It’s easy to get down and depressed when it seems like so many things aren’t happening the way you want them to. I meet with men and women who are working hard to find the next right thing for them and they come in stooped and frustrated. But they do perk up and become inspired once we scratch the surface and find the quiet possibilities that lie, often, just below the surface.
twentysomethings
I Don't Know What I Want To Be When I Grow Up
While visiting friends in Colorado over the holidays I had the great good fortune to meet and spend time with a woman who told me she didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She is 86 and an artist who brought a train car onto her property and transformed it into her home. Bright and warm, her sense of color and design fill the space. She has brought striking color and imagination to the lives of so many, and continues to develop ideas and create art. She is curious about the internet, i phones, and cameras. She asks pertinent questions, and keeps important quotes nearby throughout her cozy home. And she’s on alert for learning more about what she wants to do when she grows up. This artist embodies the curiosity and playfulness that empowers her to keep trying new things in her work, and… Read More
My Graduation Gift
What’s the best graduation gift? Money? A watch? A car? A trip to another country? All good! But I’m giving something some might think is rather dry. I’ve decided to give the gift of education…I’ve been reading about the difficult time new grads, and those who haven’t even graduated yet, are having finding jobs this summer and I want to do something to help. I’m offering our Interviewing Excellence program on June 10th for free to those people out there who are under 23. I may even do that with our Navigating Career Change panel on July 10th, too. There’s just so much you don’t really know about work when you’re just getting started. I know I didn’t know much about how to handle an interview when I was 21, or 23 (and sometimes when I was older, too, although I did get really good at it). My life… Read More
Seeking the Fountain of Youth
As midlifers seek the fountain of youth, chances are they’re not noticing the younger folk glancing enviously their way. “I’m looking forward to my 40s,” says Mikey, a struggling entrepreneur in her mid-20s. “I plan to suffer my midlife crisis at the wheel of a new red Porsche.” Recent college graduates have always grappled with hesitation and self-doubt. But in their new book, “The Quarterlifer’s Companion,” co-authors Abby Wilner and Cathy Stocker suggest that these feelings can signify a legitimate problem. The quarterlife crisis – which typically hits between the ages of 21 and 35 – is, according to Wilner, a “state of intense anxiety resulting from the uncertainty and instability accompanying the shift to adulthood.” The crisis generally sparks feelings of helplessness and isolation. And various culprits like student loans, inflation, job competition and parental pressure are to blame. The key factor, though, is the void created in the… Read More
What is it with the kids?
CHICAGO Evan Wayne thought he was prepared for anything during a recent interview for a job in radio sales. Then the interviewer hit the 24-year-old Chicagoan with this: “So, we call you guys the “Entitlement Generation,” the baby boomer executive said, expressing an oft-heard view of today’s young work force. “You think you’re entitled to everything.” Such labeling is, perhaps, a rite of passage for every crop of twentysomethings. In their day, baby boomers were rabble-rousing hippies, while Gen Xers were apathetic slackers. Now, deserved or not, this latest generation is being pegged, too as one with shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company. “We’re seeing an epidemic of people who are having a hard time making the transition to work, kids who had too much success early in life and who’ve become… Read More
