Recruiting Bloggers.com

Gen Y Boosters Are Dumb

Audio version here

Frizzy-haired, New York-based, Canadian author, Malcolm Gladwell has just released a new book that everyone is talking about. It's surely going to be a bestseller.

And perhaps that's partly because the main premise is very simple and easy to understand: even naturally talented people need practice to become really good at what they do.

That's pretty obvious isn't it? But sometimes the obvious has to be pointed out again and again and again.

And that's why I'm going to remind you now that 99% of the people who go around boosting Gen Y are just plain dumb.

Outrageous Claims

Listen to this claim that about Barack Obama’s victory. It's not only the best example yet of the growing influence of Generation Y in America and the world.

"Gen Y is smart, diverse, energized, socially and politically aware and able to use the Internet to do pretty much anything."

"Pretty much anything." What does that mean? Everything and nothing.

Well-Informed

You know what? I don't think the average person is well informed politically no matter how old they are. And I don't think they ever will be. You know why? It's too much work.

Look. If Gen Y is so busy being well informed, who's watching Access Hollywood? The old guys? The Boomers? Come on, look at the ads. They're not selling Depends.

A Deceptive Brand

And you know what? Gen Y isn't diverse either. When people talk about Gen Y they're only talking about middle class college educated people who plan on having careers.

And here's something else. When people talk about Gen Y they never tell you stories like this.

Queens University is one of Canada's top universities. It's across the lake from Rochester in the United States. Every September, they have a big homecoming party and a few thousand old students march around the football field during half time.

Drunken Brawl

But recently they had to cancel this event because the current students like to get drunk and wreck things. For instance, this past September, a customer at a fast-food restaurant was attacked and put into a coma. He woke up after a month but he's going to have permanent brain damage.

And this was really a Gen Y event because the Queens University students put out the word on Facebook that this is going to be a big drunken brawl and students came from all around to participate.

Now it's possible that the student who put that guy into a coma was "smart, diverse, energized, socially and politically aware and able to use the Internet to do pretty much anything." But he was also a goof. And he wasn't the only one.

In Conclusion

As history progresses, education is becoming more widespread. So does freedom spread in all sorts of relationships. Nevetheless, Gen Y is, in many ways, as ignorant and foolish as any other generation. In fact, they're almost as ignorant as their much-maligned parents, the baby boomers. But the boosters, they forget to mention that.

Would Barack Obama have been referred by a Presidential recruiter?

Wondering if an executive recruiter would have referred Barack Obama for the position of CEO, United States of America?

• How did Obama's career curve compare to the criteria expected by clients?
• What about Obama's personal and professional network; his family background?
• What about his personal qualities, attributes, skills?

What was the value proposition that Obama offered and how did it compare to other candidates for the job, especially John McCain?  How does this election result relate to our previous discussion on BlogTalkRadio/JibberJobber re: lessons from the national interview and the value proposition of older workers?

Bottom line: as a recruiter, would you refer a candidate like Obama for a CEO position?

Posted by Karen P. Katz, Career Acceleration Notes
<http://www.CareerAcceleration.net/blogs>

Elementary School Source of Gen Y's Problems

Reference: The Personal Branding Blog

According to super expert, Ronnie Alsop, Gen Y's professional flaws were created by a misguided reward system in the country's elementary school system.

Here's the problem. When you fail in these schools, you get treated like a winner. The teachers don't want anyone to suffer the pain of loss so when a game is played everyone gets a prize and a pat on the back even if they didn't win.

The habit of praising losers and rewarding them has given Gen Y-ners a false sense of entitlement. They have been taught that they deserve the rewards of victory even when they are under-performing.

So in the working world they want constant rewards -- like pay raises and promotions every six months -- and when their bosses refuse to reward them for their limitations they accuse them of being slave drivers who have sold their souls to a corporate ethos that has no respect for human beings.

The false idea that they are better than they are also accounts for some of their paradoxical demands. They want senior roles that require independent thinking but they also want constant hand-holding by their bosses. They call it feedback and professional development but, really, it is on-the-job-training for positions they aren't fit to handle.

Boomers Wrecked the Economy

From Richard Berry in The American Thinker.

The current market turmoil is a product of every bad trait the Boomer Elite has long exhibited in other social and political contexts: unbridled greed and hubris, exorbitant self-regard, breathtaking recklessness, insatiable appetite for immediate gratification, and a rollicking sense of entitlement.

Although our Masters of the Universe insist we credit them as moral paragons, they are among the most luxury loving, wealth flaunting population ever seen in the world.

...this crowd is heavily on the left and mostly in the Democratic Party.

On the macro level, they don't want the American people to govern themselves.... On the micro level... they abjure governing their own appetites, and bid everyone act likewise.

Sounds a lot like Gen Y to me. Note as well that Berry attacks the Boomer Elite, not the ordinary rank and file Boomer. Maybe we should make a similar distinction with Gen Y.

Boomers Have Authoritarian Culture

Baby Boomers are authoritarian. That's what Gen Y says, right?. But what are we to make of this article by Lynda Hurst in The Toronto Star.

"There has never been a year like 1968.... It was the year the front end of the baby boom (a term not yet in fatiguing use) realized it had the numbers to flex some political muscle.

The resulting upheaval was global.

No one had predicted this generation.

Growing up in post-war prosperity, but under an ever-present nuclear threat, it had emerged highly educated, but critical of the prevailing culture. It rejected conformity and materialism.

Most of all, it rejected blind adherence to authority,
and not just when it came to drugs and sex.

Boomers Bankrupt

Forced to start fresh at age 50.

Forbes.com claims that many boomers "will choose to stay trapped in miserable marriages for fear of braving new, unstable lives."

But others "will be forced to start from financial ground zero because of layoffs, bankruptcy, divorce or even a spouse's death."

So, it offers 7 steps to self rescue.

Hat Tip: Anita Brusseze

Happy Birthday Maren Hogan

The Red Hot Mama From Omahama makes a bold, clear, meaningful declaration for a new year.

And don't forget: Maren will be signing autographs at RecruitFest

But, tell me, when is she going to get a chance to speak at an industry conference? Really, ask yourself: How come Maren, an eager Gen Y woman who loves to speak and is so full of good ideas, has been passed over when it comes to delivering a talk, in favour of a bunch of old white men? Who's holding her back?

You know the answer. The Baby Boomers. The fat cat experts who fear Gen Y. They're doing it -- again. Just wait till my man, Barack Obama gets in, then we'll see some change -- when Michelle and Oprah start kicking some boomer butt.

        And it's burn baby burn.
When am I gonna get my turn

Gen Y Candidate Not Transparent

Obama campaign arrogant and controlling

From: End of the Affair, The New Republic, Gabriel Sherman

Last year, when Hillary Clinton campaigned as a front-runner, Obama provided access to the press corps and won over the media.

One night, during a campaign stop in Iowa, he met reporters for off-the-record drinks. He cooperated for magazine profiles and appeared on the cover of GQ.

....Reporters who cover Obama these days grouse that Obama's flacks shroud the campaign in secrecy and provide little to no access. "They're more disciplined than the Bush people," a reporter on the Obama trail gripes. "There was this idea of being transparent, but they're not. They're total tightwads with information."

Will Multi-Tasking Make Gen Y The Shallow Generation?

I used to think that Steve Rubel was a pretty smart guy but now it seems he's just another dude taking an easy ride on the Gen Y bandwagon.

Steve says "the Attention Crash is entirely generational".

The Gen Yer's, it seems, do a far better job of coping with massive amounts of information. It's not uncommon for a lot of folks to be running Meebo with a dozen IM windows going at once, Facebooking, emailing and talking on the phone. And they're productive! Those of you who have kids I am sure see the same in your home.

Yeah right, Steve. But some people think otherwise. And, unlike you, they aren't basing their judgements on haphazard impressions.

Gen Y Leader Worship

1. Do you remember a Gen Y expert bragging that Obama was the candidate of Gen Y?
2. Do you remember a Gen Y expert bragging that Baby Boomers are authoritarian but Gen Y isn't?
3. Have you noticed the complaints about messianism in Obama's campaign?
4. Tell me, what does that mean about Gen Y?

Baracktose intolerant: An increasingly common medical condition in which the affected person becomes violently sick in the stomach when exposed to adulation and deification of Barack Obama. -- Slate (June 27, 2008)

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"My father offered an interesting perspective.... he said that Baby Boomers look for super-human leaders. They believe one person has all the answers and he can lead single-handedly.

"We certainly don’t believe our leaders are more than human. Just look at our childhoods. We watched high profile leaders cheat on their wives, embezzle money and refuse to take responsibility for terrible decisions."
-- Gen Y Expert

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Question: Are Baby Boomers authoritarian? Yes or No?
Born 1979: Yes.
Question: Do you believe that Baby Boomers look to one super leader who has all of the answers? Kind of like Nazis.
Born 1979: Uh, Yes. It's a stereotype but Yes.
-- Gen Y Quiz (July 02, 2008)

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'It was basically all the students caucusing for Obama and the adults dispersing among the other candidates.' In the end, in his Iowa City precinct, the students sat victorious at the Obama camp with 70% of the votes.... This is a metaphor for the workplace.... Baby boomers are being forced out, in a non-disruptive way."
-- Gen Y Expert

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