6 Ways to Fit in when you're the Youngest Person in the Room

I do a lot of speeches and meetings where I'm educating people much older than me on a specific topic. So it's important for me to appear competent, knowledgeable and quite frankly, older than I actually am. Over the past two years, I've learned a few things about fitting in when you're the youngest one in the room. Here are six tips for you to remember.

1. Talk about technology
This is the first time in history that the youngest generation in the workforce has the most knowledge on a very important business topic – technology. This gives Generation Y a ton of advantages that past generations didn't have. We can provide ideas for new marketing techniques and new recruiting strategies, and we can implement these ideas at very little cost. Regardless of whether or not it's true, people assume that if you're in your twenties, you are an expert on technology. The next time you're in a room full of people talking about a topic that's a little over your head, pick the right time to chime in and talk about technology. Explain how Facebook, or blogging or Twitter can help. People will listen because when it comes to technology, you're the expert.

2. Ask questions
When you're the youngest in the room, it's important that you appear confident and competent. But you have to be careful that people don't mistake confidence for arrogance. You're not expected to know everything at 25, and older folks will expect that you're always trying to learn. The best way to show people that you want to learn and that you don't think you know everything is to ask a ton of questions. Be sure the questions are relevant to the topic being discussed, but remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question (only stupid people…just kidding!)

3. When the kid convo comes up, keep your mouth shut
I hate the kid talk. But somehow, someway, a room full of 30 and 40 somethings will ALWAYS end up talking about their kids. Whether its little league, ballet, their latest illness or anything else, my only advice is to nod your head, force a smile, keep your mouth shut and pretend like you're interested. At IBM I made the mistake of chiming in on a few of these, but all I could come up with were old war stories about my little league days. Relating to their kids is a quick way to remind everyone how young you are. Avoid this at all costs.

4. Talk about your weekend fun
This may seem a little counter-intuitive, but I've found that older folks love hearing your weekend party stories. I'm sure it's fun for them to relive the old days of late night parties. Usually they will talk about a few stories of their own, it's a great conversation starter and it allows them to relate to you. This is one case where it actually is ok to show your age because you are relating to the other people in the room, not their kids. Just be sure you don't give too many less than professional details and you'll be fine.

5. Be an expert, but don't flaunt it
You should be an expert in something. There is no excuse for you not to have some sort of specialty or at least a career-specific topic that you are highly interested in. When that topic does come up, it's the perfect opportunity to display all the hard work you've put into becoming an expert. Talk about your ideas and give some background on how you learned about the topic. Just be careful that you don't flaunt your "expert status" too much. Nobody likes a show off.

6. Accept every favor you're offered
In college, I wanted to be a psych major. Turns out, I'm much more into analyzing my own issues then other peoples. But that's beside the point. One thing I learned in a Social Psychology class is that people actually like you more after they do a favor for you. It seems strange, but it's true. And when you're the youngest in the room you probably have the least money and least connections, so if they like you, people will offer you things like sports tickets, introductions to high-powered friends etc. Next time, remember that they want you to accept this favor and they'll actually like you more if you do!

Depending on how you look at it, being the youngest in the room can be a good thing or a bad thing. Some people will never give you a chance if you're under 30, but if you remember these six tips, you'll have a better shot at fitting in with the older crowd.

A New Year, A New Blog (And, Why I'm Doing It)

It's been a long time coming. It started months ago when people started asking why I didn't blog anymore. It sure felt like I was still blogging. And I was, just not on Employee Evolution.

What I realized is that I'm not that passionate about writing on careers anymore. When I was sitting in a cubicle every day it was great, I was living it. But that's just not the air I'm breathing anymore.

Today, I live and breathe community. In retrospect I always have. So as hard as it is to say goodbye to EE—the blog that started it all—I've decided to move into something I can be more passionate about.

I'm feeling a lot like I did during my last semester of college—anxious. I guess that's fitting since I bought my domain (ryanpaugh.com) at about that time.

I was sitting around with a couple or friends—drinking tequila—and talking about what we would be doing after graduation. I decided that it would be a good idea to own my domain name. So I hopped on GoDaddy, whipped out a credit card and made the most intelligent choice I'll probably ever make while drinking tequila.

I squatted on that domain for going on three years. Today, it's finally being debuted: My new bachelor pad on the World Wide Web.

The landing page (ryanpaugh.com) is nothing more than an introduction to who I am, where I've been and what I hope to accomplish through the site. My real focus will be at ryanpaugh.com/blog, where I contribute regular content about personal discoveries, social media and community.

Here are a few things you can come to expect week to week …

Blog posts about community: Online, offline, in popular culture, etc. I'll continue to focus a lot of my attention on Generation Y.

Brazen Community profiles: Every week I'll feature a member of the Brazen Community as part of my continuous quest to bring great Gen-Y voices into the spotlight.

Brazen Community updates: Every week I'll blog (or vlog) about what's going on at Brazen HQ. One of my big goals in 2009 is to bring better streams of communication to our Brazen Community. This is the first step in that process.

Lots of pictures: I love taking them. Now that I'm out meeting the stellar people of the Brazen World, I want to be able to share the experience with all of you.

So now that we've gone over the basics, go subscribe to the site! Leave comments! Your feedback is really important to me, and I'll be making changes based on what you say.

Thanks to everyone who has supported Ryan Healy and I with Employee Evolution. It's really sad to walk away (I feel like I'm neglecting a child), but it's a good decision. Employee Evolution will be a more focused blog, and I'll finally have a place to explore my own passions more deeply.

I hope you'll come and join me for the ride!

*Special thanks to Benjamin Jancewicz and the team at Zerflin. They go above and beyond with their work and I'm happy I had the chance to work with them again. Check them out. They do everything, online and offline.

**And congrats to the Jancewicz family on their new baby boy!

Act Like a Start-up: Ride out The Recession, But Don't Get Too Comfortable

Big News: The economy sucks right now!

And for those of us who need a job and a paycheck to pay our bills, things are certainly getting interesting.

Business Week just published an article stating that November's 6.7% unemployment rate is a full 2% higher than last year at this time, and that number is severely understated. The unemployment number only counts a very specific portion of the population — people who do not have a job, are currently available for work, and have actively sought employment within the last four weeks.

A friend of mine just applied for unemployment and the woman told him that the number of people applying in Madison the past few weeks has been astronomical – she's never seen anything like it. A few of my other friends own a burger joint that was the hottest restaurant in town. Now they're struggling to break even. When college students stop eating burgers and fries, you know something is off.

We're certainly feeling the effects at Brazen Careerist too. Finding funding is about as much fun as sticking needles in your eyes, and we're all adjusting accordingly to keep things going.

Things are bad. But strangely enough, I side with Nadira Hira of Fortune Magazine when she says, "The outcome of the financial crisis may not be a defeated Gen Y, but a more determined one — determined, that is, to follow fulfilling work."

I don't know about you guys, but when I turn on the news to see the doom and gloom of the economy, or when I worry about getting a paycheck, I can't help but think that in the long run, this will make our generation more resilient and better able to handle the challenges we will face in the next 50 years.

And as far as fulfilling work goes, Hira is right on point when she says, "the trifecta of entrapment for the company men of generations past — they'll be harder to corner. Every time they get a paycheck, they'll be wondering if it's their last. And they will always resent a company that uses that paycheck as a shackle."

The advice you read for start-ups tell us that now is the time to settle in and hunker down. It may not be fun, but it's what you have to do. The same advice holds true holds true for individuals, and if there was ever a time to take a less than perfect job that uses "a paycheck as a shackle," just so you can pay the bills, that time is probably now.

But remember, the start-ups and individuals who will survive the worst of times, and emerge better than ever, may appear to the outside world to be "hunkering down" but I guarantee that on the inside their wheels are spinning at a million miles per hour.

So make sure that if and when you settle in to ride this thing out, you never stop planning your next move. Because if you get complacent and wait 'til it's over, you may be too late.

Make Sure Your First Job Provides Plenty of Training (and Fun)

College does not prepare you for your first job. Universities offer too many choices of majors. Students choose liberal arts degrees because they don't have the slightest clue what they want to do with their lives. Parents push their kids to do what they love rather than pushing them to be doctors, lawyers, or business executives like they did in the old days.

You can blame whomever you want, but that's not the point. The point is that an undergraduate degree today is worth about as much as a high school degree was 30 years ago. College is a place to make friends, grow up, and learn how to get work done without someone watching over you.
College does not teach us the ins and outs of the industry where we land our first job, and it certainly doesn't teach us other real-world lessons like how to play office politics, or how to handle being ridiculously busy one week and completely bored the next. Entry level workers are just not as prepared for the real world as they need to be.

But there is a solution. It's called training–lots and lots of training. In fact, if companies want to get real buy-in from their new hires, they should be prepared to provide so much training and mentoring that their entry level workers feel like their first job is really corporate grad school. I recently discovered a company who gets it, and amazingly, they're in my backyard.

Epic Systems of Madison, Wisconsin has taken training to a whole new level. A friend of mine started working there a month ago. She's basically still in college for the next six months – except, it's college with a purpose.

She goes to work every day and takes classes with the other people in her on-boarding group. They have assigned mentors, they do training programs, they listen to experienced employees teach them about the "Epic way," they do daily assignments, they watch funny You Tube clips after lunch, and they even have to pass tests.

The college atmosphere goes beyond office hours. The majority of new hires at Epic are young, and they almost always end up becoming friends with each other. They go to Epic parties; Epic events, and they hang out with each other on the weekends. Everyone I've talked to loves it because it's the perfect transition from college to the real world.

It may sound silly to older employees, but Gen Y grads aren't ready to graduate to a quick 3 days of basic job training, and then a 9 to 5 every day in front of a computer. We're looking for a learning atmosphere at work and social opportunities outside of work. Epic has figured out a way to successfully engage Generation Y by understanding the major disconnect between our generation and corporate America – we're not fully prepared for the real world.

And it's not just me who thinks Epic knows what they are doing. The majority of its employees were hired directly out of college, and they now accept only 2% of the 40,000 to 50,000 applications they receive every year. They were founded with an investment of $70,000 in 1979 and are now a privately held company valued at $1.2 billion. Sure, those numbers are good, but when you consider this is a company located outside of a small Wisconsin city, and they heavily recruit from out of state; those numbers are amazing.

Epic knows that traditional schooling is no longer enough, and they've taken the responsibility to prepare their employees for life in the real world – both personally and professionally. Hopefully other companies will start taking notes.

8 On-The-Job Rules You Unfortunately Can't Learn in College

College is a great place to learn how to work hard, party hard, and make friends. College also teaches us how to live on our own and why debt sucks. But, college doesn't teach us as much about the business world because business in the real world is more about experience, confidence and the network you build. Here are 8 business rules you didn't learn in college.

1. You don't know how to manage yet.
College cannot teach you how to manage. As nice as it would be, managers learn to be great from experience, and that's it. Everyone is different, every situation is different and the only way to be a great manager is to have experiences in your back pocket that you can fall back on when you're faced with a difficult situation. Over the past few months I've learned this first hand by learning to manage on the fly. It's difficult, much harder than I ever expected, and I have a ton of respect for anyone who is great at it. You can take management courses and read management books, but you'll never learn to be a great manager without doing it.

2. Everything's a negotiation.
Negotiations happen nearly every day in business. It's amazing how many situations I've managed through that when I look back on them, I realize were actually a negotiation. Whether it's Business-to-Customer sales, Business-to-Business sales, salary, equity, ordirect report interactions, most of your conversations in the real world will involve some sort of give and take. College can teach you some basic principles, but you're better off getting practice by trying to buy a used car if you want to learn how to negotiate in the business world.

3. Networking has changed.
Unfortunately, colleges are behind the times. You would think with all the money they charge us, they would be ahead of the curve, but they're not. College professors cannot teach you how to create a "new" type of network. New networks are created online, with lots of loose connections, managed with social networking sites like Linked In and Brazen Careerist. You create your network by establishing expertise in your field and gaining visibility with the right people who share the same interests. College might teach you how to network in person, but the new networking is done online, and it's way more complicated and efficient.

4. You must create your own work.
College provides you with assignments, tests, quizzes and projects. Each of these things is handed down from a higher power (your professor) and you are told what's expected of you to earn a good grade. The business world is a whole different game. You will be handed assignments from a higher power (your boss) but there are also a million things you can do to go above and beyond. And if you want to advance in your company, join another company, or start your own, you need to learn how to create your own work, and that work you create must help the bottom line if you want to be considered successful.

5. Work is never done.
I've learned a lot of things since starting Brazen Careerist, but one of the most important lessons I've learned is that the work is never done. No matter how sure you are that you've done everything you can think of, there will always be something else to do when you wake up in the morning. If you're sitting around at 10 pm and you're bored with nothing to do, grab your computer and do a little work. Sure, you could put it off 'til the morning, but I guarantee that when you walk in the doors to the office, you'll have a full plate, no matter how much work you do the night before.

6. All work is not done sitting in front of a computer.
I often feel like I should be doing more work when my day consists of phone calls, meetings and random discussions around the office. And it's true, there is usually a lot of busy work I didn't get done at the end of a day like this, but when you start moving up that proverbial ladder, work becomes less and less sitting in front of a computer, and more and more talking, managing, and brainstorming. In fact, when you get to the point where work is hardly sitting in front of the computer at all, work starts to become a lot more fun.

7. Everyone looks out for themselves.
Some professors may be tough, but in general they all want you to succeed. Sometimes a curve will create a little competition, but for the most part your peers don't care one way or the other if you fail or succeed. The business world is much different. Everyone is looking out for themselves. If you fail, your peers have a better chance of being promoted. If you started a company, people justify their choice to not take the same type of risk by secretly wishing for you not to succeed. The best bosses are supportive, but when it comes down to it, people look out for themselves. In business, you can't trust everyone; it's all on you to succeed.

8. Straight A's will not make you a CEO, only a great entry level employee.
Students with 4.0 GPA's are recognized and honored at graduation and generally admired in school. But I do not want to work for anyone who got straight A's in school. But I would happily hire anyone who got straight A's. Why? Straight A's means you are great at doing the work you are assigned. You study hard, work hard and were rewarded because of that. But leading a company or starting a company requires much more. It requires social skills, vision, and creating work when there is nothing tangible there. It's no surprise that some of the world's top business leaders were college drop-outs-you've got to be a little nuts to believe you can lead a massive organization or create something from nothing. So be wary if your CEO was a straight A student, he's probably in the wrong position.