Complaints of a Millennial about Pre-Millennials

So lately (and by lately I mean the past few years) I’ve been reading a lot of articles about millennials. The overwhelming majority of which are written by non-millennials (specifically gen y and gen x-ers). These two generally fall under two categories, the “I-hate-lazy-entitled-millennials” category, or the “Go-easy-on-the-lazy-entitled-millennials” category. In both cases, we’re lazy and entitled.

Lazy and entitled? Where would you get that idea from?

Now, I’m not going to go into a blog post about why we aren’t lazy, entitled, no-gooders who just have sex, get pregnant (despite lowering rates of pregnancy), do drugs *despite lower rates of drug use) and shoot people because of video games (despite lowering rates in youth violence). For your entertainment, here are some great statistics about us anyway: STATS

And if you’d like a blog post talking about us from our perspective, there’s always “Open Letter from a Millenial: Quit Telling Us We’re Not Special“by Sierra or “Millennials: The Worst, Most Entitled, Most Spoiled Generation in the History of Humankind?” by Jennifer Wright.
But again, that’s not what this post is about. Instead of defending myself, I think I’d like to complain about gen y-ers and gen x-ers, or as I like to call them, “The ever looming potential employer.” Please be aware that this blog post is about my job hunt and no names will be mentioned. AND while I have had bad experiences which I will complain about, that doesn’t necessarily diminish the good ones that I’ve had; i.e. please do not let this stop you from hiring me.

1. This first point is the most annoying trait of pre-millennials (see how I summed up all of gen x and y to revolve solely around millennials in one word? “Pre-millennials.”) and that is that they are constantly reminding me, warning me rather, of my behavior. Not in the sense of “you should eat this, it’s healthy” but more in the sense of “don’t post that picture of you in a tankini on facebook! What if a potential employer sees that?” And I know that after writing this post, a pre-millennial will probably tell me to take it down because it will make potential employer (s/he’s a character now) cringe and guard their money.

First of all, don’t ask me for my facebook. I’ve never been asked for it in an interview before, but I know people who have, and it’s just wrong. Facebook was created to see who was having sex with who and while I may not be posting my list of “people to do,” I certainly don’t want you seeing the embarrassing opinions of that idiot guy I went out with for a while or my family’s baby pictures. My facebook is personal. Of course that doesn’t go for all social media, just facebook and tumblr (I may be missing a few).

What I’m trying to get at is: we are not perfect; you used to get up to drugs, sex, alcohol and a host of other things we haven’t done when you were young (and even now I’ll bet). The only difference is, we’re on the internet so private information quickly becomes public. We’ll happily keep our private information to ourselves but don’t expect us to sit at home twiddling our thumbs instead of living life (i.e. having a beer at the pub down the road before noon).

You’ll never get a job now! Never! You’ll also never get a promotion if you can’t have a drink with the boss.

2. My second annoyance is audacity of pre-millennials. I read an article my older cousin posted this morning called “20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get” (I get that you use one too many hyphens in your headline) by Jason Nazar. One of the points was:

”Adding “Proficient in Microsoft Office” at the bottom of your resume under Skills, is not going to cut it anymore.  I immediately give preference to candidates who are ninjas in: Photoshop, HTML/CSS, iOS, WordPress, Adwords, MySQL, Balsamiq, advanced Excel, Final Cut Pro – regardless of their job position.”

So what’s the problem Rosanna? The most qualified person gets the job. Well my problem, kind sir or madam, is that 1% of people are going to be able to be a ‘ninja’ at one of these things at the age of 20. Not only that, but having done internships and conversed about other people’s internships (in which a proficiency in WordPress matters little to the skill of carrying multiple cups of coffee and lunch), people over the age of 30 can’t even use Microsoft Word to half its potential. Again, the point is we aren’t perfect, and we’re not saying we are. If you want someone perfect, you’ll have to pay them. When you hire interns, you’re not supposed to be getting free labour, you’re supposed to be training us because we don’t know what we’re doing. We will make mistakes and we won’t know everything. And seriously, what person who’s not in video editing needs to be a ninja in Final Cut Pro?! (I admit, I have no idea what position Mr. Nazar is hiring for and maybe he is a rarity that pays his 20 year-olds, I don’t know).

Basically, don’t tell me I “HAVE to build [my] technical chops” when the vast majority of pre-millennials don’t even know how to insert a header (I had to do this at an internship, no joke). in millennial language, “dafuq you talkin’ ‘bout?”

Proficient in selfies.

3. It’s hard enough to get an internship, stop calling it a volunteer position. This is clearly a legal tactic so that you can have a billion interns to one paid manager. I once applied for an internship, got it, was listed as an assistant and then my contract said I was a volunteer. This is unacceptable. You want a volunteer? Ask for one. You want an intern? Give me my credit. Internships on resumes are looking like volunteer work to potential employer because they are unpaid. But that is my work experience. Because it’s an internship. Not free labour. INTERNSHIP. Say it with me now: internship. And no, I will not bring you coffee on a daily basis and then file some papers and reorganize your cabinets. Because you said I would get real experience in my field – I better get it. Yes, I EXPECT it. Because having spent my time and money on transportation, research on your industry and education, and having been accepted into said position, I AM ENTITLED to it.

Sisyphus is an intern.

4. Never mention money. People keep telling me that millennials are greedy and they always talk about money. I’ve had a few caring older people tell me “Don’t let them think you want money. You want their job, not their money.” Now, I appreciate your advice, and when you are looking to impress someone in an interview I can understand this. But “don’t talk about money”? Are you joking?

Now this doesn’t really apply to me because I was fortunate (read: privileged) enough to have my parents pay for my post-secondary education. But most millennials have bills to pay. Not just rent and food, but education debt. You know, the money they had to spend in order to be qualified enough to work for you for free?

And let’s not pretend that we don’t care about money. If you want your interns to not care about money, you need to hire someone who’s rich. We all want money, and the whole point of our internships is to get work experience to not only work in a field we love, but to make money so that we can afford to move out of our parents’ house and pursue the career that we love. We’re not materialistic, we’re realistic. Materealistic? I do believe I’ve just coined a phrase.

Eating cost money. Money good.

This post will probably become longer as I become more annoyed but will remain as it is now. As always, please feel free to add comments and gripes of your own under the comments.

Signed,

Rosanna, the from-now-on unemployed beggar

Corporate Communications & Public Relations

Centennial’s 2013 Corporate Communications and Public Relations program is almost done, so it’s time to reflect. So without further ado, here is my CCPR reflection blog post.

Well, first of all, it was really hard. So much work. You know when you’re in school and you always have that one “hell week” where assignments are due everyday and you have no time to complete them? Well, I’ve had three. At least. Communications is pressing work. At any given point,you have a million projects and one day to do them; no excuses!

So what was the best thing I learned at Centennial? It’s difficult to say; I’ve learned an entirely different form of writing, i.e. PR writing as opposed to academic writing; I’ve learned to organize and prioritize; I’ve met great people. Hmm. But I think maybe the best thing I’ve learned is the business placemat first developed by David Moorcroft. The placemat is a short, to the point communications plan that condenses all the necessary information into 2-4 pages. It’s incredibly efficient and helps to visualize the connection between communications and business.

It was difficult to get the hang of at first because it’s a lot of matching your statements to categories such as communications objectives and communications priorities – is there a difference? Believe me, there’s a difference. But you’ll have to enroll at Centennial to find out – or hire me one day?

Of course, the life skills were also important at Centennial. Particularly the ‘working with people you don’t agree with’ part. I was always taught in school to tough it out and assess everyone’s talents separately if you’re working on a project with people you don’t like, and that came in handy at Centennial. Apparently, some people aren’t taught that, so it was a great tool to put into my box (and onto my resume). I’ve worked with a lot of people in my class. From a purely personal point of view, some of them are great and some of them are a trial but as my mother always said, “you’ll meet all kinds of people in this life.” Indeed I have – and it’s only been 24 years!

Centennial has one thing that many universities don’t. And that’s real, practical experience. During this course I’ve had to do a real project for a client, create a newsletter that brands myself and now I’m going on to my internship, which the college helps you find. It’s as if I took eight months to attend a training program rather than a post-secondary program. And that’s what will count in the “real world.” That scary place where you actually get paid for your assignments instead of paying – gasp! Can’t wait.

Later my dears,

Rosanna

Ideacity 2013

A week ago I was lucky enough to get a free pass to Ideacity through Centennial College to act as a Youth Delegate. I was told it was the Canadian TEDTalks but, to be honest, it wasn’t. That’s not to say it was bad or worse, it was just different and, as such, shouldn’t be compared. How is it different? Well, TEDTalks tend to be motivating, intellectual, social etc. Ideacity is more of a glimpse into the future; into potential technologies and scientific work. But enough about that, let’s talk about what it was.

Ideacity is broken down into a series of presentations over three days. These include presentations about animals, 3D printing and data management. Something I really enjoyed was, unsurprisingly, a common theme amongst the younger presenters: free, open source data.

The idea was that all data that could lead to future advancements should be free, not charged. Currently, reliable information comes from magazines that must pay for, which the normal person and in some cases some universities cannot even afford. Thus information becomes restricted. This is a topic I’m especially passionate about because, coming from a “third-world” country, information is limited. And the fact that we have to pay for more information, especially in this day and age where, even if I’m living in a “first-world” nation, I can’t afford anything, is ridiculous. How are we supposed to train and educate future generations (or current generations) without freedom of reliable information? Millennials, and therefore the futures of our countries, have poor access to information, despite having the internet.

The problem with the internet is that, although it may yield a lot of information, it’s unreliable. It’s user-generated content and not peer-reviewed or rather, not reviewed at all. If we could make reliable information free, as some publishers are doing, many more would have access to that information: people from different cultures, technologies, economies that can bring fresh, diverse looks into old and new concepts and technologies.

For instance, Michael Hearst did a presentation on unusual creatures and, in studying them, wrote theme music for them! Who would have considered creating music for different creatures based on their characteristics but someone from a musical background? Hearing a song dedicated to the Giant Chinese Salamander, although it isn’t necessarily the greatest development in the history of zoology, would not have been possible with access to information.

By the way, you can listen to that song on Hearst’s youtube:

Let’s be honest though, I went to Ideacity to find a rich person I could marry. Unfortunately I failed; but I did come out with a mind full of new ideas and thoroughly enlightened with glimpses into the future.

Til next time,

Rosanna

Sorry (Not sorry) : PR Strategy fail

A week ago, The Spectator published an article where writer Ron Liddle called the Woolwich murderers/terrorists/persons with mental illness/etc. “black savages.” He apologized after the (obvious) backlash. This is what he said:

“To avoid the ludicrous phrase ‘men of Muslim appearance’ I originally used the word ‘black’ to describe the appearance of the knifemen. If anyone took that wrong way, I’m very sorry.”

Let’s move away from the following facts that I need to note because of how they annoy me:

1. “black savage” does not mean “man of Muslim appearance”

2. Considering Muslims number over 1.6 billion people and it’s a religion, not a physical trait, there cannot be a definition of “of Muslim appearance”

3. In what world is “black savages” appropriate!? Is this meant to be an imitation of Joseph Conrad?

As I said, let’s now move away from those facts. What I’m going to focus on in this blog post is the second part of his statement: “If anyone took that the wrong way, I’m very sorry.”

This is a common PR statement used after a “slip of the tongue.” We’ve seen it before:

Numero Magazine’s “apology” for blackface Ondria Hardin – Called the offense a “misunderstanding”

“Ben Carson for comparing homosexual men to NAMBLA – says “If anyone was offended”

And more.

So, what’s the problem with the “if anyone was offended” or “if anyone took it the wrong way”? Well, it’s the “if.” When one says “if” it implies that the resulting offense was not necessary or obvious. It implies that the writer isn’t sorry for what s/he’s done, s/he’s sorry for the reader taking it the wrong way. (Death of the ‘Death of the Author’ style?) And let’s be hones, what it really means is “Sorry, not sorry – actually, I’m right and you’re oversensitive. I apologize for your oversensitivity.”

And that’s what makes it bad PR. People and organizations can’t tell their stakeholders “You are wrong; my behaviour will continue (or subside begrudgingly).” It reeks of “I don’t care” and “I am superior.” If an organisation doesn’t care, then the ‘What’s In It For Me’ completely disappears. There is nothing in it for me – so I won’t buy your product or read your article. Let’s see your PR when I shut off.

Let’s examine this now from a more moral perspective: from the heart rather than the head. Saying “I’m sorry” means you regret what you’ve done. It means, you see now that what you did was wrong. Liddle clearly does not believe what he did was wrong, and he proves this by saying “If anyone was offended…”

And it’s not as though anyone believes Liddle (or any of the others) are sorry. It’s a completely useless gesture other than to be able to say “Well, I said I was sorry! The word ‘apologize’ is printed right there!” Nothing is won or lost (or regained in this situation) by this statement: there is no PR currency and therefore it’s a complete waste of time. It is simply an act of (tapping into my OCD here) washing one’s hands. An “end of discussion,” and “no comment,” that for some reason or other, still persists as a legitimate form of PR strategy.

Signed,

Rosie

My Communications Life Placemat

Well, Centennial College is making me increase my social media presence. So expect more blogs!

I wasn’t sure how to start my first one though – I’m more of a listener than a a talker or creative writer which becomes ‘I’m not much of a blogger.’ I couldn’t even write a diary. I tried once when I was a kid and my first entry devolved into “So how are you doing, inanimate object diary? Has your day been good? I guess my day was good. Signed, Rosie.” Needless to say, my diary lost interest in me and we didn’t keep in touch.

So I decided to use this blog entry to practice my communications skills, since it is supposed to be a communications blog. We learned about communications placemats a while back, and, after I did poorly on my first attempt at one, learned more about it from it’s originator, David Moorcroft. With that, I’ve decided to try to apply it to a (hopefully) long, long, long-term business of mine: my life. Keep in mind that these aren’t SMART (Specific, Measurable, Results-Orientated, Timeline based…. ‘A’…) goals since it’s my life. It’s more general and it stretches across 40-odd years (what do you mean I have to work longer than that?)

VISION:

To be a great success and make the parents proud (or at least less worried)

MISSION:

To become a successful international communicator by working in a variety of countries, learning new things and creating a broad network.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Generate a healthy flow of funds from this year to retirement to lead a comfortable lifestyle (i.e. the one I am accustomed to) or better
2. Offer the best communications strategies and services
3. Lead an open and loving life to make myself and those surrounding me content

BUSINESS PRIORITIES:

1. Complete Centennial College communications program
2. Get a job
3. Broaden network
4. Develop international relationships
5. Become an independent organization, i.e. a good, self-sustaining person

COMMUNICATIONS PRIORITIES:

1. Brand myself as a capable and successful communicator
2. Remain valuable and relevant through continuous learning and practice
3. Join international communicator networks (e.g. IABC) and attend conferences and panels
4. Develop a one-woman corporate social responsibility plan for myself and implement
5. Pro-actively meet with, socialize with and respect new and veteran industry professionals

REPUTATIONAL PRIORITIES:

1. Rosanna is ethically sound
2. Rosanna is an independent person
3. Rosanna is fiscally responsible and highly capable
4. Rosanna is a good person

SHORT TERM TACTICS

1. Complete post-graduate program
2. Join IABC
3. Volunteer and attend more industry meetings to create presence
4. Succeed at internship (and life) in Turkey
5. Take the Canadian Securities Course

LONG TERM TACTICS

1. Worry less about money
   1. Do what you love and the rest will follow. And if it doesn’t… live in sister’s basement.
2. Adjust to a routine lifestyle
   1. This includes: taking medication on time, waking up at a decent hour, living healthy and less procrastination!
3. Monitor language
   1. Keep it professional.
4. Develop a personal brand
5. Marry a rich person
   1. This is more visionary for now. I’m working on it.
   2. This being accomplished, scrap current plan and live in deviant luxury

Signed,

Rosanna

Intro to Corporate Communications Reflective

Intro to corporate communications did three things for me:

1. It clearly delineated and categorized the terminology, roles and responsibilities of a communicator.
2. It familiarised me with corporate language and culture.
3. It added a dimension to my view of the world.

In the first case, over the few weeks that we’ve been learning, I’ve gotten the terminology down, albeit with some assignment confusion at first. We’ve learned the differences between being a tactician and a strategist, priorities and goals and mission and vision. Very basic things, of course, but it is an introduction course.

But it wasn’t just definitions on a powerpoint. We were given assignments to help us understand. For instance, I had an assignment to assess the mission and vision statement of my company of choice. Being a Canadian gamer, I did Ubisoft, of course. These assignments really pushed the point home: vision are aspiring, missions are goals toward accomplishing it. Not just two definitions on paper, missions and visions became terms of substance.

Doing these assignments is what ultimately engaged me in corporate culture and, in doing so, familiarised me with its language, flow and feel – what words to use, active voice, length of sentences and the such. The best assignment I did in this class was probably my research into the Bank of Nova Scotia’s corporate donations and how $2 million dollars could expand on it or be reallocated. It wasn’t the creativity involved in spending $2 million or writing up budgets that helped me so much as the research. I read Scotiabank’s annual corporate social responsibility report. I looked at their key performance indicators and I studied their current donations plan. By doing this, I became familiar with their language. How Scotiabank itself spoke to its stakeholders. And it affected the written portion of my assignment. Granted, I did this in a group so it was as much work as it sounds, but it was certainly enough to keep me engaged and learning.

Of course, working in a group had its own benefits. Breaking such a complicated assignment down into parts helped a lot – and the dynamics of working in a group on a hypothetically corporate project gave me what I hope to be valuable training for the future.

My intro to communications did one other thing for me: It changed how I look at stories in the news or company statements. When I see something written by a company, maybe a notice or even the content on the webpages, I think about who wrote it. Whether I think it’s well-written or not. I suppose I’ve become more judgemental, and after completing only one course in communications! I wonder about the communicator behind news stories as well. How they reacted to the news about their organization coming out, how they wrote their media alerts and planned their strategies. For instance, what was going through the mind of the communicator who announced an Ethiopian-Israeli as Miss Israel? What are the communicators at Yahoo! working on to fix their e-mail debacle? What strategies are in place for the casino lobbyists and anti-casino activists in Toronto? I may not know everything, but my introduction to corporate communications, and through that my introduction to communications, has certainly given me another dimension to look at when seeing, reading and engaging in my everyday life.

Project Management

I recently completed a 6-week course at Centennial College named “Project Management.” The name made me cringe at first – I’m not a manager, much less an organized individual, which is a big part of the subject. Never mind the fact that on the first day of class we were given an assignment to do an entire event proposal (that I did quite well on thanks to class!).

But then, to my surprise, Professor Pavla Kazda was pretty informative. And organized. This is a key word. Remember it: organized. Also remember to put everything on paper! Everything. Even your darkest secrets and privat-est passwords. But maybe don’t give that to your colleagues.

Above all, I think the most important thing to learn in project management, or just management in general, is teamwork (hand-in-hand with some conflict resolution). It’s not likely that I’ll be working without a team on my projects and I mean, come on, I’m in communications – I’m going to be working with someone (this is assuming employment). So it’s important that I can work with everyone – that is something drilled into your brain in middle school, isn’t it? But I had to put it into practice here. Not that I had a problem with any group members, but hey, you never know in the future. I was once in a group where one member turned up to our meeting just to tell us she wasn’t coming (how does that make sense?). I didn’t handle that well, but I think I’ve matured with class – I hope. Be patient, communicate, and share. That’s the best part of being in a group: sharing ideas and, better yet, WORK. Or maybe just hire some unpaid interns to do the work? No, don’t do that. Don’t be hateful.

Let’s focus on the two things I learned in this class that I’ve actually really needed to use in real life. The first is the Gantt chart – so useful. For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically a chart that helps you visualize what tasks in your project need to be done within what time frame. (POST A PICTURE) So useful – it’s like having a calendar specifically for your project. I’m using it right now actually, to plan a project for the Caribbean North Charity Foundation (Guyana Burn-Care Unit). So now I have a beautiful little deadline and start date for each task. Right now, I’m looking at venues (oh, the beginning of projects). My sister has adopted it too, being the crazy organized person she is. But she’s really my own personal Gantt chart and production schedule. Every day she reminds me of what I have to do and when by. Efficiency thy name is Aliya, whose middle name is sirdar (that’s an overseer)!

Next there is budgeting. If someone said “budget” to me 6 weeks ago, I’d think of a cloud. And then I’d think of sitting on that cloud. And having an ice-cream. Because “budget” meant nothing to me. But Kazda made me do it! I had to budget, with the help of a group, a hypothetical event for the Barenaked Ladies. Not bare naked ladies, which might have been easier. Or harder? Who knows. But this is really an important part of any sort of planning, and the most important part to one’s employers, I’m sure. It’s important to have a clear budget and to get quotes to make that budget as accurate as possible. Basically, the same principle as everything else in project management: organization and accuracy. And of course, contingency. Always budget a little extra for contingency. I’m going to be using this for the same Caribbean North charity, since our budget is basically anything we get from sponsors (woohoo) so we’ll have to do some major budgeting for accountability purposes.

During the course we had a guest lecture from someone in the field: Blair Macintosh, director of games at the Sport Alliance of Ontario and VP of the upcoming 2015 Pan-am Games in Toronto. Yeah, we met that guy. He’s done a lot to get there: acting as a lead with the 1997 World Special Olympics, the 2005 BMO Canada Figure Skating Championships and various roles in sport tourism consultancy in London, Ontario and Toronto. To put it simply, the man has a lot of experience. And he shared it with us through some stories about his work; specifically his successes and his failures. Let’s not pretend, we’re all going to fail. And fail again – it’s just human. I mean, no. I’ll never fail. Hire me? Honestly though, failure is all a part of success and it’s great to hear about someone successful who has made a few mistakes.

But what struck me most was when Macintosh said he always hired a project manager. That’s how important the position is: although your employers may not require it, it’s necessary for a successful project! Someone has to be there to take the lead in organizing, delegating and communicating the various tasks that need to be done. Otherwise it’s all just a jumbled mess without deadlines (how well I know about that, having no scheduling capability when going to UofT.)

So let’s summarize, shall we? Project managers are important. They keep everything and more importantly, everyone on key through their paperwork, scheduling and organization. Without them, there is chaos. That’s what happened in DC’s Gotham City – no project managers. Seriously though, having a project manager to communicate, mediate, delegate, organize and help visualize the project from a macro-perspective as opposed to its individual parts (which is what the specialists would be doing) is critical. This is done using a variety of tools: Gantt charts, production schedules, budgets, work breakdown structures, conflict management, project scope assessments and clear, effective writing.

Being a project manager? Can’t wait.