Man, it just seems like yesterday we were debating about the spoiled Millennials and how that they were the first generation in memory that hadn’t experienced the impacts of a recession or depression. That was 2006-2007. At that time it had been 14 years since a major economic downturn in Canada and anyone in the 18-24 year old range really was too young to remember the last recession. I remember a KPMG recruiter telling me these young people wanted to be Vice Presidents right out of school or they would become bored and disinterested at work. Of course, this was an exaggeration but how times have changed.
Now 50 percent of young people say they are not working in their chosen field. It’s a tough market out there for a lot of young people – particularly in this region of the country.
However, there is a bit of a silver lining here. A little hardship on the front end of your career can be a good thing. I went to Alberta and flipped burgers with an MBA (complete with ponytail) because I couldn’t get a job back here and when I did make it back, I took a three month job at $12/hour (of course that was 1992) and worked my tail off to turn it into a six month job, then a one year job – and then four years – and then on to my current trajectory.
This teaches you the importance of work and not to take it for granted. When employers were lined up for your skills (circa 2004, 2005, 2006) – you don’t get this and it will hamper your career potential possibly for a long time.
And as for chosen career path, most of the interesting people I know never followed that anyway. Work hard, parlay that hard work into career options, keep learning – make yourself indispensable – read, talk to anyone who will listen, build massive networks. You will make out just fine.
Hey, that blog just morphed into career advice.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.