Quarter Life Crisis

The quarter life crisis is part of being a member of generation Y in a developed country such as the US, UK, Canada or Australia. Generation Y was born between 1980 – 2000, which makes us 9-29 years old as at 2009.

Generation Y is also referred to as ‘Echo Boomers’, as we are the children of Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomers were teenagers and young adults during the 60′s and early 70′s and were active participants in a larger movement toward social liberalism in the Western World. They redefined traditional values such as attitudes toward sex, homosexuals, racial minorities and particularly the family. One major shift in familial values were attitudes toward child rearing.

Baby Boomer parenting represented a shift toward pro-child parenting models that valued positive reinforcement, active participation and focusing large amounts of attention on child development.

‘Blaming’ children, slapping and yelling at them became increasingly taboo.

We are also known as the ‘trophy generation’ due to the fact that we were rewarded with certificates and recognition for even the most mundane achievements such as ‘participation awards’ – at times even awarded to last place.

Child development theory emphasised teaching us that we were unique and special, and that we had the potential to achieve anything. We learned that we were the best, and that we had bright futures at the top waiting for us.

The effects of Boomer parenting can now be seen in documented studies on Generation Y in the workforce – we are impatient and fickle, and we are unlikely to stay in the same position for more than two years. Gen Y expectations on promotions and experience have been cited as widely unrealistic by their direct managers.

The other problem has been the increasing access to higher education institutions. Youth unemployment is at historical highs for college graduates in the US.
Although quite low in Australia, only a small percentage of university graduates are able to get into formal graduate programs in their area of interest eg one of the big 4 banks might offer 80 positions and have 7000 applications.

There is a gap between what our generation thinks we are individually capable of, and what we actually become when we hit our 20′s. Too many business students have dreams of working on wall street than actually do, and too many law students think they’re going to walk right into a white shoe firm on 70k in their first year than actually have the ability to.

This cognitive dissonance of disappointment is the cause of people in their 20′s reflecting on what else they should be doing. Perhaps 40 years ago, it would be virtually unheard of that someone could graduate from college, not find a job in their field and end up working at Starbucks or doing semi-skilled office work. A lot of people are still living in that mentality, under the impression that, surely, they are worth more than this?

Aka Generation Y

What should we call our generation?

Here are the most common labels (in order):

1) Generation Y

2) Millenials

3) Net Generation

4) Echo Boomers

5) Generation Next

I think ‘Gen Y‘ is a misnomer, as it implies some sort of continuation from Gen X. In some ways all generations are a continuation from the preceding one, I don’t see why we need to highlight these particular two. Further, the ‘X’ actually stands for something – the disenfranchised, disaffected and anti-establishment youth mindset during the 1980′s and early 1990′s (Douglas Coupland, Jeff Gordinier). Generation ‘Y’ doesn’t tell us anything except that we came after X. Anyway, what are we going to do after Gen Z?

Millenials is a little better, although it doesn’t capture anything inherent about us, only that our teenage and coming of age years straddled the new millennium.

Echo Boomers is another flawed description. A lot of what shapes our generation is derived from the pro-child, treating-children-as-adults, positive re-enforcement upbringing our boomer parents gave us. But then why don’t we call Gen X the Echo Traditionalists? No.

Generation Next – no again.

Net Generation is probably the best of a bad bunch. Networking and social integration through technology is probably the single largest unifying theme of our generation – and not just in the Western World, but also developing countries as well.

Generational demographics is a tricky business. It’s a clumsy segmenting tool, and demographers are apt to making descriptions that are too specific. For example, Tamara Erickson in Plugged In attributes the rise in single motherhood and female labour force participation without modern support facilities such as day care centres as factors leading to the emergence of latch key kids in Gen X – a generation that grew up independent and distrustful of adults and elders. Of course, not every family was family, and not every mother decided to go to work. I find the danger of that characterisation to be the identification of a trend, and not a rule. What is not often written about Gen X is the no doubt substantial number of teenagers in that period who did not share those identified experiences.

On the other hand, the internet has created perhaps the greatest commonality of experience for young people today across western and developing countries, as well as socio-economic backgrounds. ‘Commonality of experience’ should be interpreted widely though – I don’t mean that everyone has a unibody macbook and uses Facebook. Rather, that the scope and reach of internet technologies is either directly or indirectly changing the lives of more people in our generation than any other single characteristic has in other generations.

 

How to write a cover letter for a graduate job

I hate cover letters about as much as answering online application questions.

Here are some general tips:

1) 1 page long.

2) Serif font, 12 pt.

3) Address the HR contact’s name if available. If not, then Sir/Madam is fine.

4) Minimise fluff. Get to the point and keep your intro short.

5) Submit the file as a pdf unless otherwise indicated.

Be aware of structure. Intro should address the specific program you are applying for, your degree/uni. If you have a solid achievement that will stand out, include that in the intro eg HD/D average, uni medallist, first in a course relevant to the program.

In the second paragraph, address your motivation to work in the industry, in that field and for that organsisation. This is a chance to show you have done research – eg that you know they are the market leader, have the most innovative engineering department, have won industry awards, or have a particularly comprehensive training program. Be as specific as possible. Don’t say you are attracted to money. Their graduate website should have some list in their marketing outlining why YOU should want to work their. Basically repeat what they said, in your own words, and back it up with an example.

In the third paragraph, demonstrate what you can offer by addressing the criteria the company outlines on its grad website. Continue onto the fourth paragraph with an additional attribute. Back up every claim you make with an example, and the result of your actions if possible.

Conclude with a simple “Thank you for taking the time to consider my application, and I look forward to discussing it with you further”.

This should give you enough space fit a meaningful body between the intro and conclusion into a single page, plus all your contract details at the top.

Graduate Job Guide Part 2: Online Applications

My advice is to apply to as many programs  you are interested in, and eligible to work for as possible. If you want to work in IT consulting, don’t stop at Accenture. Apply for IBM, Microsoft, KPMG as well. You would expect the big 4 banks to have roughly equal expectations of grads – but I was rejected for 2, made it to the next stage for one, and made it to the final interview for the other. The program I received an offer for and eventually chose to go with was an application I made at the last minute because I happened to casually hear about it from a friend. Think about every application as the one that could change your life.

What you have to understand is that the online application stage is all about time and process management. It’s not hard to fill in these online forms – just really long and tedious. Turn on firefox autofill – it will help save your sanity.

Make sure you have a plan on tackling these applications. Go to the graduate opportunities website and copy/paste the page that lists all the closing dates into a word document. Delete the programs you programs you are not interested in/are not eligible for. GO will not have every program listed on that page, so flick through the GO and Unigrad booklet for missing programs you want to apply for. Now cross reference with the list of employer attendees at the Big Meet/UNSW careers fair (this will have the largest selection of private sector programs) and the ANU (largest selection of public sector programs). Check those company’s closing dates on their website. You should end up with a very comprehensive, personalised list of companies to apply for over a 3-4 month period.

It’s important to be aware of the closing dates timeline by company. Now, after giving some thought to it, you should have some idea of which companies/programs you really want, programs that are ‘hmm… could be interesting’, programs that are ‘backups’. Now rank your list of companies 1-3: ’1′ being the most desirable to you.

Examples from my list:

1: Proctor and Gamble, CBA, NAB, ANZ, Westpac, Qantas, DFAT, IBM, BAT

2: Aldi, AusAid, Big 4 Accounting, BlueScope Steel, BHP, Dept of Broadband and Communications

3: National Foods, State Government Programs, DAFF, Mccain

Now, you have to be realistic about timelines and expectations. While some online applications can take 20 minutes, I would budget for up to an hour – reading their website, understanding what kind of attributes they are look for, etc. Make sure you are aware you are eligible to apply as well – some companies specify 65+, credit average, citizen, PR, etc. I did succeed in getting past the first stage of NAB though with a 63.7 average when they specified 65+ – ring them to make sure it’s not a hard cutoff, because you don’t want to waste time with applications that scan for eligibility. Now, start applying as soon as possible. Make a new list of the companies you want to apply for starting first with level 3 companies. Make sure you can apply for everything within their closing date.

The reason you should start with level 3 companies is practice. Online questionnaires will ask you things like ‘Give me a time when you had to manage a team’. A lot of people find it hard to answer this question because they weren’t president of the Law Student’s Society or Captain of the college footy team. The fact is that you are likely to have ‘managed’ a person or a team more often than you realise. Think more broadly about work, university, social activities. The answers for your first application will likely be rubbish. After your 5th, you will probably have discovered your strongest examples of communication, leadership, teamwork and problem solving (the big 4 soft skills). Unfortunately, you can’t just copy/paste answers since the questions are always worded just a little different. I found that I would just rewrite them from scratch anyway, however the repetition of outlining the same skills and examples allows you to become very good at structuring answers. Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) as much as practical. Get to the point, and don’t fluff around. Think about the poor HR rep who has to read thousands of the same dribble. They want you to get to the point, not fluff around with introductory crap. Back everything up with an example as much as practical. When you read your answer back to yourself, don’t just think about what you’ve written, but think about how it would look in the context of thousands of other applications.

What you have to realise is that probably 70%+ of responses use too much fluff – space filling diatribes of prose claiming ‘Strong skills in team work, dedication and leadership through consistent motivation to achieve excellence’. This doesn’t say anything tangible about you, and you may as well have left the space blank. Write about real experiences, real achievements and the results you were able to achieve.

Follow the above rules to stand out of the crowd. Double check everything because bad grammar and spelling can lead to an automatic rejection. Print the pages out if possible. I can’t emphasise the importance of standing out from the crowd enough, especially at the online application stage. This becomes less of a concern in later stages such as interviews where it’s not so much about the quality of your achievements (albeit still relevant), rather, how well you communicate your thought processes, and the way you handle pressures, team mates, etc. For example, a person who did vac work for a big 4 firm doesn’t have a huge advantage over someone who worked at KFC over the summer.

Tailoring

My final point is the importance of understanding and writing to your audience. It makes things easier if you have a range of different experiences. As I have a law/commerce degree, I applied to both marketing roles, and more policy/analyst oriented roles such as the APS. I have had a lot of experience in retail sales which was very good for marketing, and I had some experience as a paralegal and doing research work. While most skills you display in work can be transferable across different roles and organisations, take examples that make a ‘best fit’ to a particular application. Treat each application separately and actually think about what you are writing, don’t just rewrite the same experiences over and over again – tailor them. This is where the timeline planning comes in handy. Do not leave all your applications to the last minute. Allocate 1 or 2 per night. Anymore, and you will be burned out and bored – your mind will be on auto pilot and the last applications will be rush jobs. I did a bit of this at the start, and saw some of my friends just writing anything to fill in the boxes to get their apps in on time. What a waste. Plan. Plan. Plan. Give yourself enough time.

In conclusion, succeeding at online applications is 50% time management, 45% solid, succinct question answering and 5% tailoring.

Graduate job guide – part 1

This is part 1 of  series of guides on my experience on getting a grad position in Australia.

Background:

I completed my final year of university in 2009, and began my search for a graduate position at the start of the year – smack bang in the middle of the GFC. I applied for 36 formal programs, made it to intermediate or final stages for about 20 of those, and received 4 verbal offers. I am confident I would have received more offers if I had not pulled out on some of the final interviews. I was very fortunate in that I was able to take a very light course load in 2009, and thus could dedicate a lot of time to the recruitment process. I have a law/commerce (marketing) degree from a g8 university. I did not apply for any law firms. I have a credit average with 1 fail and several withdrawals, average work experience (no internships) and less than average extra-curricular. I applied for marketing/business – generalist/generalist roles across the private and public sector.

The Basics

In general, grad programs are the best employment opportunity a new graduate can obtain for the following reasons:

1) Guaranteed employment following graduation

2) You are likely to be working for a major national or international organisation with considerable brand weighting

3) Most companies view grad programs as talent and leadership pipelines, providing a fast track to junior or middle level management following the completion of the program

4) Structured training programs, often with a focus on learning across functions to provide a holistic experience of the organisation

Finally, I think there is a big advantage to starting work with a cohort of recent grads in the same program – it’s a natural networking opportunity, and companies are increasingly trying to work in a Gen Y appeal to their recruiting and training.

Because of these benefits, competition is extremely fierce. Only a minority of students who apply for such programs actually get in. Programs for the big 4 banks offer between 50-100 positions, but will receive between 2,000 – 6,000 applications.

Only a handful of firms require a distinction or above, notably the investment banks and management consultancies. I didn’t apply to these firms because I knew I wouldn’t have a chance.

The Recruitment Process

Nearly all programs won’t start opening up until February. March/April/May are the big months. By the end of July, most have already closed. The order roughly seems to be: prestigious firms first: IB’s -> consultancies -> big 4 accounting. Big industrials are somewhere around the middle, then the public service. Typically, you will go through 5 stages for each firm. It is a prolonged and time-consuming process if you are taking the shotgun approach and applying for as many as you are eligible. The stages are:

1) Resume/online application

2) Short telephone interview

3) Online/onsite aptitude testing (numerical reasoning/language comprehension/logical reasoning)

4) Assessment Centre

5) Final Interview

Each stage culls down the applicant pool from 1000+ applications to just a handful invited to attend a final interview. Some companies don’t use all five, number 3 is sometimes integrated into the assessment centre stage.

In following posts I will detail what you can expect at each stage.