Presentation for SAIT

Generation Y at work.
Presented by: Ryan Paugh
Blog: ryanpaugh.com
Twitter: @paughginney

Did you read this!?
Did you read this?!
GEN-Y ACCORDING TO NYT:
FREELOADERS: 40% move back home with parents at least once.
Parents give an average 10% of their income to their 18-21 year-old children.
DISLOYAL: 7 job changes on average before their 30th b-day.
CONFUSED: Options seem to be limitless. It would almost be easier if we were given a range of choices instead …
TRANSIENT: One third of 20-somethings change their address ever year.

My view on the NYT and Gen Y.
WE’RE NOT THAT DIFFERENT, BUT THE WORLD CERTAINLY IS.
The way we communicate has changed.
Social media technology.
A more transparent culture.
The job market sucks. A lot.
Current unemployment rate = 9.2%
Only 44% of employers plan to hire recent grads.
What we value about people has changed.
Boring, mundane jobs = outsourced.
Creativity and individualism matter more.
WHAT I THINK:
Don’t focus on age. Focus on creating a forward-thinking learning/work STYLE that anybody can embrace.

Who is this guy?
HI, MY NAME IS RYAN PAUGH AND I BUILD COMMUNITIES.
Blogged about being a Gen Y professional in the Fortune 500.
Started Brazen Careerist and become Community Manager.
Help lost Gen Y professionals not make the same mistakes that I did.
Today I speak/consult with companies on building online communities + manage the Brazen Careerist network.

The Young Entrepreneur Council
Our nonprofit organization provides young entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, community and educational resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth. We promote entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and underemployment.

Most commonly asked questions.
THESE ARE THE QUESTIONS THAT MOST PEOPLE ASK ME:
When was Gen Y born?
Nobody can make up their mind.
≈ 1980 through 1995.
What is the population of Gen Y?
81MM last time I checked.
75% of the workplace by 2025.
Do all Gen Yers have ADD?
Probably not.
Why Gen Y quits: 37% say “Just needed a change”
THIS STUFF WILL NOT MAKE GENERATION RELATIONS EASIER.
BUT IT’S GOOD TO KNOW…

Rundown: What can we do?
WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE FORWARD-THINKING IDEAS THAT ARE CHANGING HOW WE LEARN/WORK
PART 1: SOCIAL MEDIA
Should I start a blog? Yes, you should!
Making sense of Twitter. Using it to find opportunity.
Facebook. Not just for personal use anymore.
LinkedIn. Why aren’t more students using this?
PART 2: WORK/LEARNING CULTURE
Embracing entrepreneurship early on.
Teaching social media etiquette for the “real” world.
Encouraging a culture of positive feedback.

Why should I start a blog?
“Job seeker passion has become the deciding factor in employment.” ~ Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0
EXPERIENCE VS. IDEAS:
In a world where experience matters most, new ideas are what entry-level professionals have to bring to the table.
Career bloggers are often recognized as top performers because they’ve taken initiative to talk about work at home.
Writing is a skill that hiring managers agree to be a lost art among college grads.
Unmatched networking opportunities.

Success!
“It wasn’t the blog itself — how pretty it was, or how many readers subscribed to the feed, or who had linked to us. It was merely the evidence that I cared about these things enough to write about them in my free time.”
~ Jared Taylor, former Googler & Law Student
“Blogging is what introduced me to my Brazen Careerist co-founders and, consequently, entrepreneurship & speaking. If I had not taken the initiative to share my ideas and get to know other ‘thinkers’ I would be in a different place today. ”
~ Me (Ryan Paugh), Entrepreneur & Speaker

The easiest way to start …
Ignore buzzwords.
SEO, RSS, AdSense, Technorati, etc.
Not sure if it matters? Assume it doesn’t.
Pick a topic.
You can change it later.
Does it interest you?
Do you have a lot to say.
Spend 2 seconds choosing software.
Here are a couple: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress
I use WordPress.
Post something today.
Blogging is about having courage to say something.
Nobody is reading your blog.
Practice, practice, practice.
Set aside time every day to write.
It’s okay if it sucks.
Ignore your lack of readers.
Nobody is reading your blog during the first month.
Don’t distract yourself with promotion. Just write.
IF YOU CAN BLOG REGULARLY FOR A MONTH, THEN YOU CAN BE A BLOGGER.
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com

Don’t blog about your company.
Your blog should be an extension of YOUR brand. Not your company’s brand.
Shows people that you’re not available.
Takes the focus off of what’s important – YOU!
Puts you in a risky position at your company.
EXAMPLE: Forrester Research bloggers
Forrester is well known for
having researchers who blog.
One day they decided what
was being blogged was
intellectual property.
Today if researchers want to
blog about their work they have
to on the company site.

What is Twitter good for?
Twitter is often seen as a big, noisy machine, but really it’s the Internet’s version of Want Ads happening in real time.
The #1 way for opportunity seekers to use Twitter:
Search for smart people in your industry.
Use Twitters basic search
Or use Twellow.com
Get to know these people through following their tweets, reading their blogs, watching their videos, etc.
Send @replies that are smart, engaging, fun
Be prepared to be let down
Just like the traditional job search this process can be discouraging, but tweeting is low impact. Quick.
One tweet can have big impact.

How I use Twitter.
Average time managing my personal Twitter account each day:
≈ 5 minutes
For my personal brand I don’t use …

Some good random advice …
“Answer: What has your attention?”
“Don’t be a self-centered Twitterer.”
“Focus on quality over quantity.”
“Don’t overuse … compulsion to please.”
“Seeking approval from others is a full time job with no vacations or benefits.”
@karmakorrupt

BEWARE!!! Insecurity Work.
STOP CHECKING YOUR FEEDS EVERY 90 SECONDS!!!
From Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky) …
The first step is to recognize what you do in your everyday life that is, in fact, insecurity work.
Common culprits:
Twitter
Google Reader
Blog comments
The second step is to establish some guidelines and rituals for yourself.
The third step, if applicable to you, is to delegate the task of checking on this data to a less insecure colleague who can review the data in moderation.

Making use of Facebook
For a long time, Facebook has been a place solely for personal connections, but this is changing!
Better privacy settings (if you know how to use them!)
Brands interacting with customers via pages
Adults grasping tech: Fasting growing demo = 35+
Facebook groups!
According to Study Blue (online note taking software)
“Students are becoming more willing to share their educational achievements with family/friends online.”

How to get started…
Make use of Facebook Groups: It’s an easy way to communicate with students/coworkers outside your normal environment without having to “friend” each other.
“Friending” a professor/coworker is intimidating.
Make your group a forum for classroom discussion.
Keep it private to your students.
How I use Facebook groups…
In a world where privacy is rare, I’ve set up an invite-only community on Facebook where my community-building peers can crowdsource advice/ideas without the noise.
You can do this, too!

Proof of Facebook’s value.
“Facebook is worth $2.52, Twitter only 43 cents.”

LinkedIn: Pros & Cons
WHAT LINKEDIN IS GOOD FOR:
LinkedIn is a great scorecard for how connected you are.
Employers love it because of this.
They can see how much you are worth.
60% of social networkers have high incomes.
Keeps people informed of your employment status.
WHAT LINKEDIN IS NOT GOOD FOR:
Building a network.
Networks are build on relationships.
Relationships are built on conversations.
LINKEDIN FAVORS THOSE WITH AN ESTABLISHED NETWORK.

You MUST be on LinkedIn
LINKEDIN WON’T SOLVE ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS, BUT…
Recruiters use it everyday to source candidates
It’s the next generation of passive job seeking
Replacing Monster and CareerBuilder
More efficient, less time consuming
LinkedIn’s most active age group is 40+
These are the people who are hiring!
LinkedIn’s new Resume Builder tool is gearing up to eliminate the traditional paper resume within 10 years
I’M ALWAYS SURPRISED HOW FEW STUDENTS RAISE THEIR HANDS WHEN I ASK: “Who has a LinkedIn profile?”
We NEED to teach this!

Why is the resume is going away?
5 REASONS:
LinkedIn’s “Resume Builder”
Social networking is rising while email use plummets
90% of U.S. visit a social network site each month
The 35+ age group had the highest growth
You can’t find jobs using traditional tactics anymore
Only 23% of job seekers found jobs via ads (Forbes)
Need to be more creative to get employer attention
Job-seeker passion is becoming a deciding factor
83% of job seekers would rather have a job that they love rather than one that pays well (SimplyHired)
Traditional resumes to communicate passion
People are managing their careers as entrepreneurs

Next-Generation Entrepreneurship
New research from the Young Entrepreneur Council and the Buzz Marketing group about Gen Y & Entrepreneurship:
79% of Gen Yers are interested in entrepreneurship
27% are already self employed
21% have started a business because of unemployment
35% of respondent with jobs started a side business to supplement their own income, provide new opportunities
“The biggest obstacle for young entrepreneurs is culture. Most young people don't have parents or friends who are entrepreneurs and have never been taught it in school”
~ Michael Simmons, Extreme Entrepreneur Tour

Entrepreneurship in EVERY classroom
Beyond basic job-hunting tips, we should be educating students on the basics of creating their own jobs.
Things they need to know…
The basics:
Building a business plan
Setting up an LLC or Corporation
Raising money
The philosphy:
Brainstorming ideas & executing them
Finding the right business partner
Bootstrapping versus raising capital
These are things that even big corporations are looking for in job candidates. They call it “intrapreneurship.”

Using social technology.
IBM’s employee bloggers allow them to share insights on company culture with the outside world.
It's helped drive innovation and build community at Deloitte, and we're finding new value in the tool every day.
(Talking about Yammer)

Using social technology.
“I think of social media at work as a virtual water cooler. Some conversation will be about business and some will be about the plans for the weekend.” – Eric Bensley, Gen Yer
HOW TO CONTROL SOCIAL MEDIA AT WORK:
Creating a social media policy:
You should have several, says Jason Falls, SM strategist
One for each major network.
Talk about both personal and professional use.
Social media is a huge opportunity for your company.
Harness employee creativity for company good.
Create amazing WOM marketing opportunities.
They are going to do it anyway. Why not embrace it?

Frequent Feedback.
42% OF EMPLOYEES DON’T TRUST THEIR MANAGER?!
Only 1/3 receive recognition for a job well done.
Recognizing employee performance increases engagement by almost 60%
“With Rypple we've finally found a service that helps drive team performance by focusing on our people and our work rather than on process and administration.”

Frequent Feedback.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM MOZILLA: Importance of 1 on 1
(from an employee’s blog)
*
Every week my manager and I go over …
Accomplishments & status
Blocked/Waiting on
To do over the next week
Areas to develop
Quarterly goal tracking
OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT FEEDBACK:
Quarterly reviewsaren’.
Many times they don’t even happen or get delayed.
Real-time feedback is what works best for employees.
Try out Rypple.

What can you do today?
CHANGE DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT, TAKE SMALL STEPS:
IN YOUR OFFICE
Try a conference call instead of an in-person meeting.
Try using Skype’s new group video chat.
Create an online community for you and your employees.
Yammer is a good place to start. Maybe a team blog.
Send an employee real-time feedback today.
Try out Rypple.
IN THE CLASSROOM
Create a private Facebook group to communicate w/ students.
Strongly urge students to start using LinkedIn in.
Take a Survey: How many students would be interested in a lecture on entrepreneurship?

Wrapup.
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? NOW’S YOUR CHANCE …
WANT TO SEE THESE SLIDES AGAIN?
http://www.ryanpaugh.com/slides

Why change if the job market sucks?
THE DOWN ECONOMY HAS MADE PEOPLE MORE CREATIVE ABOUT HOW THEY MAKE MONEY – THEY WILL FIND WORK.
72% of Gen Yers said that they were optimistic about their business prospects.
WSJ reports that applications to business schools are down by about 2%.
If we can’t find a good job, we’ll start our own business.
Based on my interactions with top-performing Gen Ys.
CALL IT DELUSIONAL, ENTITLED OR SELF-CENTERED IF YOU MUST, BUT THIS IS HOW YOUNG PROS ARE THINKING.
OPTIMISTIC PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO CREATE THEIR OWN LUCK!

Presentation for SAIT

by Ryan Paugh on Apr 21, 2011

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