From http://www.medway.gov.uk/

One thing I’ve noticed about life in general is that there seem to be markers along the way. Markers that allow us to take some kind of inventory of our situation and how we’re progressing along the way.

A few weeks ago, I encountered one such marker.

I was sitting in a Sunday morning Athens Church service, listening to Andy Stanley’s message about his summer vacation. Of course, his definition of vacation—at least in this instance—is a little different from other people’s definition.

He and his family went to Rwanda, but his story (and it’s certainly a great message) isn’t exactly the one that’s relevant. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s the timing that’s more important in this instance.

Rewind: A year ago I heard the exact same message at Buckhead Church. I was in an internship that seemed less stimulating than it actually was, for the simple fact that I knew I didn’t want to spend myself in a cubicle.

I was enamored with the idea and the grandeur of Africa, as I had just returned from a 3-week-long study abroad trip in Tanzania, East Africa. I sensed that there was a larger purpose, some larger picture that I couldn’t fulfill by accepting a job offer from the company.

Meanwhile: In the year following, I struggled with what to do with my life. I settled on joining the US Peace Corps, in the hopes that I could help develop small businesses, teach English and conduct HIV/AIDS education sessions in Africa for 27 months. It was perfect.

But the timing wasn’t. Through a series of circumstances, my life plans drastically changed, and I could no longer wait for the Peace Corps to hand me a nomination.

So I returned to the job search.

In the process, however, I was certainly forced to look at the values that I held most dear, the values that I would not compromise in my search.

Here’s a short list of what I discovered—both about myself and about my dream job:

• The personal touch. I realized early on last summer that I wanted to know that I had a positive impact on individuals, not just the bottom lines of large corporations.
• Validation. Call it a Gen Y cliché, but I found that I wanted to know that the company for which I was working valued me. I literally wanted a pat on the back.
• Upward mobility. Not only do I want the opportunity for upward mobility, I want reassurance that it’s actually possible. That others have done it recently and are doing it now.
• Challenge. Above all, I want to come into work out of my comfort zone. I want to delve into topics about which I know absolutely nothing, and I want to succeed at them. Call it personal validation, if you will.

Sure, my internship had a few of these characteristics, but having them all? Much different story.

Fast Forward: Now, a little more than a single year later, I deeply believe that I haven’t found that job about which I was dreaming. But I’ve found a job that has a clear path to the job of my dreams.

I am tackling topics that I never studied in class. I’m meeting people from all around the country. And I’m about to move across the country.

If this isn’t challenging, I don’t know what is.

As I move past this life marker, I have the ability—nay, the gift—of being able to assess my life’s accomplishments and progress. And that’s precisely the key.

Life markers exist to keep us moving forward. To keep us in line. And to keep us on our path to self-improvement and -assessment.

I’ve always heard that those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. But I would counter by saying this:

Life itself will repeat. It will circle back around. Take advantage of those moments, and use them to take stock of your life. Because life repeating itself isn’t a curse, but not progressing in the times between is the real curse.

So, now I’ve encountered a mile marker of sorts in my life. And I truly believe that I have grown—physically, emotionally, mentally—in the meantime.

What life markers have you encountered? Have you learned from them?

 A sampling of Denver’s 79 official neighborhoods (per Wikipedia)

A recurring phenomenon here on the boat is the common introduction. Along with the typical “So, is this your first cruise? Man, it’s cold/wet/gray/retirement-home-like here, isn’t it?” is the inevitable “So, where are you/y’all/youse guys from?”

And I always come to a predicament in that moment.

As much as I was born in Charleston, SC, I don’t remember any of it. I’m not “from” there.

I was raised for my whole memorable life in Madison, AL. But I don’t always feel “from” there either.

I’ve spent the past four years of my life forging my own path in Athens, GA, so that town seems more like home base than any other.

I would never tell people in Athens that I’m from Georgia. Yet I’ve definitely pulled the “I’m from Georgia” line out here on the cruise.

Why? And what does it mean more broadly?

As I ease myself into the workforce, I will again be faced with another possible home base candidate.

The major questions here are these:

• When are you allowed to officially mentally identify yourself with a new location?
• How do you determine where your home base resides?

At this point in my life, my heart is a person. The person with whom I fully intend to spend many, many years of my life.

For others, heart could be a collection of memories. Or a family group. Or friends. Or simply wherever you feel most comfortable in your own skin.

It’s not that I don’t feel comfortable in Madison. It’s not that I don’t have a group of friends back in Athens. It’s that love itself is leading me elsewhere. And, as the heart is always where love is, my sense of home is duly following suit.

So, what is my love in this category?

My love is for adventure. My heart is to make the one I love happy. My love is for work that I can do yet is challenging enough to keep my interest piqued. My heart is to set out on my own, to plant my roots where they can grow for a while.

In short, home is wherever you make it.

Home isn’t simply a place and home isn’t simply a person. Home is a feeling. And that feeling can always involve person, place, thing or idea. Just make sure it starts with the comforting feeling.

And in the context of my work experience…

Home is never where work is. Instead, work should be where home is.

Compliments of Computron.com

I’ve been on an Alaskan cruise for the past few days with my family, not the place or time I was expecting for a blog post idea. Little did I know that my own mom would be the inspiration.

We were at dinner this evening talking about the European quirks of our (Italian) ship, the Star Princess. Things like the décor, the door handles and the deadbolts came up. Then mom shifted the topic to corporate culture with one comment (paraphrased):

“In Europe, company names are treated as plural nouns. But in the US, they are singular nouns.”

In other words, Americans subtly regard companies as whole entities themselves. Europeans seem to instead highlight the plurality of people’s efforts for a task.

Semantics, right? Maybe.

Admittedly looking outside-in (but not for long, I guess) at Corporate America, one of the innate problems in Corporate America is the worship of corporations.

Bear with me here for a few steps, a connect-the-dots perhaps.

Americans worship at the altars of individualism, ambition and materialism. But somewhere along the way we turned individual accomplishments into corporate conglomerates.

The Goldmans of the world—the AIGs, the Bank of Americas, the Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs, the Enrons even—became the objects of our affection. Accomplishments became less about individuals than about ethereal entities. Stock prices and returns on investments elbowed individual fulfillment and satisfaction out of the way.

If you’ve worked for any large company, you’ve doubtless run up against the politics and red tape of corporate processes and SOPs. But the red tape and politics don’t just hinder projects from being completed—they hinder personal advancement and achievement.

Does the satisfaction of a single employee really matter all that much when the denominators are measured in millions of dollars? Probably not, unfortunately.

So do Europeans value the accomplishments and desires of individual employees more than do their American counterparts (as the grotesque leap of logic would imply)? Maybe Probably not.

Has the foundation of capitalistic, individualistic America eroded beyond the point of return? Probably not.

But the idea is worth considering.

Have we become misguided enough as to look beyond each other and to the corporate bottom line? Can we ever tangibly value the contributions of our colleagues? And perhaps most importantly, what could we each do to enhance the individual emphasis on a daily basis?

Here are just a few suggestions from a naïve new hire. Good luck!

• Say thank you. This should go without explanation, but it’s a double-edged sword (in a good way!). Not only does a simple grateful expression brighten up another’s day, it’s a guaranteed personal pick-me-up.
• Check up. Find out how your colleagues’ lives are going. You did know that they don’t sleep, eat and work all in their little cubicle, right?
• Ask around. Ask around. Consult others when you’re making a decision. And take their suggestions into account seriously.
• Remember birthdays. It’s so easy nowadays with Facebook and whatnot, but a simple “Happy birthday” can certainly go a long way.
• Say congratulations. This is MOST important. You know your colleagues are proud when they accomplish something. You know because you’re the same way. So recognize others’ achievements and congratulate them, sometimes subtly but sometimes not.
• Be appreciative. And when someone recognizes you for an achievement or remembers your birthday, thank them. Be humble but not so humble as to make it awkward. Don’t duck away. At least smile and nod.

And, courtesy of Alan Ashley:

• Use common sense. Why is this such a lost art nowadays?
• Think before you speak. Sure it takes a few extra moments, but not as many moments as you’ll have to dedicate to retracting, backtracking and apologizing.

There’s no reason the workplace has to devalue an individual or any individual. How do you keep the personal touch alive at work?

Denver skyline with the Rockies in back (courtesy www.denvergov.org)

Long story short, I interviewed for and (just this past five minutes) accepted a job offer with OnPoint Underwriting in Denver for their Tribal Nations underwriting division.

“Tribal Nations? That sounds vaguely intriguing,” you say as you sigh and roll your eyes.

Actually, it is extremely intriguing. Yes, it is a niche market, but the training programs cuts across all lines of insurance—property, casualty, workers’ compensation, auto liability, you name it.

And I’m joining an office that is being rehabbed from a downward spiral into its formerly market-dominant position. Should be both challenging and fun. There’s a great atmosphere about the company and there’s a great deal of opportunity to be grabbed in the process.

It’s at least a 22-hour trek from Athens to Denver. Google Maps even lists one route as “1 day 0 hour” long.

I’m both excited and terrified of the prospect of moving to Denver—especially without an Ikea—but I’m sure I’ll manage (I’ve already sent the acceptance email, so I guess I have to manage now, right?).

But for now, I’m on vacation, so I’ll get to the nuts and bolts and some other thoughts when I return from…Alaska!

My brother and I at home on Easter 2008

So you probably figured you’d escaped your pre-college summer without any corny older brother “this is how life is” talks. Sorry to disappoint. The following are my random musings on the college life, “finding yourself” and the all-around best (hopefully) years of your life so far. I pray they won’t be the best years of your life—because you’ll have so many more afterward—but I also pray that they far surpass any of your previous years.

My thoughts aren’t really in any order except the order in which they occurred to me out of the blue. Some are a bit humorous, but they all have at least a tinge of gravity. Without further ado, here goes:

1. Always open your car door for a girl, regardless of whether you’re actually dating or not. Word will get around that you’re actually a gentleman and, even here in the South, true gentlemen are few and far between. While you’re at it, open EVERY door for girls. Sure it’ll cost you a few seconds each time, but trust me, it’s worthwhile in the end.

2. Join a church. And be active. It took me more than two years to actually get plugged into a church in which I was truly comfortable and felt welcomed. And the past two years I’ve spent serving every other Sunday and going to a weekly all-guys small group. It’ll keep you grounded and it’ll keep you in the right frame of mind. Get some of your friends to go church-hopping for the first few Sundays of school. Go to brunch/lunch afterward each time, and take the time to compare the merits of each. In the end, stick with whatever makes YOU feel comfortable and welcomed. Then get active.

3. Join a random student group. That’s where you’ll meet most of your new friends at school. Some of them won’t work out—I quit Roosevelt halfway through sophomore year—but you’ll be a better, more well-rounded student and person for it.

4. Get your grades in order. If you have a good foundation for your GPA beginning even the first semester of college, you’ll love having a cushion to play with for your last year or two. Take as many random classes as you can fit into your schedule and still be on track. Again, this will make you more well-rounded, which is the basic reason for going to college in the first place.

5. Don’t stress about your grades. This might sound contradictory to the above suggestion, but when you have to choose between your personal sanity/happiness and a point or two on a test/quiz/project/paper, the choice should be an easy one. And it has nothing to do with GPA, believe me. Know when you’ve simply had enough. If you have the opportunity to broaden your horizons and have a good time, I’d generally encourage you to go do whatever that opportunity is.

6. Really know a few of your professors. Even freshman year I had a few professors that I thought I could count as actual friends. This will happen more with each year, but get the practice underway as soon as you get on campus.

7. EXERCISE. This tip is probably the #1 way to ensure that you stay both sane and happy throughout college. Take some time for yourself. There will be tens of thousands of people to talk to/meet every day, but make sure that you’re in a good frame of mind. Walk to class. Or unicycle. Or run. Go to the gym. It’ll give you time to think things through and an opportunity to vent any frustration/anger you may have. Make it a regular thing. And hey, avoiding that freshman 15 won’t hurt either, right?

8. Branch out. This is the biggest differentiator I’ve noticed between those who love their college experiences and those who don’t: Those who don’t tend to gravitate back to their high school friends. Now, you might note that because I went to UGA, I didn’t really have the option of hanging out with high school friends, but that’s beside the point. I’ve had the opportunity to objectively observe both kinds of people from my perspective, and the ones with the most rewarding experiences have a diverse group of friends. Seek out people from different high schools, different states, different religions, different ethnicities, etc. “Different” is often the best judge of whether someone will be a close friend or not.

And I’ll end on one of my favorite quotes—after paragraphs of rambling that you may or may not have actually read:

“Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you
come alive, then go do that. Because what the world needs is people
who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman, American philosopher

College is your time to come alive. Don’t get too grandiose, thinking that you’ll “find yourself” and all; you’ll only get frustrated by the number of dead ends you encounter. There are more of them then[sic] you can imagine. But the encouraging thing is that every dead end gives you the opportunity to reverse course and take a different turn.

In the end, you’re never going to fully find yourself. What you will find, though, is that “yourself” will be waiting for you around every bend, every fork in the road. And where you get the feeling you’re discovering yourself, know that discovering God can’t be far behind.

The closest I ever came to finding both was in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Zanzibar, with a black storm bearing down on us and a dozen sea urchin spines in my feet. Sounds terrible, but it was the most transcendent experience of my life. And the crazy thought that occurred to me in those moments was that I had somehow been waiting for myself out there in the ocean. And that God was wading there with me, pushing and tugging all along. I know…strange.

A few semesters ago, I had to write a so-called purpose statement for myself and my life plan. It’s pretty corny, but I spent a lot of time on it, and it means a lot to me. Call me audacious and/or presumptuous, but I believe that if you take these words to heart, you’ll find yourself down the road living a fulfilling life.

Love with conviction, pursue with passion;
Persevere with integrity, succeed without agenda.

Remember, it’s not all about you. But sometimes…it mostly is. Guard your heart, your emotions, your sanity and your happiness most of all.

As Aldous says in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, “Don’t let them grind you down.”

I love you and wish you the best in this amazing time of your life. I’m excited to see you on the other side.

Time and again in the job search, I’ve found that the most effective method of either getting an interview or just a meeting with a prospect, it’s by letting other people do the work for me.

In the job search it’s called networking. In the management world it’s called delegating. In other aspects of life it’s called laziness.

But it’s nothing of the last one.

Ever used Google© Search before? How about the Yellow Pages©? Remember the movie Pay It Forward? These are all variations on the same idea.

Establish a team for yourself. Position yourself as the captain or leader of the team.

Talk to as many people as you can, because the more people you recruit to your camp, the more people you have—literally—working for you.

Each person to which you give your résumé to shop around, each person that you casually hand a business card, each person that you meet over a cup of coffee. These are all people playing on your team.

The good thing is that your amount of inputted efforts doesn’t grow exponentially

In effect, you’re multiplying (maybe even exponentially) your reach, your influence and your possibilities.

In general, you’ll find (at least I’ve found) that there is one benefit of the current down economy: People in whatever industry in which you’re interested—insurance and real estate, personally—is much more generous with their time.

A few weeks ago I met with a partner at a niche insurance brokerage house in Atlanta for a few hours. He is the father of a good friend of mine, and he was tremendously generous with his time helping us in our group capstone project.

I was pissed off after a terrible career fair in the neighborhood as they say, and stopped by one afternoon to his office. He passed me off to a young analyst during his conference call, but afterward welcomed me in and spoke with me
for nearly two hours about my job prospects, the industry and my dreams.

It was incredibly refreshing and invigorating to know that, while many places still aren’t hiring, the people in the jobs realize that college grads need connections now more than ever.

Another thing going for us (Gen Yers and recent college grads, specifically) is that the last vestiges of the Baby Boomers—the ones hiring us (or not) nowadays—entered the workforce in much the same economic time.

Simply put, they understand how we feel.

They realize they won’t be around indefinitely to run their companies.

And they know that our generation has the potential to successfully take the reins in just a few short years.

Besides, we’re the ones who’ll be supporting them in their collective retirement anyway.

So to all you still looking for jobs—myself included—make the calls, send the résumés, buy the coffees, do whatever it takes.

If the hiring managers can’t be generous with their hirings, they probably have available time.

Take advantage of it. Recruit the recruiters. Talk to friends. Talk to family.

Get others to do what you could do yourself…but more effectively and more efficiently.

Just don’t be lazy.

I’ve recently found that a job-less summer has been a benefit in some ways. Other than the fact that I’ve gotten regular about my workout routine, I’ve also been able to clean up my computer a bit.

Above is a screenshot of my desktop after reading and practicing this post from Leo at Zen Habits.

Premise: Your mind will be more at ease and you can be more productive if you don’t have a lot of clutter at your workstation, which for most people nowadays, is their computer.

Have you ever found yourself becoming distracted because you simply have so much stuff available right on your desktop? Ever sat at the computer hoping to find something that’ll occupy some time? Ever become frustrated at filing systems and organization? Ever been stressed out simply by looking at your desktop?

I know I could’ve answered “yes” to all of these questions just a week ago. But then I actually read the post I’d been saving and decided that now was the time.

Execution: Throw everything away…into your hard drive. Get rid of it from your desktop. Delete if you have to. Backup where you can. Axe just about everything off your menu bar—I just have application-specific menus, the clock, battery status icon and Spotlight. And for Macs especially, CLEAN UP YOUR DOCK! Auto-hide it immediately, and slice as much fat off the bone as you can. And, most important of all, free yourself from your mouse/trackpad.

I downloaded QuickSilver for Mac, and now everything on my computer is literally at my fingertips. And I don’t even have to leave my keyboard. It’s incredible and freeing.

It’s a fairly intimidating and eye-opening process to be sure. But now, when I look at my computer, I can breathe a sigh of relief. No longer do I feel forced to open an application simply because I see its icon. No longer do I have to shuffle through my inane folder system.

I used to have almost two dozen apps and icons and folders on my Dock. Now I have QuickSilver for my own use and easy links to apps that others use when they borrow my laptop. If not for this bit of generosity, I’d simply have Finder, Downloads, QuickSilver and Trash.

So what does this have to do with my job search or Gen Y or anything at all?

Well, this process—and Tim Ferriss—taught me that I don’t need to manage my time per se; I need to manage my attention.

You see, I believe my attention is valuable (invaluable?). It’s mine to do with as I please, and I need to ensure that I maximize my use of it. When I get to the point that I have to manage my time, I’m attempting to do too much. Doing one thing—okay, a small handful of things—at once allows me to focus my attention for a specific time. Much more effective, happy and fulfilling.

Navigating folder systems, cluttering my desktop and getting unnecessarily stressed don’t fit into this model.

In today’s world of technology and information, we are all constantly assaulted with words, ads, knowledge, do-this, do-that, etc. This is the world Gen Yers have grown up in. And we’ve all heard that college is the period when we learn time management. Time management separates adults from kids.

[Aside: How many of you have had to answer a question about your proficiency in time management in an interview? I definitely have. The most recent time—for the Peace Corps—I turned the question around and talked about attention management and how I hated the term “time management.” It was awkward, unexpected and yet refreshing from the recruiter’s point of view. What recruiter doesn’t want to hear that you commit yourself fully to activities, anyway? But I digress…]

You do have to prioritize, and attention management is the ultimate prioritization exercise. You separate the wheat from the chaff, and believe me, you’ll find that you have an enormous amount of chaff to discard and/or ignore.

It’s certainly a different way of thinking, and I’d encourage you to head over to Zen Habits for more such insights. Your own computer desktop is a great starting point. It’s the basis behind the design of this blog, which should seem pretty spare comparatively.

In the meantime, Forgetting Sarah Marshall hit it on the head with the “do less” ethos (turn up your volume, it’s quiet):

Or is there something more? Does the ‘Y’ have some other meaning?

I think the ‘Y’ is an abbreviation of the most inquisitive question of all: “Why?” Because that fairly defines my generation.

If you’ve read any articles about us (if I can be so presumptuous as to speak generally), you’ve probably read some not-so-flattering things:

1. We have an overarching sense of entitlement
2. We regularly disrespect authority
3. We aren’t willing to “put our time in” if it means sacrificing our goals and dreams
4. We “want to work, but…don’t want work to be [our] life”
5. We’re self-absorbed and spoiled.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

But I have some issues with this list, and I’ll illustrate them in a similar format:

1. We are uncompromising in our belief that we—and allpeople—deserve certain entitlements
2. We require authority to be both earned and proven, sometimes several times over
3. We don’t see value in spending our productive, energetic years dealing with unhappiness and deadends
4. We desire a paycheck, but desire a fulfilling life much more
5. We believe we each have value and should increase it and use it.

This list is by no means exhaustive of my thoughts on Gen Y, but it encompasses them pretty well.

Basically, Gen Yers may come off as arrogant, but that’s because we believe that we matter. We have a lot to offer—both experience- and ability-wise—and we’re trying to get our prospective employers to recognize that.

“Generation Y has a lot of experience?” you may ask. And I would heartily say, yes.

Here’s a short list of things we’ve experienced in our collective, cogent lifetimes:

• The worst “military” attack on American soil to date (9/11)
• One of the worst natural disasters and possibly theworst response to it in American history (Hurricane Katrina)
• The explosion of connectedness globally via social networking and technology in general (see Twitter, Facebook, smartphones, “sexting” and the like)
• Two major economic recessions (after 9/11 and currently)
• Bursting bubbles, in real estate, the dot-coms, investing, you name it
• Diversity in the Presidential suite (Barack Obama).

Could you blame us if we’re a little cynical in our worldview?

And we’ve certainly been paying attention. These are a taste of the events that have shaped our worldview. We haven’t been sitting idly by, believe me. All the proof you need is the Young and New Voter turnout numbers from the 2008 Presidential election.

But “cynical” is not one of the words I would use to describe us. I would counter that with “resilient” and even “idealistic.” We’ve weathered these storms (no pun intended…mostly) and we’re ready to show what we’ve learned from them.

Now, “idealistic” is a funny word in this sense. The root is obviously “ideal,” and I have definitely heard Gen Y accused of either having no ideals or not sticking firmly enough to them. Guilty as charged. But not completely.

Our ideals are our ideals. And the way we deal with and handle them is unique when compared to previous generations.

We aren’t dogmatic. We aren’t static. We’re a dynamic group, always searching for new information and always searching for a different perspective. We don’t hold fast to the same ideals constantly because we are quick to realize that things become outdated.

So we change. We adapt. 

But the ideals that we will always hold on to are held in the essence of my list above. We matter. Our votes matter, our voices matter. Most of all, our dreams matter. And they matter most of all to ourselves.

So if you’re wondering how to court the new crop of Gen Yers into the workforce, into a social circle, onto a church softball team, hold tight to this:

We’re willing to prove our worth…if you’re willing to prove yours. We want to work for it, and we want you to work for it. We just need to know we matter from the outset.

If you embrace that, you’ll be able to pull enormous results from our enormous potential.

PS: Here’s the most famous group to talk about their generation. I guess we’re not that original. Definitely worth watching the intro. It’s an…explosive performance.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T (partially)

There are so many choices and decisions that I sometimes find my head spinning.

And I realized that my life becomes more organized and manageable if I put it into words. Since I can’t convince anyone to be on call as it were to listen to me, I decided that writing my thoughts would have to suffice.

At this point I had to decide whether to write another blog, or to keep it personal. While I do like looking at my own handwriting, the impersonal personality of a dynamic blog breeds, if not accountability, at least a sense of community and togetherness.

So join the conversation. Chime in.

If you’re in the business world, post some advice. I’ll listen.

If you’re in the job search, contribute some updates and/or experiences. I’ll commiserate or congratulate.

In the end, we’re all in this together, no matter on which side of the equation you rest. My generation is a generation of ambition and idealism. And we’re just trying to find our launching pad—or our hunting grounds, in keeping with the overall theme.

I can’t promise any results as we go along. But I can certainly promise that I’ll be doing my best to illustrate my thoughts and update my progress.

We’re hunting our unicorns, and everyone’s invited.