My voting experience

I went to the voting place at 10am.  I decided to do some last minute research on the 10th congressional district in VA while waiting on line.  Unfortunately, there was no line, so I had to go back outside and do the research on the iPhone.  Then I went back inside armed with knowledge.  I went up, showed my ID, got my yellow voting card, then went to vote on the electronic ballot.  They had around 5 or so electronic machines, and 10 or so paper ballot stations. I'm not sure if you get to request a paper ballot or not, but there was only one person using the paper one.  There was 2 people in front of me on the electronic ballot line,  I voted, took a picture, and was nervous that I was breaking an election law by recording my vote.  Thankfully, either nobody noticed or nobody cared.

The whole thing took less than 5 minutes.

Fighting Ageism

As a Gen Y worker, you face a very steep initial climb when working with others.  "They" will take one look at you and assume that you are the person fetching the coffee, instead of someone who genuinely has value.  Here is just one example:  I remember my first meeting with a director.  The food chain was as follows Director > Manager > Leader of Grunts > Grunts.  The participants in the meeting were the Director and 2 Grunts.  Unbeknownst to the Director, I was actually the Leader of Grunts.  The other grunt was a 40something women.  The Director never looked at me ONCE the entire meeting.  He spoke to her, he asked her questions, and he totally ignored me.  Even after I had answered all the questions, he continued to direct his questions and comments at her, even thought I was clearly the one with the subject knowledge (shedeferred to me when asked a question). 

Over the next 2-3 months, every interaction went pretty much the same.  But eventually, I noticed that he slowly started looking at me and talking directly to me.  It was only after I had proven myself over the period of months that he finally got that I was the guy who he needed to talk to in order to get things done. 

People will assume that you, as the youthful one, are just the coffee fetcher, the bag carrier, the note taker.  You will have to fight against ageism again and again in order to be seen as competent.

20Something TakeAway:
Now that you are aware you face this initial obstacle, you need to know how to fight it.  There are a couple practical tips you can follow. 

1. Do a lot of interrupting.  Interrupt and restate what they told you in your own words.  Just say, 'Wait, I want to make sure I got it right, what you are saying is X.'  This will show your self confidence because you have the guts tointerrupt -- not a lot of people have guts in the workplace, they just wallow in their own ignorance.  Second, it demonstrates that you 'get it'.  Most people talk for 30 min and then they have no idea if they got through or not to theiraudience .  If you repeat back what they are trying to tell you, it gives them a chance to verify they conveyed the information correctly.
2. Ask a ton of questions, especially questions that poke holes in their logic, try to 'beat them to the punch'.  Ask questions to clarify, but moreimportantly , if you can follow their logic, try to find where things may go wrong and say, 'wait, if you do X then Y, what about Z?'  Usually they will say, "Great question! You beat me to the punch and I was just going to get to that!"  If they say that, you just proved that you can think by yourself, and not have to rely on others telling you.

Irked by Gen Y Generalizations?

I just read a post (http://www.genpink.com/gen-y-generalized) by a Gen Yer who says they are very irked by generalizations about us. It is very true that being put in a box -even if its 100% accurate - feels uncomfortable. I get frustrated often when people claim that Gen Y feels entitled, when in fact, a more apt term coined (i think) by Tammy Erickson is immediacy.

Looking for similarities in ourselves is very important. We need to know how to communicate to other Generations our needs and wants. It's not a surprise that many Gen Ys are disillusioned in the workplace, and the only way to help ourselves is to start communicating our generational differences to "The Man".

One helpful hint is to dig deeper than the superficial. You will find many values that Gen Y shares. I believe that one of the basic tenants to hold dear for organizations is that we are only motivated to do things if we want to do them. Historically, you will find much more command and control situations, where you as an employee, you ought/must/should do something. Now its all about "How can I make this person WANT to do this?"

You can't generalize about if someone is a vegetarian, hair color, or married just because they are part of Gen Y. What you can generalize is about values, not specific things. For example, Gen Y follows the Just In Time model of learning. Instead of working in procurement for 10 years before knowing how to write a contract, we learn via the internet and talking with experts in the field. Instead of planning things way in advance, we coordinate in real time. Instead of synchronous communication, where everyone must be available at the exact same time (meetings, phone calls) we do much more asynchronous communication, where you can look at things when you want to, like text messaging, posting on forums, and twitter.

Introducing Google Docs to the CEO

Last month, I was asked by the CEO of my company to co-author an article with him.  Over the next few weeks, I would write a very basic draft, print it out, then meet with him to get feedback, iteratively developing the article.  As expected, I had to do many revisions and edits, slowly getting the article to where both he and I wanted it to be.  However, there were certain points that we touched on where I felt like I was trying to guess what was in his brain.  I felt that there was a specific way that he wanted a sentence to sound, but wouldn't come right out and say it.

Enter Google Docs.  I already do all my work on Google Docs.  Here is an explanation of what Google Docs is.


I find that being able to log in anywhere and get to my work immediately is really helpful.  I broached the topic of using google docs for our article.  He was interested in giving it a try and immediatly, there was a ton of benefits.

1. He felt empowered to alter the article - I saw him add some very good parts to the article.  Before, it was just me with the power to edit, now he also has the power to edit.  With that power, he could immediately make some simple edits that made a huge difference.  We went from him being a Passive "Victim" of my writing to being an Active Agent in creating something great.
   
2. Being able to edit makes you think harder.  I found that he thought harder and more deeply about the article after being able to edit it.  It's one thing to "review" and article, and another to be reading it with a blinking cursor.  It makes you really think about how you can improve it.
3. Asyncronous Communication.  A CEO has very limited time. Trying to find time on his calendar for a face to face meeting (syncroneous communication) was difficult.  Now he can work on his own time, and edit the document when he has time.
   
4. Life is easier for me.  No more trying to read his mind.  He still tells me the big changes and ideas he wants, but for the smaller things, he can just do it instead of trying to explain it to someone else.

Recently, I was helping a coworker with a project (creating an RFP).  My sole job was to take comments from 5-10 different people and incorporate their comments into the "main document".  Each person would turn on track changes in Word, make their changes and then send them to me, and I would type them into the main document.  Many people had the same comments, and there was an incredible amount of duplication.  I billed around 20 hours of work for this.  At over $100 an hour, over $2,000 was spent on basically copying and pasting -- a pathetic waste of money.  Had the document lived on Google Docs, each person could just directly make comments into the document, saving a lot of wasted time and money, not to mention avoiding duplicating their own work.

20SomethingTakeAway:

1. As a Gen Y, we can easily add value by teaching others in the organization about new things.  Even if they are not used, you will be seen as an innovative leader that has creative ways of doing things.  I do not know if the CEO will start using GDocs for all of his collaborative things, but maybe I changed his life!  He will surely remember this moment -- it is not just another article co-authored with another employee, but a learning experience for him.
2. When bringing up a new "scary" technology, make sure you appeal to people's innate sense of wanting to learn.  Almost everyone likes to "try something new, once" be up to date on the new-fangled technology.

Speaking at Freddie Mac on Friday

I am speaking at Freddie Mac's Analyst Community Exchange on Friday, Sept 19th about business analysis.   Tell your Freddie Mac friends! 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Advice for those of you in college:

Most "experts" recommend you figure out what you want to be in life and work towards that.  I.E.  "I want to be a politician" and so you would find a job as an aide to a politician.  I agree with this, if you do know what you want to do or be, this is the first step and you are ahead of the curve.  However, I find that 90% of people (including myself) don't know what they want to be when they grow up!!  That way of thinking is also a relic of the past, when people stayed in one role for their entire lives.  The future is where people can follow their dreams and be more than just one thing.  You can be a professor AND a consultant AND an author AND a politician!  Once we start looking at our careers that way, we need to start rethinking how we approach our goals.

If you know exactly what job you want, that's great and you should go for it.  For the rest of us, think about what type of KSA (knowledge, skills, abilities) you want to use in your life.  For example, I value the following:

• Being challanged
• Making a large impact
• Creating Value, not just analyzing it
• Growing organizations from small to big

So what I would do is seek out jobs that help get me closer to the following.  I don't think about what specific industry when looking for a job.  I don't care if I work in a Technology or Financial company, or a Non-Profit or a For Profit company.

20Something TakeAway:

1. If you know what job you want -- great!  You are ahead of everyone else.  Start doing things that will bring you closer to your dream job.
2. If you don't know what job you want -- Find out what you value -- what you really care about.  This list can change as you go through life.
3. When looking for a job, ask questions specifically targeting your list.  If you like lots of social interaction, ask a bunch of questions designed to understand if your job has lots of social interaction.
4. At work, always seek out those things on your list and seek to develop your skills that you value.
   

Successful? or More Successful?

Recently, someone asked me the question "What industry are you successful in?" Initially, I was at a loss. I have been invited to speak at the IIBA (International institute of business analysis), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I have published an article in Mortgage Banking Magazine, and am currently co-authoring another article with the CEO of my firm. The projects I've been are are hugely varied. Am I a technology guy? A mortgage guy? A speaker on Gen Y?

I had never really thought about success as being limited to an industry before, but it did beg the question -- What exactly is "success"? I've always wanted to be successful, but I never considered myself a "Top 25 under 25 entrepreneurs" kind of guy.

Success means that you are making progress in your life goals. You cannot ever be "Successful" if you are not moving towards something, but can be more successful as you continually create new goals for yourself. Conversely, you can never be a 'failure'. It doesn't really matter where you start, as long as your making forward progress.

If you want to be a writer and you publish an article, you are more successful than before. If you want to move up in the company and the director wants you to work on a special project, you are more successful than before. If you are unemployed and need a job, getting an interview means you are more successful than before.

There is no line between 'successful' and 'unsuccessful'. Success is not reaching a six figure salary. It is not the title of 'VP'. As long as you are progressing to what you want to accomplish, I would say you are successful. This blog is dedicated to helping you progress, no matter where your start point is.

p.s. If you are looking for size 11 Jordan XX3's I will put you in contact with someone who is selling.