The Toronto Star’s front page was all about Generation Y this past Saturday with the playfully titled “Generation Why Me?”

Basically, it’s about how everyone in their 20s is screwed.

First, we meet Angelika and Lucasz:

Angelika, 26, was full time on the door line at Chrysler, where her parents still work. Lucasz, 27, made moulds as a machine operator, a skill he learned from his father, who still works in the trade.

They were planning to have children. Then, in March 2008, Angelika was laid off. Lucasz lost his job a month later. That set off a chain of events that still has not ended.

Those circumstances suck, sure – though I question whether someone who worked for Chrysler has the right to be at all surprised that he or she lost her job — but are kind of typical for a recession. These are the kind of things we need to look out for.

In fact, if I were to make like every other blogger and write a big list of RECESSION-BUSTING TIPS they’d really be little more than:

1. Don’t buy things you can’t afford
2. Don’t buy a house unless you’ve done some research and can afford it
3. Especially don’t buy a house in a new development in a suburb, you moron — it will be worth nothing exactly five minutes after you move in
4. Do everything you can to make yourself irreplaceable at your workplace
5. Seriously, you want to have kids? Right now? You’re young! Why don’t you wait a few years?

It’s not complicated. If you’ve come into things with only student debt – without a house, kids, two cars, a boat, a buddy in Nigeria you’re helping secure a family fortune, etc. — you’re likely going to be able to ride this out.

After the section on Angelika and Lucasz, however, the article takes an interesting detour:

It crashed down for Huda Assaqqaf, 24, too.

Assaqqaf believed university would bring a stable career. Armed with a food and nutrition degree from Ryerson, she embarked on a job search in 2007 that has yielded nothing but frustration and contract jobs, none of them in her field.

She now works part-time for Access Apartments, co-ordinating personal support workers for people with physical disabilities. “For an office job, it’s not very bad.”

Now, without reading too much into this, am I crazy or does that actually sound like a pretty good job for a 24-year-old to have?

The article disagrees, saying that “this is not what was promised … Generation Y grew up being told that if they were willing to work and study hard they could have it all: well-paying, fulfilling jobs that provided all the comforts.”

This, I guess, is the entitlement thing we as a generation always get charged with. Critics say that we’re whiny and that we expect too much.

But that’s both a simplification and a generalization – it implies there’s some kind of personality defect that’s infected everybody in their 20s, making them ultra demanding and particular when it comes to their career.

For those who truly fit into the ‘entitlement’ mold and get all grumpy that they’re not working their dream job five minutes after graduation, I have little sympathy. First, you went to university, not a vocational school – you were meant to develop broad thinking skills, not on-the-job training. Second, would you really be so contented with such a linear life? Where’s your sense of possibility? Where’s your sense of adventure?

Reading between the lines of the article in The Star reveals something else, however – something that I think is more interesting and, indeed, more universal: the Generation Ys coming out of post-secondary right now are products of a machine that doesn’t quite work right.

It’s not that Generation Ys feel entitled to great jobs right out-of-the-gate, it’s that they are told – often and repeatedly and with great vigor – that they ARE entitled to great jobs. Because they’re getting this credential – this degree, this diploma, this golden ticket – they’re set for life. Our educational institutions like to believe they’re like factories: pumping out smart, professional kids, ready to jump right into employment.

Schools have been foisting this on students – and their parents – for years, and it’s only now that it’s catching up to reality.

And, honestly, that’s a good thing. Credentialism is a dangerous idea. Sure, lazy hiring managers love it, but inevitably it leads to empty suits with MBAs getting CEO positions at failing companies while drop-outs run successful businesses like Microsoft and Apple. It’s a sad and boring world where degrees and diplomas are valued more than skills and performance; let’s try not to live in it.

So what about the twenty-somethings in the article? Some of them are facing some crappy luck. Others, seemingly, are doing pretty well for their first job right out of university. Jobs that don’t directly relate to our field-of-interest, contract work, internships, volunteer positions, depressing stints at retail: these are all valuable things that can add to your skillset and bring you closer to your goal.

Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing badly because you’re not a homeowner with kids and a steady union job by the time you’re 30 – that’s not the world we live in, and no one should make you feel entitled to that.

Note: This post was featured on BrazenCareerist.com where it sparked an interesting discussion. Check it out here.

Photo by witheyes.

Hey, have you heard? There might be a recession! Maybe even a depression!. And as much fun as that kind of thing might be for those who miss the convenience of the bindle and loved old silent films where men in ratty suits cut up old boots for supper, for the 3.6 million people who have lost their jobs in the last few months, things kind of suck right now.

I’ve written one or two things about the recession on this site already, but for those of you just tuning in, here’s the short version of my feelings on the economy, Generation Y, and the perilous future we face: It will be bad for a while. Maybe a long while. Gen Y is in the best position long-term, because we’re not exactly too concerned about losing our retirement savings. The best strategy is to think long-term, and be patient. (Failing that, just go hide for a couple of years in grad school. You’ll be fine!)

So that’s the recession. And hopefully you’re nodding along at this point. But those sorts of macro-level thoughts and long-term generalizations are only one side of the coin. The other side is simpler, and more personal. It’s got to do with young people who are facing an imminent graduation date and, while maybe they’re not thinking about dashed retirement dreams of foreclosed yachts, would still really like to have a job in the next few months. Because they really don’t want to have to go back to living with their parents.

But how do you get a job when the economy sucks? You make yourself exceptional. Now, more than ever, you’re only going to get your foot in the door if you can offer something that very few others can. There are literally thousands of skills you could develop and highlight towards this end, but there’s one giant ability that I think stands out above the rest: writing.

It seems simple — almost trivial — but there are very few occupations that don’t benefit from strong writing abilities these days. Think of how many emails are sent a day. Think of how much time is wasted by people who can’t string a coherent sentence together within those emails and thus cause titanic communication headaches. Think of how things are moving online — to blogs, to wikis, to twitter — to an internet that is still (and, I think, will always be) predominantly comprised of text. Of written communication.

And the great thing — from this perspective, anyway — about the job market right now is that very few people can write. There are lots of people who think they can write just fine. They probably put “Strong Verbal and Written Communication Skills” on their “résumé” and everything. But odds are they’re either abbreviation-abusing hunt-and-peck typists who respond to emails with single sentences that make no sense but are in a stupid font like neon green Comic Sans or they’re academia-clinging malcontents who write run-on sentences that use buzz words incorrectly due to the value-added paradigm that existing vertical touches base with vis a vis existing synergy or whatever.

You can be different. You can be better. Being among the effective written communicators in your office isn’t likely to win you a ton of overt recognition or anything, but it is something that will inevitably be noticed. It’s the kind of skill that has obvious application outside of whatever you were hired to do, and that is actually notoriously hard to find in applicants.

So how do you learn to write? You just do it. You write. The internet has given you an incredible platform filled with people who will read and respond and help you get better. It’s a wonderful tool that will help you get better every time your keys hit the keyboard. Embrace that.

And don’t be embarrassed. We’re all still learning.

Photo by soartsithurts. Licensed under Creative Commons

So we’re in a recession now. Some more than others. Some are saying that things are so bad that there will be a depression. Others think that idea is just insane.

There’s a lot of uncertainty, but no one is really saying anything all that optimistic. We’re facing a pretty terrible economic reality.

So let’s get to what really matters. Let’s get all stereotypically Gen Y about it and ask what’s really on our collective minds: how does this affect me?

Aside from a relatively quick blip during the dot-com burst and some turmoil when we were in grade school, Gen Y has had consistently rosy economic times. Unemployment was low, credit was easy to get, and mortgage brokers would literally give you your own house if you had non-velcro shoes on.

That game of candy land is ending, and some people think we’re screwed. The credit crunch has yet to really impact the job market, but it very well could. And some journalists are already speculating about how that will hurt us Yers:

But my question is: what are they going to do if they can’t shop? Our society has been based around consumerism for the past 15 years and these kids have racks of CDs and plasma TVs and comparatively unparalleled riches.

I guess that’s a bit of a theory. We don’t have as much money (or credit). We can’t buy as many iPods and other confusing gizmos. We… lose our minds and riot in the streets?

Others are more positive. From the same article:

Anyone born after 1983 is not really used to considering anything other than wealth, but students are much more determined to build up a broad skill base; they’ll work hard to get it and demand we provide the teaching,’ he said. ‘They will be successful no matter what; they are independent self-learners who are better equipped than any previous generation.’

The article I linked to, from The Guardian, makes a big show about interviewing young people who respond with dull comments, designed to make the whole generation look like a bunch of apathetic goof-offs. But I’m used to that. The point made is still, essentially, a true one — for most of Generation Y, this economic downturn isn’t going to be much more than a footnote in our lives.

Let’s face facts: even if the job market contracts, even if people put off retirement and work until they literally keel over on their desks one day, the worldwide demographics still put us in a workforce shortage. It may be more of a challenge to find a position that isn’t terrible and soul-sucking, but the odds of companies closing their doors to new hires altogether seem unlikely in both the short- and long-term.

More facts: If Gen Y has debt, it’s of the student loan and credit card variety. Neither are any fun to have, but unless you’ve done something monumentally stupid like pay off credit cards with other credit cards or bought yourself a jetski for every day of the week, that’s not the kind of debt that’s going to sink you. Set up a payment plan and pay it off. We’ll buy fewer iPods. We can do that.

What really strikes me as amusing about this whole mess is that it, in a lot of ways, rewards the shiftless slackers in their 20s who haven’t really got their life started yet. Are you 24, an English/History/Drama major, who rents an apartment, has no investments or retirement savings plan? Do you blow most of your money on booze and trips to Europe? Have your parents been constantly nagging you over the past few years to stop “throwing your money away”, to buy a house/condo, to start putting more of your money into investments? Have you been ignoring them, in favour of a bottle of vodka and a three-week backpacking jaunt through Croatia?

If so, congratulations. You’re in an excellent position to survive the current worldwide financial crisis.

I’ll be watching the job market closely, to see how this affects things on the ground floor. Keep checking back for my thoughts. We’ll get through this together.

Photo by Felice de Sena Micheli

Some interesting Y-related stories from the past week:

Toronto Police Welcome Generation Y

From Toronto Police Services Chair Dr. Alok Mukherjee:

So – what do “Yers” want?
An interesting job with many changes and challenges
Work-life balance
Superior training
Access to cutting-edge technology

Where can they find all that? The Toronto Police Service.

Generation Y demands Instant Messaging at Work

From Computer Business Review:

77% of the Generation Y respondents believed that a webcam and access to instant messaging in the office (73%) would help them offer clients and suppliers a faster and more personal response.

Make the workplace fun to retain Gen Y

From The Nashville Business Journal:

Employers who recognize Gen X and Y’s needs will retain them longer and get more and better work from them. Create a “fun” work environment. Employers who embrace a fun, rather than conventional company culture create a higher rate of job satisfaction with younger employees.

What does fun mean? It means converting the breakroom to a game room with video games. It means periodically bringing in a massage therapist for chair massages, an ice cream cart for sundaes or a rolling barista for onsite lattes.

Job Hopping an Option for Gen Y

From Penelope Trunk in the Boston Globe:

So there’s lots of chatter about how people can recession-proof their careers. But what should young people do, when their golden demographics make them recession proof already? Job hop, of course.

The best thing you can do early in your career is move around a lot so you can figure out what you’re good at and what you like. If you compare people who job hop with people who don’t, people who job hop build their network faster, build their skill set faster, and are more engaged in their work.