GenPink

Happy Holidays! At the end of the year I like to look back at all that I’ve accomplished, all that has changed and all that is yet to come. This has been a great year for me personally, professionally & developmentally. If I had to sum up this year for me in one word it would be – learning. There have been various events (both good & bad) that have resulted in a great deal of lessons I will carry into the next stage of my life.

Here are some of my favorite posts of 2008. I have some BIG plans for 2009, I’ll reveal those very soon!

• Saying "No" – Men vs. Women: Are we still in the 1950s? Does a man’s "NO" mean more than a woman’s?
• Disconnected in a Connected World: Are you guilty of texterbating?
• I think I am, I think I am: Are you still living your life off the lessons you learned in nursery rhymes? You should be!
• ABCs of Gen Y/Life in your twenties: This was a month long series, that I LOVED! Everything from activism, dating, career to being naked. Check out each post – there were some great guest bloggers in this series.
• Is Gen Y really Lost?: A great video – watch it!
• Is is possible to be in love with more than one person?
• Who is Happier?: who is happier – men or women and single or married people?
• This is why I’m hot: You are your own walking advertisement. At any given time you are advertising something about yourself. So here’s my advice … be an advertisement for "why you’re hot".
• Think Pink: Hey did you know there are psychological benefits of the color pink? Also love this quote I believe in pink
• Things to do before your 30th: Making a list of things I want to do before my 30th! I’d love for you to make your own list.
• Success is a State of Mind: Is a person who runs a marathon more successful than the person who runs the half?
• Managing To-Dos 3 Tiered: How I manage my Gen Y busy lifestyle & a multitude of to-dos. How do you manage yours?
• Gen Y Generalized: The not-so-general-generalizations of 10 Gen Y Women and what they do & do not have in common.
• Age of Awareness – Obama & Gen Y: Do you think Obama’s use of technology and the internet will bridge a communication gap between generations?
• Internet Schizophrenia: The great debate of personal vs professional use of Facebook, and should you have multiple accounts.
• Gen Y: Waking Up Unemployed?: With the number of layoffs rapidly rising, what should you do if you find yourself unemployed?

And if you still can’t get enough, there have been a great deal of twenty something advice series posts & here’s my favorites from 2007 GenPink 1.0.

Time has been a commodity this year and I’ve met so many great bloggers & internet celebrities. So I have one favor to ask of you – and that would be for you to develop your own Best of 2008 & link to it here. I’d love to know what I may have missed throughout the year, without having to go back through your archives. And instead of just blankly throwing this request out there, I am specifically asking for this request from (in no particular order). In case you’re wondering, you’re either on this list because you’ve been in my feed for a while and I’m afraid I missed something or I just discovered you sometime in 2008.

Tiffany, Rebecca, Zandria, Chuck, The Ryans, Derek, Monica, Greg, Dan, Ramit, Ari, David, Janet, Tina, Olivia, Andrea, Rachel, Kerri, Molly, Allison, Shanti, any and all Brazen Careerists I may have missed as well as 20sb, and of course anyone else who wants to – I especially want Gen Y bloggers!

A very Merry to you! I hope that whatever you are doing as 2008 comes to a close, you are experiencing joy.

Unemployment – the "u-word" as I’m seeing it referred to in the headlines of my google reader is touching the lives of several Gen Yers in my social sphere. Last week we had a dinner with all of my graphic design friends and one of the girls at dinner told us not only was she laid off but her whole company was closing down. So the question to ask here is what’s a girl to do?

1. Don’t Panic & Don’t take it personal: Step one seems a little obvious, but I tell you it’s important that this be the first step. This is the first time for many Gen Yers to experience being laid off so it’s easy to make it personal, which will do nothing more than keep you from making the next step.
2. Keep the ball rolling: I’ve seen a few people say "well I got laid off I’m going to give myself a vacation before I start job hunting." Here’s my advice – don’t do it! Number 1 job hunting could take weeks (if not longer) you will have some time to catch up on sleep on the days you don’t have an interview scheduled early. Number 2 you must go on the momentum you have built up from working – it’s far too easy to get into the habit of sleeping late and feeling sorry for yourself.
3. If it’s to be it’s up to me: Job hunting is not a passive game. You can not sit at home and expect your doorbell to ring. You must treat looking for your next step as your job.
4. Be a walking/talking/interactive commercial for yourself. Do whatever it takes to show that you are invaluable to your next job – create a blog in your field to showcase your knowledge, set up an online portfolio if you are in a creative industry, get endorsements on your LinkedIn profile, give away your services for free to a non-profit while you job hunt.
5. Create multiple streams of income. Think of things you could do to bring in extra money while you are job searching – do some freelance projects, sell things on etsy, or sell things around your house you no longer need. The smell of desperation is not a very nice perfume to wear to a job interview.
6. Network & make friends. Ever heard the saying it’s not what you now it’s who you know? With the connectivity available through technology it’s just a matter of time before you are connected to the right person. I’ve seen numerous postings on twitter about people asking for connections. The internet is a great way to get your resume/blog in the right hands. Meetup.com and several other sites are great resources for finding networking events to meet people.
7. Take risks & put yourself out there. Is there a place you’ve always wanted to work but have never even applied? Find out what it takes to get in with that company and at least give your best efforts to get an interview. Many people who are unemployed are too embarrassed to ask for support – this is not the time to be a lone ranger. Send your resume to everyone (yes everyone) you know and ask them if they have any leads for you. My mom has helped my ex (yes you read that correctly) get an interview. People love to help however they can. You won’t know until you ask.

Some additional resources:

• Employees, Freelancers and Entrepreneurs – How to recession-proof yourself
• 5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Career
• Maybe there will be a recession. Here’s what to do just in case

I’ve been having a debate for a while about personal vs professional internet presence. The question has been whether to combine my professional internet self with my personal or to create a two separate “worlds” if you will.

Let’s explain:

• Facebook: Do I want someone I meet at a networking event to be friends with me on Facebook? If I accept them there is a chance they will go through my old pictures and find pictures of me on my 21st birthday with my tongue sticking out. So do I ignore their friend request? Or the other option is to put every professional connection I make as friends with Limited Profile access. What about random internet strangers? Do I really want Jane Doe in Idaho to see pictures of my family Christmas? So this leaves me with a 3rd option – create a second Facebook account.
  I do have 2 internet identities –
  
  a) 26 year old blogger, random pink loving girl who likes to read about Gen Y
  
  b) Freelance Graphic Designer & Internet Marketer

• Twitter: This is the arena that I have really debated this identity crisis. For the most part I post about random things in my day like "I just ate the most ridiculous/random lunch – fried pickles, popcorn shrimp, & mac/cheese". Now how professional does that sound? Hey I post about macaroni & cupcakes randomly do you want me to design your company website? Don’t get me wrong I am great at what I do but I certainly have a professional, business consultant side and a random macaroni loving side and I generally don’t mesh those two worlds. The internet however is all one big web meshed together.

  So what I have been doing is using twitter just for fun, and a way to promote the blog, and allowing "work" contacts limited access on facebook. But as of tonight I’ve decided that internet schizophrenia might be the better option for me. I created a twitter account for my business and a facebook account that I will upload portfolio pieces and samples of my work. I will use both of these as venues to post marketing tips and current projects and all things work related. Since LinkedIn has always been in the professional realm it will stay as is, and I guess I will get over the paranoia that it’s odd that a stranger wants to know where I worked 2 years ago.

  Does anyone else run into the internet split personality issue or is it just me?

I just posted a statement on twitter that I decided I had enough energy about to turn it into a full blown blog post.

Let’s back up and tell you where this mini-rant is coming from. I am currently sitting at the New Marketing Summit and I just heard Timothy Young speak about Collective Creativity & Gen Y. When I first read the write up about what Timothy would be speaking about my initial reaction was “here we go” let’s put Gen Y in a box and tell those of us at this conference how to market to “them (me)”. As Young was speaking I realized that since he was indeed one of “us” his generalizations weren’t too far off. I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to this. It doesn’t bother me as much when a Gen Yer tries to generalize us.

So here’s my generalization – don’t put Gen Yers in a box, don’t try to generalize us, it’s our uniqueness that is our box. We are a generation about being who we are and if you try to label or categorize us it won’t work. To test my theory I made a list of 9 of my close girlfriends and myself to have a list of 10 Gen Y – twenty something females.

Here’s what I know about just 10 Gen Y women:
• 3 are married, 2 are in committed relationships, 5 are single (2 of which were engaged in the past but did not get married)
• 2 are parents – 1 of which is married and the other is a single mother, and another of the group is currently trying to get pregnant
• 3 of us are bloggers
• 1 of us (me) is on Twitter
• 2 are vegetarians, 2 others have been vegetarians in the past
• 3 are sports fans
• Professionally: 1 entrepreneur, 1 student, 2 teachers, 1 stay at home mom, 5 work full time for a company
• 3 are blondes, 7 are brunettes
• 5 of us are artist/creative types
• 6 of us have unlimited text messaging plans
• 8 of us are on facebook
• Education: 1 with a masters, 1 with a bachelors currently working on a masters, 6 with bachelors degrees, 1 currently working on bachelors, 1 with no college degree
• 3 currently in debt

I could go on for days and while I was coming up with this list I was trying to think of things that I could say that would generalize all 10 of us. And what I came up with is we are all 20-something women. I’m going to send this to all 9 of the other women to see if they can come up with another commonality but I’d venture to say my group of friends is a pretty great example about why Gen Yers should not be generalized.

So here’s my 2 cents for those of you trying to market to us – let us know your company’s uniqueness. Yes Gen Y is a collective group of people but we are all individuals and some of us like to feel like we aren’t just one of the masses and therefore feel more comfortable working with companies who recognize that about us.

So Gen Yers … does it both you when your read/hear generalizations about Gen Y? Do you have any generalizations that ring true for you as a Gen Yer?

A post about 30 Books Everyone Should Read Before Their 30th Birthday made me wonder if there were many "things you should do before you’re 30" lists. After some googleage I found a few interesting lists but for the most part they are too generic for me. Then, I remember (more…)