What Employers Say About "Gen-X"

The following is not meant to directly insult you, although I hope it makes you think a little.  I didn't make this up.  I heard it when I took my students to a job preparation seminar, where a human resource consultant was explaining what young people today will have to do to be competitive for jobs.

These are, according to our speaker, some of the thoughts that are going through the minds of the people who will be sitting on the other side of that interview table to make a decision on potentially hiring you, when (if) you graduate. 

Because of some of these types of obstacles you face in being competitive for jobs, you will find that you are going to have to do everything in your power to PROVE that you are not as these people imagine that you are.  I think you can do it!

Generation X People ARE:

• Clueless, inconsiderate, impolite, and totally oblivious to the needs of others.
• More concerned about the label on their jeans than they are about the American Flag.
• Lazy slackers, unmotivated, rude, inconsiderate, and won't take the time to think of ways to help others.
• Angry at the world: they think that all others are to blame for their unhappiness.
• More concerned with piercing their noses, so as to prove their "individuality" than they are being part of a team, or being professionals.
• Part of the problem.

Generation X People ARE NOT:

• Capable of solving their own problems:  they want others to give them the answers.
• In the least bit concerned about how their actions hurt or offend others.
• Able to look at themselves as being part of the problem:  to them everyone else is to blame.
• Willing to be part of a team to make things happen.  They want to be hidden in a group where all the others will do the work, so they can coast.
• Capable of expressing a single independent or intellectual thought.
• Part of the solution.

Source:  Job Seeking Skills Presentation

Is this really YOU?  Even if it isn't, this is what you are up against.  It is up to you (and only YOU) to make a difference and prove that you are capable of being part of a team, and being part of the solution.

You have an enormous amount of potential:  you are a generation of kids who grew up with more technology than ever before, and can learn how to use it quickly.  You will bring us into the 21st century.  Use your talents to continue the great advancements that your parents and grandparents started.

Get off your lazy butts, and prove to us that you are capable of taking care of our country when we are old.