing field and democratized opportunity. You have to make the effort to make it all work for you.
More:
A Debate Over Young And Aspiring Media Professionals | Ypulse
Bad Advice - Get a Job
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That is a great post. I might add that if they do work for someone else, work for a small company where your success is capped only by you and your desire to take more on. Small companies notice when young employees care and love to actually help them grow. It’s a win win.
December 19th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I could not agree more with this post. Having recently graduated from college, I find this article captures my position quite well. This thought process gives credence to young adults labeling themselves as entrepreneurs in their early 20s. This is novel for my generation, as I feel comfortable (yet nervous) being in this position. A generation ago, a 22 year old calling him or her an entrepreneur seemed silly and being connected to a large company was the track towards success. Today, my friends on this track are having trouble either getting into those positions or holding on to them. Yet they are still seeking, why? One reason is the self-responsibility and self training that is required with setting up your business comes easier to those with a privileged background. As a privileged student, I have the opportunity to take greater risks, however those with massive loans or families to support don’t have the same opportunities. Do you think that this new culture will create a larger divide between recent grads seeking opportunities?
December 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Hey Piers. All great points, but I think what you’re missing in this analysis is that being more risk averse or taking more calculated risks is actually a Millennial trait. Obviously there are always exceptions to generational generalizations, but this generation was raised differently than we were and I think you are seeing their need for more direction and security play out in this debate.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hey Piers,
I am with you on this. The learning curve from working on your own company and that of a big shot are not even in the same league. Corporate training is not real world training, it is training to get something done right now. As a Gen-Y entrepreneur and consultant for bigger companies, getting them to see the workplace from our point of view has been a challenge but something that the leading companies will know and understand.
It is another thing altogether to generalize Gen-Y into everyone being able to be an entrepreneur. That is just not the case. But those that want to advance their careers, have creative vision and freedom to choose projects, regardless of the headaches will choose their own business over working at a desk where they can finish their day’s work before the coffee gets cold.
December 19th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Excellent post. Can I translate it to spanish and post it in my blog? (www.elmundodesilvita.blogspot.com). I’m actually a young journalist and have this kind of philosophy in mind since I finished university. It’s good as a guidance for many students seeking jobs, specially in my country, Argentina.
December 19th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Great assessment of where the future is going. I would argue that many people will still be working for large corporations, but corporations are going to have to be more flexible. The desire to make your own job i.e. freelance and be entrepreneur is appealing and allows increased flexibility but some are too risk adverse to do this. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out especially as the 20 somethings become 30 somethings with kids which completely changes things in unexpected ways.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:59 am
I have to say that I feel this argument is over a Gen X/Gen Y divide. Its not to say that Gen Y isn’t entrepreneurial - we are - but it just does not express itself in the same way. There’s a desire on the part of Gen X to see Gen Y bring down the corporate structure and take power back from the Boomers by starting our own companies. Some of us will. But most of us are going to take back power from inside corporate structures.
This is not about factory jobs. We’re an overeducated lot. We’ll start companies to accommodate that wealth of knowledge workers, but over tim, they too will become large companies. We’ll also be creating new revenue models so that everyone’s working on the side, even if it doesn’t feel like work (but that’s not a career, that’s just money).
Going without healthcare is not for everyone, even in their twenties. It doesn’t take much bad luck to get really sick. Getting really sick is the kind of thing that loses you work, whether you’re your own boss or not. When you’ve run a fever and spent three weeks puking and working, healthcare can suddenly seem much more important.
There is no rule that says that corporate jobs are more secure and make you lazy and stupid and risk averse. A person who is motivated can do well either freelancing or in a corporate job. The only difference is office politics. I would say that if you’re good at office politics, then go for corporate, and if you’re not, then focus on doing what you love.
And finally, it is dead wrong to say that a corporate job means they don’t care about whether you’re learning. In fact, most of my job is learning, because I’ve shown the company that I’m most valuable to them that way. I’m finishing up a master’s degree in English and getting ready to apply for a doctorate in anthropology - while working full time - and its because my company has realized that not only does the fact that I’m still in school mean they’ll shortly have my graduate degrees as a selling point, but also because it means I’m on the cutting edge of everything we do.
Not to mention which I spend six hours a day reading and writing analysis, which I can’t imagine could be classified as anything other than learning.
And I know people are sitting around going “how did you ever get this job? / these jobs don’t exist” but the truth is that I made my job. I started at the bottom and realized that I could do all of my tasks plus have time to learn, and by dedicating time to it and showing the company that what I was doing was useful, it became most of my job. I am not out of the ordinary. This is how Gen Y will take over the workforce. Not by necessarily creating our own companies, but by making money doing whatever we want, the way we want to. And I suspect that in about five years, when there’s a larger sample out of college who have gotten through the first horrendous years of working that occur no matter what you’re doing or who you work for, you’ll be hearing many more stories like mine.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
While the idea about people taking more control of their cateers is important and right on, I was dismayed by your recommendation to skip health insurance/not look at it as a benefit is misguided in my opinion.
By abusing the ER, people drive up health care costs for everyone and can lead people to ruined credit if they can’t afford to pay their health care bills. Not going to be able to get much funding for your awesome new start up when your credit is terrible. Just my $.02 worth.
December 26th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
careers*
December 26th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I started working in the corporate world, and I LOVE it. Still do. I’m learning every day (not just the marketing that I’m paid for, but interoffice relations, intergenerational relations, the responsibility of getting up in the morning and going to work, etc.) I don’t know…my age puts me right on the cusp of Gen X and Gen Y - maybe that’s why I so heavily favor having a corporate position. I just can’t look past the obvious benefits of insurance, 401K, investment opportunities - not to mention the abundance of free books I get working in the publishing world. Plus, it’s great to have a network of other young professionals in my field - I wouldn’t give up this lifestyle for anything.
And I agree with the above poster who said that it’s irresponsible not to have health insurance. That’s just common sense - and cheating the system is NOT the answer. Shame on you - not cool.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:15 pm