Ok, so here's the deal: within the next minute or two, put together a list of ten completely random and unrelated words. If there's any relevance whatsoever between words, it doesn't count.
Here goes...
1) chocolate
2) gritty
3) halo
4) orange
5) whale
6) toenail
7) spade
8) tile
9) blip
10) touche'
take on the challenge lol, that definitely took me like 5 minutes instead of the 2 I gave myself.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Welcome Back! Globalization and Generation Y
Welcome back to Silva's Suite, my apologies for the extended summer vacation from posting.
You know, the great thing about having your own blog is that, well, you can do whatever you want. I just gave myself a 3 month vacation from this blog, and as I sit here writing, it's like I never left.
And that's what I want to get at, is this greater sense of autonomy we seem to have these days.
The evolution of technology has made us more independent individuals, and more is being asked from us on a daily basis.
Say I'm in the machine repair business, and I've got one prospective employee who spent four years reading books about how to fix machines, aced all his machine-fixing classes, and graduated with honors. Then I've got another kid, same age, who never went to college, but has been working machines since he was thirteen in his dad's garage. Who do you think I'm going to hire if I need my machine fixed right away, the kid who read books about fixing machines, or the kid who's been doing it for all these years? Definitely the latter.
That's why, for Generation Y, it's not just about the degree anymore, it's about internships, good ones. With how easy it is to communicate now and how quickly information can travel, networking has become one of the more essential skills for 18 to 24 year-olds today. Classes are great, and you should still learn a lot from them, but they are more of a formality now than ever before. For this proactive generation, it's more about experience and an ability to produce immediatelyrather than just being knowledgable and studious.
We're starting to see many more young, bright and successful innovators rise quickly through the corporate ranks. Think of how many young people already own successful companies and are famous for it. Take Google, arguably one of the more influential companies today, for instance.
Google creators Larry Page and Sergey Brin teamed up during their college years at Stanford in the mid-nineties, started putting together the beginnings of a search engine, dropped out of college once they felt they had something, and are now multi-billionaires...at ages 31 and 30, respectively (thanks to BBC news for the stats).
Business-savvy Theo Epstein, general manager of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox, became head of the organization in his late twenties, is still one of the youngest general managers in the league, and has since delivered a pair of World Series Championships to the franchise, the first in 86 years
Wow, being the Yankees fan that I am, writing that really hurt...I need to toot our own horn now to make up for it.
The New York Yankees' general manager, Brian Cashman, started out as an intern for the Yankees and is now in the organization's inner-most circle.
More is being asked than ever before from young adults new to the work force. Firms want employees who don't need to be eased into their jobs, but rather can contribute right away. The sheer amount of pressure on Generation Y to produce immediately is kind of overwhelming. Think about it- in today's world, it is not uncommon for parents to pay a firm to take their child on as an intern. And let's be honest, not everyone who does an internship gets something valuable out of it. You have your amazing internships that get you solid jobs after college, and then you have your coffee-fetching, facebook-riddled internships.
Thanks Globalization. The Internet has made this world so tiny, so well-connected, that companies can successfully operate at the highest of efficiency levels with facilities spread throughout different parts of the world. Firms no longer have just their regional industry rivals to worry about, they need to worry about firms just like them across every continent. And because of the increased competition globalization has created, firms are scrambling around trying to find as much staff support as they can get.
Can things really get any more intense? Might PhD's be the norm for a decent-paying job when Generation Z enters the work? Something to ponder...
You know, the great thing about having your own blog is that, well, you can do whatever you want. I just gave myself a 3 month vacation from this blog, and as I sit here writing, it's like I never left.
And that's what I want to get at, is this greater sense of autonomy we seem to have these days.
The evolution of technology has made us more independent individuals, and more is being asked from us on a daily basis.
Say I'm in the machine repair business, and I've got one prospective employee who spent four years reading books about how to fix machines, aced all his machine-fixing classes, and graduated with honors. Then I've got another kid, same age, who never went to college, but has been working machines since he was thirteen in his dad's garage. Who do you think I'm going to hire if I need my machine fixed right away, the kid who read books about fixing machines, or the kid who's been doing it for all these years? Definitely the latter.
That's why, for Generation Y, it's not just about the degree anymore, it's about internships, good ones. With how easy it is to communicate now and how quickly information can travel, networking has become one of the more essential skills for 18 to 24 year-olds today. Classes are great, and you should still learn a lot from them, but they are more of a formality now than ever before. For this proactive generation, it's more about experience and an ability to produce immediatelyrather than just being knowledgable and studious.
We're starting to see many more young, bright and successful innovators rise quickly through the corporate ranks. Think of how many young people already own successful companies and are famous for it. Take Google, arguably one of the more influential companies today, for instance.
Google creators Larry Page and Sergey Brin teamed up during their college years at Stanford in the mid-nineties, started putting together the beginnings of a search engine, dropped out of college once they felt they had something, and are now multi-billionaires...at ages 31 and 30, respectively (thanks to BBC news for the stats).
Business-savvy Theo Epstein, general manager of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox, became head of the organization in his late twenties, is still one of the youngest general managers in the league, and has since delivered a pair of World Series Championships to the franchise, the first in 86 years
Wow, being the Yankees fan that I am, writing that really hurt...I need to toot our own horn now to make up for it.
The New York Yankees' general manager, Brian Cashman, started out as an intern for the Yankees and is now in the organization's inner-most circle.
More is being asked than ever before from young adults new to the work force. Firms want employees who don't need to be eased into their jobs, but rather can contribute right away. The sheer amount of pressure on Generation Y to produce immediately is kind of overwhelming. Think about it- in today's world, it is not uncommon for parents to pay a firm to take their child on as an intern. And let's be honest, not everyone who does an internship gets something valuable out of it. You have your amazing internships that get you solid jobs after college, and then you have your coffee-fetching, facebook-riddled internships.
Thanks Globalization. The Internet has made this world so tiny, so well-connected, that companies can successfully operate at the highest of efficiency levels with facilities spread throughout different parts of the world. Firms no longer have just their regional industry rivals to worry about, they need to worry about firms just like them across every continent. And because of the increased competition globalization has created, firms are scrambling around trying to find as much staff support as they can get.
Can things really get any more intense? Might PhD's be the norm for a decent-paying job when Generation Z enters the work? Something to ponder...
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