Advice Gen Y is Sick of Hearing

Posted on 05/26/10 in Blog, 10 Comments

Hey other generations – I so appreciate your advice, but there are a few things you tell my peers and me that I am just sick of hearing.

Make your online profiles appropriate. As a senior in college, I sought job search advice from a communications professor who I thought understood social media. Her advice to help me find a digital marketing position was to “make sure my Facebook profile was clean.” I tried not to laugh.

I understand Gen Y needs to be informed about online privacy, particularly with recent privacy changes, but PLEASE stop telling Gen Y this. Trust me, we get it. People post things to Facebook because they want others to see it. If a person’s profile is professional, it’s because they care about how they are portrayed. If they have drunk pictures of themselves, they intentionally posted them and probably do not care you see them. This is so 101 and not advice you should be giving to a senior. If a student doesn’t understand this by senior year, there is little hope for them.

Find a job on Twitter. I cannot count how many times I have heard this advice and I think it’s great, but the problem is there is no follow-up. That is why many of my peers get frustrated with Twitter because they think that they can just create a profile, tweet “I need a job” and bam, employment magically happens!

The problem with this advice is that it needs to be better explained to Gen Y (especially younger Millennials). If you leave out the part about relationship building and listening, you are doing Gen Y a disservice by offering this incomplete advice. Do not assume all Gen Y’ers “get it.” Just because they know how to sign up for an account, does not mean they know how to use the tool to network. I appreciate when there is more detail to this advice like in Heather Huhman’s article.

Make sure your résumé is mistake free. No one is putting mistakes in their résumé on purpose. More constructive advice is to tell Gen Y to have multiple people to look at their résumé. Instead of giving generic advice – offer to be one of the people to review their resume for them.

To practice what I preach, if you would like me to give you feedback on your résumé, you can send it to me at Gina (dot) Bericchia (at) gmail (dot) com. Please put “review” in the subject and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

I hope no one is sick of hearing what I have to say yet!

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About the Author

Gina Bericchia is a student of life and social media. She is a writer and Generation Y blogger. She graduates from Otterbein College in June 2010 with degrees in Public Relations and English.

Visit Gina Bericchia's Website
  • http://www.ntprssa.wordpress.com Lizzie

    “Instead of giving generic advice, offer to be one of the people who review their resume for them” Couldn't agree more.

    Is it me, or does it always seem that the people who have the most advice to give Gen Y aren't people you'd want to model your career after anyway?

    It's really getting to be too much with the advice, and I find myself over-thinking everything from the constant stream of “Gen Y is this, Gen Y is that…” My mind automatically now goes, “I don't wanna do that, that's typical Gen Y…” But really, some of those traits they hate about us are what make us awesome employees.

  • http://www.yesthatjill.com Jill

    Great list! Here are some other ones I could do without:

    - Network. No one ever qualifies this, and as you said about Facebook, if we don't know this, we never will.
    - Engage on social media! Another no-brainer that fails to address anything important.
    - You need a video resume/visual resume/whatever new fad. No, I don't. I need LinkedIn, or maybe a personal website.

  • Joette Andrews

    You are dead-on with your post! Professionals are constantly offering the same advice and at this point, college students who are serious about their career have caught on. You make a great point about Facebook – those posting crude or questionable things on their pages are doing it for a reason so that others will see it. I wish that professionals shared more about online etiquette and how to properly use tools such as Twitter and Blogs. Thank you for speaking up for our generation! :-)

  • http://genynetworking.com/2010/05/advice-gen-y-should-hear-the-employer-perspective/ Advice Gen Y Should Hear: The Employer Perspective | GenYNetworking.com

    [...] there! Like what you read? There's much more for members!Powered by WP Greet Box WordPress PluginGina’s GenYNetworking.com post last week about the advice that Gen Y doesn’t want to hear about job searching seemed to strike [...]

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks so much for adding to this list, Jill. I concur.

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks for your comment, Joette. I'll speak up for our generation anytime – that's what I'm here for. :)

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks for your comment, Lizzie.

    I love this. > “Is it me, or does it always seem that the people who have the most advice to give Gen Y aren't people you'd want to model your career after anyway?” I have been given great advice from professionals, but sometimes it just sounds so generic and yes, occasionally I take notes on what not to do. :)

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks so much for adding to this list, Jill. I concur.

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks for your comment, Joette. I'll speak up for our generation anytime – that's what I'm here for. :)

  • ginabericchia

    Thanks for your comment, Lizzie.

    I love this. > “Is it me, or does it always seem that the people who have the most advice to give Gen Y aren't people you'd want to model your career after anyway?” I have been given great advice from professionals, but sometimes it just sounds so generic and yes, occasionally I take notes on what not to do. :)