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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
If there is an overarching impact my generation is already having on the corporate world, it is entrepreneurship. Roughly 80% of my friends and acquaintances plan to start their own business at some point. Both males and females, college grads and current students, everyone wants to run their own business, and many of us will.
However, it is not practical to assume that everyone will. In fact, I would bet that less than half of the aforementioned people will take the plunge into entrepreneurship. The economy needs both entrepreneurs and employees to run successfully and lets face it, not everyone is cut out for the risky, constantly changing life of an entrepreneur.
That said, I don’t think my friends will land at large companies, either. They’ll go to smaller ones. Here are three reasons why large companies will have an increasingly difficult time trying to recruit and retain their young talent.
Is there a way to access/find the podcast you did last week for the WSJ? (I have a full online acct with them, so subsciption isn’t a problem.)
Danielle,
The podcast isn’t available yet, I will make an announcement when it is.
-Ryan
Well, at least that explains why I couldn’t find it. Thanks! Looking forward to listening to it.
So, how do you balance between being an intern (and the associated treatment from managers/colleagues) and a CEO (and the creativity/new ideas you can use your brain on) all in the same day? Currently, I work in a position that does not challenge me (royal understatement), but in the evenings, I help friends with aspiring businesses, do my own travel writing and take classes on whatever. How do you motivate yourself to keep up your day job, aside from the fact it may be paying your bills?
Hi Kathy,
Awesome question. I guess you could say I just deal with it. The one thing that really helps me is ALWAYS having a pad and pen with me. My ideas come to me at all hours of the day, so being able to write them down helps a ton. Also, I constantly remind myself that my end goal is to make my hobby my career and I work toward that every day. I hope that helps!
-Ryan
I completely agree that working at a small company is a great idea. The old advice — Go to the biggest firm you can, so your doors are always open at the smaller ones — comes from a Baby Boomer uncle. Not that I believe it is terrible advice, but it is not particularly relevant to our generation. I work for a smallish (400 employee) news and entertainment consulting firm. My hard work has been rewarded. I started as an associate consultant and after working 65+ hour weeks, managing extra projects, etc I was promoted to a director’s role within one year. I am also well compensated for my work. My observation is this: in a smaller firm one has the ability to take on as little or as much work as you want. There is less red tape, fewer turf wars — basically, everyone needs everyone to pitch in to get the job done. If you are smart and contribute meaningful ideas to the overall project, then your work is as valued as the VP sitting next to you. There are more opportunities to shine, build your skills at a younger age, and to be continually challenged. These are good things.