Gen Yers Who Get It

Gen Y-ers Who

GET IT
crystal olig / oxiem marketing technology / colig@oxiem.com / @sparklegem / @oxiem

gen y
• 38% have tattoos features
• 75% have a social profile
• 50% favor gay marriage
• 64% believe in God
• 37% are unemployed or out of the labor force
• 41% have a full time job
• 1/3 are receiving financial help from their families
• 13% of 22- to 29-year-olds have moved in with parents
after living on their own

Study of the 50 million millennials 18 and older by the Pew Research Center as
reported in Newsweek 3/5/10


gen y
translator

ZOMG
Woot
ROFLCOPTER
Tomoz
Redonkulous

--Source: MarketingMag.com, The Gen Y Translator


Generations Guide
• Lost Generation – fought WWI gen y
• Greatest Generation – fought WWII overview
• Silent Generation – children of the Depression
• Baby Boomers
• Generation X
• Generation Y (84 million)
• Generation Z
• Generation Alpha(?)

Gen Y: 60 – 70 million Americans
Names
• Echo boomers
• Millennials
• Children of Baby Boomers
• Generation Y


gen y’s
lens

PHOTO: Creative commons license: Stuck in Customs

gen y
worldview


gen y
features

“This is a reflexively optimistic cadre of graduates, feeling, if anything,
existentially freed up by this era of radical change. They’re nervous about the job
market but figure it’ll sort itself out. They describe their parents with shocking
regularity as their “best friends.” They’ve lived online for so long it’s a default
setting, one they believe lends them a more global-minded perspective than

that of their elders. Their tone overall was more bemused than outraged ”

– “Class of 09,” New York magazine, Emily Nussbaum ,June 15-22, 2009


gen y
expects


gen y
context


gen y
myths

Bruce Tulgan’s Myths… and the Real Scoop
MYTH #1: Gen Yers are disloyal and unwilling to make real commitments to their employers.
REALITY: Gen Y sees work as a free market system, transactional

MYTH #2: We won’t do the grunt work.
REALITY: We will, but not if we don’t get credit for it.

MYTH #3: They don’t know very much and have short attention spans.
REALITY: Changing expectations for knowledge bases.

MYTH 4#: We want the top job day one.
REALITY: Want to hit the ground running , make an impact.


gen y
myths

MYTH #5: We need work to be fun.
REALITY: It’s not fun, it’s engagement

MYTH #6: We want to be left alone.
REALITY: Not close to true. Want authority to manage selves, feedback & mentorship

MYTH #7: Gen Yers want managers to do their work for them.
REALITY: Want managers to teach how to do work well, fast.

MYTH #8: We don’t care about climbing the proverbial career ladder.
REALITY: Our career paths will be erratic and eclectic, but still progressive and developmental


gen y
myths

MYTH #9: Money and traditional benefits don’t matter to Gen Yers.
REALITY: Yes, but are savvy about comparing between employers.

MYTH #10: Money is the only thing that matters to us.
REALITY: False. Gen Yers don’t demand $, we ask “What do I need to do to earn more?”

MYTH #11: They don’t respect their elders.
REALITY: Sure we do. It’s an issue of mutual respect.

MYTH #12: They want to learn only form computers
REALITY: Stuff that’s easy to learn from computers, ok. But Gen Y needs the human element, too.


gen y
myths


MYTH #13: It’s impossible to turn us into long-term employees.
REALITY: No, but you’ll have to do it one day at a time.

MYTH #14: Gen Yers will never make good managers because we are self-focused.
REALITY: Of course we can, just have to learn the basics and then practice.

Source: Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y by Bruce Tulgan


gen y
workin’ it


gen y on
the job


Gen Y on the Job
gen y
Company Loyalty: New Definition for Gen Y Workers succeeds
“In this way, you are searching for a company that deserves
your loyalty. Its brand will be in line with your own values and
at work
the image you have of yourself.”
“Gotta keep learning.
Things to Get Good At Gotta keep moving. All
the stuff you’ve
• Information management – online content, email, forgotten, I’ll never have
• Setting priorities to know. Half the stuff
• Understand your context you remember, I’ll never
have to know. That just
• Master the timeline means I’m way past
• Ask to be actively managed halfway to catching up
to you. It’s the
obsolescence curve
Non-Monetary Considerations getting steeper and
• Performance-based compensation steeper. It makes it a
• Flexible schedules, location whole lot easier for a guy
my age to catch up to
• Marketable skills – both formal and informal training the more experienced
• Access to decision makers. people.”[Tulgan]
• Personal credit for results achieved
• Clear area of responsibility
• Chance for creative expression


gen y
journey


Gen Y & the Parents
our
Issues: parents
• “Best friends”
• Trophy kids
• Helicopter parents

Fight Back:
• Learn autonomy, make your own choices
• Accept feedback & responsibility
• Practice self-directed work, setting priorities and timelines
• Deal directly with conflict
• Have a realistic sense of power, authority
• Assert your independence gently
• Selective dependence

-- Read all about my Gen Y helicopter parent
(sorry Mom, I love you)


Beware the Lost Generation
don’t get
Issues: lost
• Atrophying of skills
• Scarring & cynicism

Fight Back:
• Be an entrepreneur
• Don’t burn bridges
• Keep working
• Don’t use school as a crutch.
• Make smart financial choices
• Be outstanding

- See the whole post at whY genY


Have a Plan A, B and probably C
getting
real

Source: Grads' Backup Plans, BusinessWeek


Have a Plan A, B and probably C
getting
What’s yours? real

• Volunteer work
• Teach English
• Work at family business
• Keep college job
• Get several jobs & save like crazy
• Move somewhere
• Stay here
• Go back to school
• Live at home


gen y
room to
grow


Manage Your Finances Well
Financial literacy is lacking in Gen Y getting
real
Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial
Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties
and Thirties, says today's 20-somethings
grew up in a time when wealth across the
board appeared to be expanding and
"people had inflated expectations of
what living well means," she says.

"I see too many young people choosing
to live above their means and on credit,"
says Nancy Thomas McInnes, 46, a
teacher in Gainesville, Fla., who is also a
volunteer facilitator for a financial
education class.

Further reading: “Why Gen Y is Broke”


5 traits of leadership in
the new millennium be a real
leader

1. Make yourself a source of information

2. Expect your ideas to resonate due to merit, not rank

3. Get good at following – peers not just supervisors

4. Get good at selling from the inside out
“You cannot force an idea down peoples’ throats. That top-down sort of leadership
disappeared when the corporate ladder disappeared. This means that leadership is all
about sales: selling a vision, and a common goal, and making meaningful
connections.”

5. Be authentic in situations where authenticity is most difficult
“Authenticity is the new way of selling –rather than using the force of BS. And the
leaders of the new millennium are judged by their ability to convey their true selves.”

- Penelope Trunk, “How to Lead In the New Millenium”


Fill Your Brain
reading
1. Books
• Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How to Manage
list
Generation Y by Bruce Tulgan
• Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do
Before You Join the Real World by Lindsey Pollok
• The Trophy Kids Grow Up by Ron Alsop

2. Blogs
• Life After College, by Jenny Blake (link)
• Life Without Pants (link)
• Millenial Marketing, by Carol Phillips (link)
• whY genY, by Crystal Olig (link)

3. Online Community
• Brazen Careerist (link)


Crystal Olig
Oxiem Marketing Technology
Columbus, OH thank
whYgen-Y.com you

Connect
colig@oxiem.com
@sparklegem
linkedin.com/in/crystalaolig
facebook.com/crystal.olig
google.com/profiles/crystal.a.olig


Gen Yers Who Get It

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