Brazen Groups Are Live!

If you didn't join the private beta launch of Brazen Groups, I highly recommend you go check out the live version today! We officially opened groups up to all members of Brazen Careerist this morning, and we're really excited to see how they evolve.

Groups give our community the ability to create whatever content they want to see on the site. For a small site, we have a lot of user engagement and we can't express how much we appreciate that. But like any true startup, we're never satisfied. So the team came to a decision that it was time to put more control in the hands of our community, and groups was the best way to do this.

Groups have three main features. The first is chatter. Chatter is quick thoughts, ideas, relevant links, questions etc. Borrowing from Twitter, we decided to make chatter short and sweet, so 140 characters are all you get.

The next feature is events. Group members can create an event, including time and place, and an address with a Google map so attendees don't get lost on their way. We anticipate that people in the location based groups will use this feature to organize tweet-ups, Brazen meet-ups and any other networking functions. But it's also just as easy to organize online events or promote your webinars and other events.

Finally, we developed forums to let group members really dive into a discussion about a particular topic. Members can create a forum topic that they would like to get feedback on, and the rest of the group can leave comments and ideas without the restriction of 140 characters.

As we work towards becoming a full scale social network for young professionals, we will be introducing new features on a regular basis. All of the features will come from the crazy ideas that we throw around in the office and the feedback we get from you all. So if you want to have some say in what comes next, let us know what you think. You can even join the Brazen Feedback Group and start a discussion on what you think we should do.

As always, we asked some of our most active members to beta test the product, so there are already more than 35 groups. My personal favorites right now are; Fit Freaks, Madtown Crew, Bookshelf and Drupal.

Definitely go browse through groups, join the ones that interest you, create your own groups, and don't forget to participate!

Generation Y Is Annoying to Manage, But That's a Good Thing

Generation Y is annoying to manage. We're annoying to manage because, get this; we actually want people to manage us! Gen Y grew up very close with our parents, and we got a ton of feedback from teachers, coaches etc. Because of this, managers are encountering entry-level workers who are basically begging and pleading to be managed closely.

The problem is that over the last 20 or 30 years, management has become a lost art. People are promoted after a few years on the job. They get more money, more responsibility, more work, and oh yeah, they get to manage three other people too.

Finding time to care about three other peoples career when you're so intent on advancing your own career is not an easy task. So the trend has been to let people figure it out on their own.

This worked great for Gen X, a group of people who take serious pride in independently getting the job done. But not so much for Gen Y. We would much rather work with our managers, our peers and our team to get the job done, and have fun doing it.

Because of this, Gen Y is creating an incredible shift in what management means, and the managers who accept and adapt to this shift are the ones who will be leading successful organizations in the coming years.

So, if you're managing Gen Y you can do one of two things. You can say they are annoying to manage and whine and complain about how needy they are. Or, you can embrace this as a gift. The next time a Gen Y employee comes into your office with a question on how to do something correctly, put everything aside for ten minutes and push him in the right direction.

The ten minutes of your time it takes to give detailed feedback or correct a mistake today, can save you days or weeks of fixing the mistake in the long run.

5 Startup Lessons From the Recession

Running a startup in a recession is not an easy task. All the experts say that survival is the name of the game, but entrepreneurs are hard-wired to move quickly, and simply surviving is not what you imagine when leaving your Fortune 100 job for life at a start up. It's been frustrating, but I've also learned a ton. Here are five lessons I've learned from running a business in a recession.

1. You can save money, you just have to do more work
In the past, we came up with a product idea, got a general sense of what we wanted the product to look like, and then passed it off to the designer. Inevitably, the designer would come back with a great design, but not necessarily what we were looking for. Then we would have to go back through multiple reviews and changes. This way of working is incredibly expensive and time consuming.

Now, we do a ton of work before passing anything off to a designer. We put a wireframe together, we review it multiple times and we do a complete creative brief before asking a designer to do anything. It's a lot of work, but that's what start-ups are all about. The harder you work, the more you learn. Extra preparation on the front end will save you a ton of money and time on the back end.

2. Some bills are more important than others
Deciding who to pay and when to pay them becomes a very difficult decision when you're trying to run a start up with little to no money. You have to constantly evaluate things that you would never normally think of, like, if I don't pay rent, will they kick us out or let us slide for a few months? Or, if I don't pay the accountant today, will I have enough in the bank to pay him in two weeks? Then there are other things like, how long can I personally survive without a paycheck?

The interesting thing is, when you're in a recession people are more understanding. Your landlord probably isn't filling his office space, so kicking you out is pointless. Your accountant can probably wait two weeks to get a $500 check, especially when he knows that $500 could keep your business alive. If you plan on bootstrapping your company, or waiting out a recession, you better get used to negotiating and in some cases, not paying your bills until you absolutely have to.

3. You will want to quit, and so will your partners
There's no doubt about it, if you're running a company with little money, you can't move fast, you get nervous and you will want to quit. Every single person at Brazen has wanted to throw in the towel at some point. Penelope and I have had discussions about whether or not we should shut down and I've had conversations with the other guys about whether they should be looking for something else to do.

But a good rule of thumb is that the companies that don't quit don't fail. I'm convinced that the only reason the failure rate is so high for start-ups is because most founders can't get through the dip. We've been in the dip for more than six months now. If all goes as planned, we'll be able to actually run our business the way we want to very soon. But until then, we'll keep supporting each other when we're ready to call it quits.

4. If you don't share your ideas, no one will know you have them
For the past six months I've been brainstorming different products that Brazen should launch. I have solid reasons for when we should launch them, how they will improve our traffic and how each one will help us achieve our goal of being the top network for young professionals.

The problem was that I didn't verbalize my ideas well. I have tons of PowerPoint's and spreadsheets with projections and wireframes, but instead of organizing everything and presenting it succinctly, I let it pile up. Finally, after talking things through for two months, we've determined the right direction for Brazen to go. Investors like it, the board thinks it's great and the team thinks it's the right thing to do. And other than a few tweaks and updates, we're using the ideas that I had stored away on my computer for months. Going forward, I'll be sure to present my ideas in ways that everyone understands so we don't waste any more time.

5. Sometimes the best breakthroughs come from arguments
A few weeks ago, Penelope came into my office on a rampage. She screamed and yelled, and she called me a jerk. So, I yelled back. This went on for a solid ten minutes before it dawned on me. She wasn't mad at me. She was mad that we have such an amazing business plan, we know exactly where we should be and we know how we can get there, but right now, we're not even close.

I pointed this out. She agreed, and ever since then we've stopped blaming our lack of execution on not having money and decided to focus on putting processes in place and getting everyone to do their job. In a few weeks, the whole culture has changed. We all know exactly what we're doing, our meetings are productive, and we're all working towards the same goal, even if it's not as fast as we would like.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Campus Career Center

Note: This is a guest post from Kelly Cuene. Kelly is a friend of mine and a Career Advisor at The University of Wisconsin. Most people I knew in college, including me, didn't take advantage of their career centers until it was too late. That's unfortunate because your career center really can be a great resource. If you're in college, I urge you to take Kelly's advice and get the most out of your career center, before its too late.

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I realize many students have serious concerns about the quality (or lack thereof) of their campus career center. It's also important to know, however, how to get the most from your career services office. Some basic tips:

Do some work on your own, first
Student services staff are always trying to conveniently deliver information to students (notice the increasing use of videos, blogs, podcasts, websites and social networking sites by campus staff). Seriously, we have committees, surveys and focus groups trying to figure this out. If you look for these first, you'll have a more productive appointment with a career advisor because you can ask follow-up questions or apply that information to your own situation.

Be prepared for an appointment
Before you visit with an advisor, think about what it is you hope to get out of the appointment. What questions do you have that you need answered? Some students with whom I meet apologize for bringing in a list of questions to ask. No worries – preparing questions in advance is awesome. It ensures all your concerns are discussed and our time is used effectively.

Visit early
Fall career fairs often launch campus recruiting for the year and usually take place just a few weeks after classes begin. This catches students off-guard, who have to scramble to prepare, or worse, miss out on great opportunities entirely. This is especially important for business majors and any students hoping to pursue careers with corporate employers, who conduct the bulk of recruiting in the fall. Plan ahead and hit the ground running once you get back to campus. Bonus points if you visit during the summer when few students are around.

Don't believe the grand daddy of all career center myths
If nothing else, please do not wait until senior year to visit the career center! Most career centers are not in the business of handing out jobs once May hits. Advisors teach students to conduct a job search and build their brand, developing career management skills to be used long after graduation. Figuring out what to do with your life requires on-going assessment of your values, skills, strengths, interests and priorities. A career advisor will be more valuable to you if they can spend 2-3 years getting to know you and your needs, as they evolve.

In addition, your advisor is part of your network – nurture that relationship over the long-term to gain more from it. Advisors often have valuable contacts, including their own personal connections, and are more likely to share those when they know students will use them responsibly and professionally. Demonstrate, over time, that you are both those things.

Make an effort to attend group advising sessions or career workshops
Students tell me they prefer to skip group sessions because they want one-on-one attention from a career advisor to discuss their unique situation. I'm not sure if this is a millennial thing or what. Chances are, however, the issues are not as unique as students think. Many individuals struggle with the same questions. Group advising or workshops help you learn from others experiencing the similar things.

If your career center sucks, let someone know
Most colleges and universities, regardless of type, have a hierarchal structure. Academic departments and faculty are priority because they carry out the teaching and/or research missions of the institutions in a direct way, on a daily basis. Even a college president or chancellor is nothing without the support of faculty.

This means resources are often allocated other places before they go to undergraduate student services. It's possible your college career center is lacking the financial or human resources it needs to meet student expectations. Start with the college career center staff if your needs aren't being met. Most staff want to hear students' ideas about how to improve services. But, if you feel like what's going on is an issue beyond the career services office, let your voice be heard. Students can have a huge impact!

Why Isn't Mainstream Gen Y Buying Into The New Web?

Generation Y practically invented social media. Friendster was the original, but when Facebook came on the college scene in 2004, everything changed. College students took their offline friends and aggregated them in one place online. Guys browsed through their college networks to find cute girls they had seen at the library, and everyone posted photos from last night's drunken party or Saturday afternoon's football game.

Facebook was like being at a college frat party with all the people from your school, but online.

Well, things changed. Facebook opened up, Second Life created a virtual world for everyone to live in, LinkedIn connected all the older white-collar professionals, Twitter jumped on the scene and let all the narcissists scream, "Look at me," and Facebook followed the trend with their new redesign.

But Generation Y is not inventing the new web. Older people are. The new web is all about hyper-connectivity, real-time updates, and living your life online. And mainstream twenty-somethings aren't buying into it.

Twitter
According to Comscore, the majority of Twitter users worldwide are 35 or older. Young adults 18-24 only make up 10.6% of the Twitter population in the US and are less likely than the average user to tweet. 45-54 year olds are actually 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter.

The traditional social media early adopters are 18 -24 and Twitter is the new social media darling. Why isn't Gen Y biting?

LinkedIn
Gen Y is not on LinkedIn. The average age of a LinkedIn user is 40-years old. LinkedIn profiles do two things. They let you show the world all the great things you've accomplished (most twenty-somethings haven't accomplished much yet) and they let you connect with other business people in your industry (Gen Y has no idea what industry they're in and don't have many connections yet).

Want more proof that LinkedIn doesn't get Gen Y? They just did a major marketing and PR push to recent grads offering their premium service for 3 months free and pitching the site as a way to get jobs in a down economy. So far, this isn't working, and I don't expect it to anytime soon.

Facebook
Facebook is growing at an unparalleled speed, and the new adopters are older folks. The 35 to 54 Year old demographic grew at a rate of 276% over the last six months and the 55+ demographic grew more than 194% over the same time period, while 18-24 year olds only grew 20%. These same older adopters are joining sites like Twitter where it's all about real-time updates and hyper-connectivity.

When Facebook made a design change to simulate Twitter, there was a major user revolt, of course, many of the angriest people were long time Facebook users (i.e. Gen Y). Sure, change is difficult and oftentimes people buy in after some getting used to. But this one just seems different.

Want More?
A recent Accenture survey concluded that Baby boomers, defined in Accenture's survey as those 45 years old or older, are embracing popular consumer technology applications nearly 20 times faster than younger generations. Compared to a year ago, Gen Y consumers between the ages of 18 and 24, are decelerating their use of consumer electronics and related services including social networking, blogging, listening to podcasts and posting video on the Internet. Yet, there was a 67 percent increase among baby boomers reading blogs or listening to podcasts..

So why isn't Gen Y buying in to the new web?

Are we simply not a group of early adopters? Would we rather be the followers waiting to see what our older, more experienced peers latch on to before we jump in?

Or, does Gen Y have an innate sense that too much connectivity and too much time online is unproductive and does nothing more than allow you to run in circles and chase something that you can never actually attain.

Or maybe, Gen Y is still all about being cool, and Silicon Valley just isn't that cool. Facebook isn't even pretending to be cool anymore.

Chris Cox, Facebook's Director of Products says, "The people who started the company weren't cool. I'm not cool, if you look at the people who work here, it's much more nerdy and curious than cool….Cool only lasts for so long, but being useful is something that applies to everyone."

He's probably right. Useful does apply to everyone, but hip, early adopters are always chasing cool. They're not chasing useful.

Personally, I think its a combination of the three and when the right tool comes along, Gen Y will take the lead. But whatever the reason is, the numbers show that mainstream Gen Y is not latching on to the newest social media tools, and for a group of people who are supposed to be the trend setters, this is a strange phenomenon.