It’s a simple question, it’s a question worth asking, and it’s a question Gen Why wants YOU to answer.

The Gen Why Media Project is a movement towards hope.  Their mission is to bring the Generation Y population (ie: the tech-savvy generation born after Generation X that currently includes teenagers to those in their thirties) together, and work to make the world a better place.  The Project is working on a ‘crowd-sourced story of future’ – and wants you to add your two-cents.

Visit the Gen Why website: genwhymediaproject.com and start asking, and answering, some questions of your own.

Also, be sure to check out Gen Why’s newest video that accompanied the Gen Why TEDx Vancouver talk in November 2010.  The poem is written by Jonathan Reed, and the video features our own Sean Aiken!

“When Jedding first graduated from college he went into a bookstore looking for “THE” book – a book that would tell him all the things he didn’t learn in school, how to get a job, how to navigate friendship and love, how to maintain a good relationship with family and above all, how to stay cool.”

Unfortunately, no such book existed at the time. Fortunately, Jedding was inspired to write such a book.

Kenneth Jedding is the author of HIGHER EDUCATION: On Life, Landing a Job and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach you in College. For 10 years, he has lectured as a career counselor and life coach at colleges and universities across America. He is currently a psychoanalyst.

I recently had the chance to catch up with Kenneth and ask him some questions about his new book HIGHER EDUCATION and his opinions on life after graduation.

I hope you get a lot out of his great insights, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section!

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1. Generation Y is often characterized as being lazy, entitled, and generally a lost generation refusing to grow up. Having spoken and worked with many Gen-Y’ers, what is your opinion on their work ethic and how do you see Gen-Y contributing to the working world

Good question. Complicated question.

Gen Y has a bad reputation, as you mentioned, but I think your description masks a larger truth. You’re a transitional generation. In the 80′s and 90′s, the world evolved into what it’s going to be for the next century. The new modes of communication were your baseline. For you, that’s just how life is. So your perception of time is futuristic. But I think in many ways the world is still in the old time mode, so there’s what I’d call generational jet lag. This comes off as laziness. But it might just be that you can’t believe that non-electronic life is so slow.

I think the Y’s reaction to life, what you called not growing up, reflects a different wiring. To give an example, when I was 18 I had a French girlfriend I met while backpacking. We wrote three snail mail letters a week. It was very fun and sexy, but it existed mostly in our heads and imaginations. If we did it now we’d be on Skype: it would be a hundred times cooler though still long distance (i.e. no physical touch or sex.)

But how can you go from one time orientation to the other? Say, from having a friend, or a boyfriend or girlfriend in China and keeping up with each other moment to moment–to: the slower time scheme of starting an entry level job when it seems nothing is happening, and they ask you to fetch coffee! It’s easy to get discouraged and to say: Why bother?

You asked about the work ethic. Work has a puritanical connotation. Sounds too much like work. Let’s say career instead.

Having a career you enjoy will make life more interesting. There aren’t many other ways to do it. I think we grow up thinking “All I need to be happy is money, stuff, and love,” but career needs to be with love at the top of the list. It’s one of the ways to feel truly good about yourself, excited about life, and, one of the best ways to make money.

We’re told we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to, the American Dream et al, but I think 9 out of 10 people who make big money love their jobs. As I discuss in the book, most people figure out what they love by trying things out. That’s a slow process for every generation but for Y’s it must feel like walking underwater.

You’re wired for things that are real in the moment. Work starts out being unreal in the moment.

I believe Gen Y’s have a ton to contribute, and, if they can forge through the initial b.s. of the work world, and trust the process even when things seem to be moving forward in super slow-motion, they’ll work as hard as anyone else, and will reap the psychological, spiritual and financial rewards.

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2. In HIGHER EDUCATION you provide some great techniques to find your passion. Do we need to find our passion in order to be happy at work?

Yes. But it’s a trick question. If you’re a violinist and you play the violin out of college, you’re onto your passion–but even violinists may not feel happy at first. Or, say, if you make it to the NBA, it’s definitely a passion.

More to the point, for most people passion opens up incrementally. It doesn’t feel like passion at first.

The Dream: I’ll love what I do.

The Process: I’ll start doing things to get closer and closer to what I love (i.e. start using more and more skills) and find my way to real passion at work.

You’re one week job project was so interesting, Sean. You were writing about having the courage to begin.

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3. In your opinion, why is that Gen-Y is putting off entering the real world after graduation – generally taking longer to leave their parents home, get married, start a family, and choose a career?

College costs more, leading to more debt and to living at home. I talk a lot about dealing with parents in the book.

As for getting married & starting a family, I think it’s good to get to know yourself first, so waiting is not necessarily a bad thing.

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4. You mention several examples of people who were very successful by not focusing on the money and simply doing what they love. I always questioned, “Well, what if the money doesn’t come?” In pursuit of our ideal job, how do you suggest we cope with those difficult times when our fears and self-doubt surface and we question if we’re doing the right thing?

Money can come in unexpected ways. The best way for you to make money may not be in the traditional “money” areas, as I discuss.

And yet: some careers don’t pay much. Like being a teacher, working with the mentally challenged, or being a coach (unless you make it to the top in any of these areas).

What if one of those non-money professions would truly make you happy? Then it’s a good idea to go for it.

Let me put it this way: If you’re born to be a teacher and you do a mental two-step (It doesn’t pay much so it’s off the list) you may be walking around numb and confused, telling yourself “I don’t know what I want to do,” but you actually know.

It’s easy to fear “I won’t make a lot of money doing x or y,” rather than trying to make just enough money in a field you love. Money is nice, for sure, but so is empowerment, being on your path, feeling confident, radiating energy that attracts others, and liking yourself. And there are many ways to get there.

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5. I recently read a NY Times article in which a recent college grad struggling to find work was offered a job paying $40K at an insurance company. He turned it down saying that he’s holding out for the job that feels right for him. Would you recommend waiting for that perfect job, or is it more important to get into the workforce?

I don’t recommend waiting for the perfect job. That makes me laugh, Sean, thinking of what you did.

Perfect’s a dangerous word. I like the Leonard Cohen poem:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in

We learn things in unexpected places and those things prepare us for more unexpected moments.

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6. What one piece of advice do you wish someone shared with you when you graduated from college?

I wish someone had told me that, over time, things would work out.

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Kenneth Jedding’s book, HIGHER EDUCATION: On Life, Landing a Job and Everything Else They Didn’t Teach you in College, was published April 2010 by Rodale Books and is available for purchase through the above link to Amazon.com.

I invited my mom, sister, and baby niece to come along too. We stayed a few minutes from Time Square, and The Empire State Building. We had a wonderful time (yes, wonderful) visiting the different areas of Manhattan on a double decker tour bus, learning many tidbits about the city we would have never known. It was a great way to see the city, and made me want to spend a day as a tourist in my own city of Vancouver. We went to see a couple of Broadway shows, The Lion King, which was alright, and Wicked, which was absolutely incredible!

I was pleased with how the book meetings went. To be honest, I think back to when The One Week Job Project was just an idea, and then fast forward to today when I’m sitting in boardrooms with two major publishers discussing how best to market the book – it seems surreal.

It’s been very exciting to see things come together, and I can’t wait for the books release this spring – May 4th in the US, and March 28 in Canada.

If you have any ideas/suggestions to market the book, I’d love to hear ‘em! Let me know in the comment section, or send me an email!

-Sean

“One Day” – Matisyahu

One Day
sometimes I lay
under the moon
and thank God I’m breathing
then I pray don’t take me soon
I am here for a reason
sometimes in my tears I drown
but I never let it get me down
so when negativity surrounds
I know some day it’ll all turn around
cause all my life I’ve been waiting for
I’ve been praying for
for the people to say
that we don’t wanna fight no more
they’ll be no more war
and our children will play
one day
it’s not about
win or lose
we all lose
when they feed on the souls of the innocent
blood drenched pavement
keep on moving though the waters stay raging
in this maze you can lose your way
it might drive you crazy but don’t let it faze you no way
sometimes in my tears I drown
but I never let it get me down
so when negativity surrounds
I know some day it’ll all turn around
cause all my life I’ve been waiting for
I’ve been praying for
for the people to say
that we don’t wanna fight no more
they’ll be no more war
and our children will play
one day
one day this all will change
treat people the same
stop with the violence
down with the hate
one day we’ll all be free
and proud to be
under the same sun
singing songs of freedom like
one day
all my life I’ve been waiting for
I’ve been praying for
for the people to say
that we don’t wanna fight no more
they’ll be no more war
and our children will play
one day

Apprenticeship Career Connections
International Centre, 6900 Airport Road, Mississauga
Oct. 28th, 10:00am – 7:30pm

“We all felt the walls and barriers of our lives crushing us and knew change was necessary. Not out of fear of the ‘real world’ but out of curiosity for a new world. I never thought about my trip as an escape, just a passage through new doorways that I had never crossed in the past.”

Imagine: A Vagabond Story is a first hand account of Grant’s travel adventure throughout Mexico and Central America. The book reads like a travel journal, as Grant honestly describes his thoughts on the places he visits, the people he encounters, and the personal lessons he gleaned during his journey.

Grant’s story continually reminded me that amazing events can unfold when you open yourself up to new experiences.

When I was on the road during One-Week Job, typically I had no idea where I was working only days before my next job began. I’d receive an email, phone call, or meet a stranger on the street and it would completely alter my path.

Likewise, Grant’s incredible experience wouldn’t have been possible if he wasn’t willing to leave his comfort zone, embrace uncertainty, try new things, meet different people, and take risks. A conscious decision to make it happen. Reflecting back on it, he’s glad that he did:

“{The trip} taught me how small the world really is, how similar we all really are and how it is the people you meet along the way that shape who you are and who you become.”

To read the first few chapter’s of Grant’s adventure and order a copy, visit his website.

Just graduated, and can’t find a job? Read this recent post by Seth, Graduate school for unemployed college students.

Reading Seth’s post reminded of a conversation I had when I was a Radio DJ in Week 22. One afternoon, a Radio DJ I was working with said to me, “The most important message I take away from what you’re doing is to be pro-active about figuring out what you want to do. If you don’t know what to do, well don’t just sit around and wonder what to do. Do something.”

When I first graduated, I wasted a lot of time and energy worrying that I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Of course, it didn’t help my situation. I was so concerned with making the right choice that it prevented me from making any choice at all. Thankfully, I eventually recognized this.

What is your “something” going to be?