A post over on BrazenCareerist by Milena Thomas got me thinking about education again, a topic I’ve been known to rant about. In an article titled “Think Twice About All That Education You Think You Need” hammers home something I’ve been thinking for a while now: Gen Y is obsessed with education, particularly graduate programs, to the point where their piles of degrees can hurt more than they help.

Writes Thomas:

My most valuable education came after I graduated. I experienced the painstaking trial and error of proper vocal study, bargained with my dreams of stardom versus the realities of needing a steady corporate paycheck, moving in with my parents and wondering how I was going to make a satisfying life for myself.

A lot of what I want to say can be summed up simply: education, no matter in what quantity, is no substitute for experience. And, while there’s obviously no direct causation, the correlation tends to be that more school equals less real, work experience. And so Generation Y is in the unique position of being a generation that’s got tons of expertise in social linguistics or Leninist Russia but doesn’t know how to operate a photocopier or take notes at a business meeting.

Let’s disqualify certain graduate programs right off the bat — specialized programs like engineering are logically excluded from this. There are some university programs that are so geared toward a certain job-type that one can leave them already possessing all the tools they need to find work, and excel.

But this is not true for the vast majority of university programs, particularly in the arts, nor should it be. Universities were originally conceived as houses of higher learning, geared toward the best and brightest. You went to university because you enjoyed thinking and debating and immersing yourself in all things academic. You did not go simply because you wanted to get a good job afterwards.¹

What I think we’re seeing from Generation Y is the result of the perception that everyone is getting an undergraduate degree. To separate yourself from the pack, then, the natural course of action is to pursue beyond undergraduate, and land yourself a graduate or Master’s degree.

You don’t need to do this. In fact, unless you have a particular passion for your area of study that makes a graduate program a natural fit, pursuing graduate studies in the hopes of standing out from the pack of applicants is probably a bad idea. Graduate programs tend to be about delving further into the academic, and don’t really bestow the same level of transferrable workplace skills as undergraduate.

The overeducated but inexperienced applicant is not a more desirable choice than the educated and experienced applicant. Remember that as you make your educational choices, and consider where you want your career to go.

Photo by Kiara Kim. Licensed under Creative Commons

1. There were, of course, schools that were geared toward getting a good job. They called these vocational schools or trade schools. The unfortunate stereotype now is that this is where the dumb kids go. [↩]

So you’re Gen Y and you want to advance in your job quickly. That’s fairly typical. We’re known for our bullheadedness, after all. But one of the drawbacks of ‘moving up’ the corporate latter is that you inevitably end up spending more of your time managing the people underneath you and less of your time writing, designing, and doing other creative tasks.

There’s a twisted kind of logic at play here. As you accumulate more responsibility within an organization, other people get hired underneath you to take on some of the work you were previously doing. Often this is the creative stuff: the report you were writing, the new branding you were working on, the idea you had for a blog on the web site. Get that stuff off my plate, the rationale says, and then I’ll have more time for… managing the people doing that stuff.

This can be bad for you professionally — especially if what made you stand out in the first place was your ability to handle creative tasks — but, more importantly, it’s often bad for you personally. Nothing is more satisfying for a creative person in the workplace than actually sitting down and creating something. Developing ideas and making them real. Seeing that whole process all the way through. It all has tremendous value when it comes to making you feel like what you do actually matters.

So as you move up the ladder, don’t give away all your creative tasks. Often, you’re forced by a time crunch to step away from that sort of work for a while, but do not make that a permanent thing. Whenever you get a chance, step back into the creative realm and remind yourself what it feels like. Your own professional morale just might depend on it.

Photo by laffy4k. Licensed Under Creative Commons

I don’t really know much about author Mark Bauerlein or his book The Dumbest Generation: How The Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future but my initial impression is not a good one.

Bauerlein recently contributed a Boston Globe piece on 8 reasons why this is the dumbest generation that achieves the rare double-feat of being both incredibly out-of-touch and remarkably ironic — it’s a piece that hopes to demonstrate how dumb, vacant and empty-headed Generation Y (and Gen Z, or Generation TBD, or whatever) is made up entirely of stock photos and three-sentence descriptors.

In any case, I think it’s supposed to be pithy and somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but even allowing for that it’s mostly stupid. So, in response, here are eight reasons why this is the smartest generation, presented without stock-photos and not split up across nine different pages.

They’re more politically & socially involved than ever before

Bauerlein writes that this generation is “encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond — friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook.” This immediately brings to light the biggest problem with his arguments: while he claims to be criticizing this generation, he’s really just criticizing teenagers. Do teenagers tend to be egotistical and caught up in the goings-on of their own lives to the point of melodrama? They sure do. Is this a new phenomenon? Not at all.

Hell, the fact that Bauerlein thinks this generation is preoccupied by sitcoms shows how out-of-touch he is.

The big point is this, though: our generation is more politically involved and socially-conscious than ever before. Check out these stats from a USA Today article:

61% of 13- to 25-year-olds feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world, suggests a survey of 1,800 young people to be released today. It says 81% have volunteered in the past year; 69% consider a company’s social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% will trust a company more if it is socially/environmentally responsible. The online study — by two Boston-based companies, Cone Inc. and AMP Insights — suggests these millennials are “the most socially conscious consumers to date.”

They spend way less time watching TV and more time reading

Bauerlein trots out the old “Kids don’t READ any more!” argument, referring specifically to books. And, sure, books don’t sell great — they’re on the decline. But that doesn’t mean Gen Y doesn’t read. In fact, whereas the boomers and Gen X tended to employ television as their major source of media, Gen Y is turning to the internet. And even with advances in video & audio online, you know how the vast majority of the internet is experienced? By reading.

From an article in World News Australia:

The survey, commissioned by social networking website MySpace and conducted by UK-based analyst The Future Laboratory, found a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds had reduced their television watching in favour of social networking on the web.

They have massive networks to call upon

Bauerlein brings up the abundance of typos, abbreviations and misspellings in IM and Texting communication as a point to prove this is a ‘dumb generation’. I don’t much like that kind of typing either, but it’s hardly a sign of ‘dumbness’. In fact, most of these short-forms emerge because Gen Y is trying to cultivate an absolutely astronomical number of friendships and relationships.

The networking we’re seeing with young people today is unprecedented and of incredible value to business. Whereas in the past people didn’t start building their networks until they were in their late teens or early twenties, this generation is establishing these connections at 12 years old.

They have a worldwide platform for expressing themselves creatively

Bauerlein makes the ridiculous argument that “On MySpace, if you write clearly and compose coherent paragraphs with informed observations on history and current events, ‘buddies’ will make fun of you.” I’m really not sure where he’s getting this, unless he’s hanging out in some really stupid corners of the internet.

One of the benefits to social networks, blogs and other online platforms is that young people can and do share their thoughts and ideas on everything from TV to video games to politics. The opportunity to make yourself visible at a young age leads to career and portfolio opportunities that were roadblocked before. Just look at the legion of bloggers who have found book deals.

They seek entertainment that’s active, not passive

Bauerlein points to the blockbuster sales of Grand Theft Auto 4 as a reason for this generation’s ‘dumbness’, but he doesn’t offer much in the way of argument. I’d make the argument that Gen Y’s appetite for video games as opposed to television or movies is a sign of intelligence, not anti-intellectualism.

Gen Y demands interactivity with their media. TV shows like Lost have derived popularity from the fact that fans love to come online and talk about them — develop theories and look for clues. Even American Idol, a show that takes a lot of crap for lacking substance, succeeds with youth because they feel like they can be a part of it.

Involvement, in a lot of respects, IS intelligence. There’s a lot more to be derived from playing Grand Theft Auto 4 than, say, watching an episode of Miami Vice.

They have quick access to an astounding amount of information

Bauerlein, again, makes a confusing argument: “Digital natives, however, go to the Internet not to store knowledge in their minds, but to retrieve material and pass it along. The Internet is just a delivery system.”

I don’t really know what he’s getting at, but that may be because I’m not storing enough knowledge in my mind. I just keep giving all my knowledge away to my online buddies!

One of my favourite archetypical Gen Y traits is their ability to quickly settle an argument. A group of people will be sitting around a table wondering, say, who Bob Dole’s Vice Presidential candidate was and suddenly, within seconds, someone will have pulled the answer from their laptop or cellphone. This tends to mystify the hell out of a lot of baby boomers.

If Gen Y memorizes less information, it’s because we know how to wield the enormous repository of information that is the internet.

They’re forcing huge changes in education

Education is a topic I’m passionate about, and there’s no doubt that a lot needs to change in the way teachers approach their Gen Y, and younger, students, but Bauerlein’s argument that we’re in an “era of child-centered classrooms and self-esteem grading” is just tired. Especially since nobody is really able to prove that today’s students are really lacking in the smarts department globally:

According to Reena Nadler, program director of LifeCourse Associates, a marketing and human resources consultancy in Great Falls, Virginia, founded by generational experts Neil Howe and William Strauss, the millennial generation is turning the clichés on their heads. “Student achievement is rising,” says Nadler, a millennial herself. Today’s youth dedicate more hours to their studies and extracurricular activities than previous generations did.

I think there’s very real issues that arise when the students are digital natives and the teachers barely know how to turn a computer on, and we’re seeing the fruits of that, but that doesn’t imply there’s anything inherently wrong with this generation. That they’re forcing change in the way education happens is actually a testament to their abilities.

Because we’re young

It looks like Bauerlein just plain runs out of arguments with his eighth point. He probably should have just gone with seven reasons. Seven is lucky. His eighth argument is simply “because they’re young.” And young people are… stupid.

He’s sort of right, actually. Young people lack experience and, indeed, tend to be egocentric and melodramatic and prone to screwing up (all part of learning). But youth also brings with it, by its very nature, an incredibly wellspring of potential, which is what a lot of companies are just starting to realize:

“We have the best qualified generation since history,” says Patricia Vendramin, a sociologist at the Work & Technology Research Centre of the Fondation Travail-Université in Namur, Belgium. Millennials get work experience early, they’re flexible, they’re willing to relocate, and they’re open-minded, she adds. Also, “they are very skilled at using technology” and they’re true team players, Redmond says.

So much left to say

It’s unfortunate that authors like Bauerlein are able to draw booksales by treading on the same old “kids are stupid” ground so many others have walked for decades. I bet when he was younger there were older people saying he was dumb, too. You would think that experience would have taught him better than trotting out this the-kids-aren’t-alright nonsense. But, then, maybe those calling him dumb back then just happened to be right.

Thanks to the Brazeen Careerist Forum for the link to this article.

Well, maybe not all of us. But most of us.

There’s a lot of hullabaloo in Ontario (and other places, I’m sure) these days about the struggling manufacturing sector. The Toronto Star in particular has been all over it:

While Canada’s economy continues to churn out jobs, some cities are getting left behind.

Amid waves of job cuts in the crucial automotive sector, Oshawa’s unemployment rate suddenly ranks among the highest of major Canadian cities, climbing to 7.6 per cent in April from 6.4 per cent the month before, according to Statistics Canada.

The loss of jobs sucks, of course, but I think cries from politicians for government subsidies to the manufacturing sector (a ‘bail out’) are completely misguiding. Saving manufacturing in the United States and Canada (and most of the developed world) isn’t just unlikely: It’s unfeasible.

We are becoming a service economy, which means that a lot of Generation Y is going to end up working in the so-called ‘service sector’. A lot of people balk at this, because they immediately leap to everyone working at McDonalds or whatever, but the truth of it is that the service sector includes a whole whack of occupations and different styles of work, some of which pay minimum wage (ie. The McJob) and some of which pay millions of dollars a year (ie. a consultant).

The only real solution to job loss as a result of manufacturing is an acceptance that those jobs are gone. Governments should involve themselves only as far as providing opportunities to retrain the former manufacturer workers and create opportunities. The alternative is the equivalent of bailing out the water in a sinking ship — the only thing you can buy yourself is a little bit of time.

This puts Generation Y at an important crossroads. We’re going to experience a major economic shift from secondary to tertiary industry, and it’s not going to be without bumps in the road. We need to be prepared to embrace the new model of the service sector, and kick ass at it.

BusinessWeek ran an article by Tammy Erickson last month about Generation Y and stress, showing that despite our tendency toward thinking rather highly of our own abilities and demanding a lot from the workplace, we’re still not very good at relaxing at work:

Many Gen Ys are also feeling overwhelmed by high expectations and multiple choices. In one survey, over 60 percent of recent high school graduates surveyed said that they had experienced some of the symptoms doctors use to diagnose clinical depression.

I spent much of the first few months at my current job feeling stressed out. It’s an unfortunate side-effect of wanting to make an immediate impression and move up quick. Since we’re not usually content to just sit at a desk and wait for a few years until someone rewards us for longevity, we tend to go all-out, putting all sorts of pressure on ourselves to perform at an unprecedented standard.

This is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it tends to work: Generation Y employees do get noticed in the workplace for their talents. Bad because it tends to result in an incredible amount of stress when you’re starting at a new job. Because, of course, it’s hard to stand out as an expert at the work you do when you’re just learning where the bathroom is and what the company you work for actually does.

Depending on the type of person you are, time may be the only thing that really relieves the stress. But for me what really helped was coming to the understanding that great employees aren’t the ones who never ask dumb questions or don’t make mistakes — great employees are the ones who strive to learn everything they can and confront their own mistakes with solutions and recommendations. And, more importantly, great employees aren’t automatons basking in perfection. Great employees are human, and humans make mistakes. The trick is to let yourself.

Learning that was like a revelation. I stopped worrying about my mistakes. Before, I’d try to hide or minimize them. Once or twice I even made the cardinal workplace sin of looking for someone else to blame. And, in the event where it became clear to coworkers that I had made a mistake, I’d strive to come up with long-winded explanations and apologies.

“Matt, did you do that research we need?” “No, sorry, I forgot and I had to take my car in for service and I haven’t been feeling well and…” On and on.

It was stressing me out and it was making me look bad. The best answer in a case like that? A simple “No, I forgot, but I’ll get right on it.” And then you deliver. Admit your mistakes, but don’t apologize for them. In the end, no one’s likely to remember the tiny slip-up, but everyone’s likely to remember the way you sulked about it or apologized profusely.

The workplace is a busy place, and everyone drops the ball every now and again. Striving for perfection is only going to result in stress for you and will ultimately hurt your standing in the office environment. By letting go of that urge, and admitting to the occasions where you do screw up, you’ll be happier and likely more productive at work.

Photo by BrittneyBush. Licensed under Creative Commons