SX Gen Y

Be yourself. It’s okay. Gen-Y workers want their managers to have a personality. It makes it easier for you to connect with us, and for us to connect with you.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Tyler!

Connect With Tyler Durbin:
Blog: http://www.genyjourney.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tylerdurbin

This is a guest post written by Melissa Breau. She is an emerging freelancer and is chronicling her career journey on her blog. Connect with Melissa on Twitter: @MelissaBreau

Often Gen-Y is looked down upon for being the “now” generation; for our desire to skip the whole ladder-climbing-thing; for our love of informality and our desire to be recognized for our achievements.

In truth, the assets to be had in working with gen-y are much greater than the detriments. Here are three steps managers can follow to encourage gen-y employees and leverage them for their full potential.

1) For starters, let us be passionate about what we are doing. We want to believe in the company we work for and in its work. If we feel passionately about “our project” we will work overtime, miss sleep, skip eating – we will work on tight deadlines and still turn out high quality work. We understand how to research topics online through both traditional and untraditional methods; we will pull out all the stops for something we believe in and are allowed to be passionate about.

2) Explain why, not just what. Our passion drives us to want to take the next step on a project. If you allow us to believe in our work and our company, we will constantly be on the look out for new opportunities. However, unless you explain your rationale and decision making processes, we will be unable to filter these things so that we can bring the most appropriate proposals to your attention. Take the time to discuss what the company needs, and we will search for a solution. We like finding answers. If you give us the information to evaluate opportunities, we will proactively work to improve the company.

3) Ask us for our opinions. As several video-posters have mentioned, we want to collaborate. Acknowledge that we have valuable opinions, not by constantly praising our achievements, but by considering our ideas. We understand that you know more about the way things have worked than we do. We want to understand everything that you know. But we also want to teach you everything we know – about leveraging new tools, about finding untraditional opportunities, and about promoting the company and brand socially.
Managers who follow these three steps will see their gen-y employees become top producers. They will win those employees loyalties and that will directly impact the company’s bottom line in unexpected but positive ways.

Connect With Melissa Breau:
Blog: www.jargonwriter.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MelissaBreau

Today we’re pleased to have Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Education, talk about her thoughts on Gen Y’s changing role in the workforce — and the long term effects of that.

Also, if you’ll be at SXSW, Anya is doing a reading of DIY on Friday at 2:30 – check it out!

Allison Jones, of Entry Level Living, thinks managers can better connect to their young employees by making a committment to keeping diverse, young, and fresh perspectives in their organizations — and we agree. What do you think?

Jenny Blake works in Career Development at Google and she blogs at Life After College. She’s been on both ends of the spectrum – both as a Gen-Y Employee and as a manager.

Basically, career development is different to everyone. Her tip for Gen-Y: remember, you own your career – nobody is going to do this for you. Her tip for employers: get to know your employees, check in with them and show that you care.

What does career development mean to you? What are you doing to own your career?

Connect with Jenny Blake
Blog: LifeAfterCollege.org
Twitter:  @jenny_blake

What Shane says it true. The world is changing so fast, and so quickly, that we all need to be learning from each other.

Let’s all make a pact to let our guards down. Whether you’re a Gen Y or a seasoned veteran, the workplace would be a much cooler place if we acted as teammates.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Shane!

Connect with Shane Mac:
Blog: http://www.thesquab.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/shanemacsays

A few things that Mike mentions in his video:

• A willingness to work WITH us
• Feeding our desire to learn/grow
• Pushing us to the edge of our abilities
• Generation Y is NOT afraid to fail (our favorite!)

Generation Y is not afraid to be wrong. If you’re afraid to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. Eradicate the stigma of failure in your organization and you’ll be well on your way to creating a Gen-Y friendly workplace.

Thanks for your contribution Mike! We can’t wait to meet you at SXSW 2010!

Connect with Mike Diliberto:
Blog: http://blog.mikediliberto.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mikediliberto

We love what David is saying here. One of the things that employers need to realize is that they’re not our end all be all. We have BIG plans!

The other thing we like is the idea of taking the relationship beyond the office. An office Happy Hour would be great, but even a cup of coffee goes a long way.

Thanks David, for starting things off on a positive note. Keep those submissions coming!

Connect with David Spinks:
Blog: http://davidspinks.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DavidSpinks
Company: http://www.scribnia.com/

::pulling out my hair::

There are eleventy-million bloggers out there these days branding themselves as “Gen-Y” and really using that for all it’s worth. And that’s great – really. I get it. I feel like the Gen-Y community as a whole is walking a very fine line that divides us between totally awesome advice-givers and shameless self-promoters that leave an icky taste in your mouth.

What side of the line are you on?

There is a fantastic group of bloggers who offer a great wealth of knowledge through the lessons they are learning in their own lives that they share with us. Some of them are hilarious, some make you want to cry, and some just make you scream “YES! YOU GET IT! YOU ARE READING MY MIND!” The topics are wide and vast – from relocating to another country and coming back, to NSFW hilarity, plain and simple brilliant writing skills, or rock-solid career advice.

There are also eleventy million definitions of Gen-Y. If there is one thing we’re good at, it’s defining our generation.

My definition, how I see myself as a Gen-Y blogger/tweeter/person in general:

Eager to learn from the best and the brightest, insanely pumped up about life in general, prefers to work “with” people vs. “for” people (it’s a state of mind, not saying I don’t work “for” people. We all work “for” someone, technically), not afraid to ask questions, not afraid to share a point-of-view (because hey, even if I’m wrong, at least I’ll learn something as opposed to saying “I don’t know”) and hoping to share the little nuggets of wisdom that I learn along the way via this blog.

Besides the obvious definitions that state the age range of our generation, when you hear “Gen-Y” what do you think about? What words come to mind?

From Sydney: Unfiltered.