Generation Y 2.0

Disneyland Online Career Day

Through an online recruiting event for Human Resources and Public Relations professionals, Disneyland Paris invites you to explore how Generation Y will fundamentally change the workplace.
Disneyland Paris is looking to hire candidates for Human Resources positions with 3 to 5 years of experience and for Public Relations positions starting 5 years and over. It is organizing the Disneyland Online Career Day – December 9, 2009

Through an online recruiting event for Human Resources and Public Relations professionals, Disneyland Paris invites you to explore how Generation Y will fundamentally change the workplace.

Join us in this event to explore our HR / PR job opportunities, to meet with our representatives and to learn from Disney professionals as well as external keynote speakers such as:

• Federico Gonzalez, Senior Vice-President, Marketing at Disneyland Paris;
• Patrick de Moustier, CEO at Electronic Arts Asia-Pacific;
• Benjamin Chaminade, Founder at Generation Y 2.0;
• Ruth Bond, Director at Disneyland Paris University;
• Cédric Ponsot, Chief Executive Officer at ZAOZA – Vivendi Universal
• Amélie Bourgeois, Internet and Direct Marketing Director at Disneyland Paris.

The 9th of December, you will be able to -:

• Learn about Disneyland Paris
• Participate in online presentations and online chats and ask your questions
• Discover the role you could play at Disneyland Paris
• Apply to the open positions

Don’t miss that opportunity and register now at Careernomics Disney

In case you can’t be online on December 9th, you can apply to the position and access all the recordings until December 16th. Please pass this email on to your friends who may be interested in this Career Day. We look forward to your participation and wish you an excellent day!

UPDATE : More than 500 resumes have been sent to Campus/Buzz’n'Be which is again a good record for such an event (average is 400 …). About 120 people were connected simultaneously to talk about the way Generation Y may change the workplace. The next event will take place in March 2010.

As explained in some of our conferences, the expectations of new employees reflect the social environment of the web. It is when “4i” new behavior “(Individualism, Interconnection, and Inventiveness Impatience) meet the” 4 Cs of “web of life” (Community, Collaboration, Conversation and Customization). Gary Hamel, a management guru and author of “The Future of Management”, looks back at the new professional expectations of what he calls the “Facebook generation”.

Gary has collected 12 characteristics of this online life to help managers of Fortune 500 “to reflect on the directions given to their management practices and to overcome their bureaucratic tendencies:

1. All ideas are comparable on an equal footing
On the Web, each idea has a chance to gain a following – or not and no one has the power to kill off a subversive idea or stifle an embarrassing debate. Ideas gain traction on the basis of merit rather than the perceived political power of their sponsors.

2. Contributions are more than references
When you post a video on YouTube, no one asks you what film school you graduated from. When you write a blog, nobody cares about whether you are a journalist. Status, title and degree; all of these usual status differentiators factors carry much weight online. On the internet, what counts is not your CV, but what you contribute to the party.
Read the rest of this entry »

From 29 April, in partnership with FAFIEC and REGIONSJOB.com, we will begin to roll out a training course on recruitment and social networks across major French cities. These courses are aimed at recruiting professionals wishing to deepen their knowledge in 2.0 and tools to cope with new behaviours from the Y culture and changes in the face of crisis.

 The job of recruiting has changed drastically. If the first objective is always that of being an intermediary between a job post and an individual wishing to occupy it, the components have evolved, both in substance and in the appeal of new approaches and practices.

 These parameters include:

 • The maturity of the customer requirements have changed significantly. If the emergence of the Internet in the recruitment process has temporarily led us to believe that businesses could “source” by themselves, we must once again get recruitment firms to use “e-recruitment 2.0” tools

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So much has been written already but what is happening right now and what do we need to be thinking about when it comes to the China’s future workforce?
Although China is experiencing a slow down in exports and property sales, it remains one of the least exposed countries in the financial crisis. Many hope that this will lead to closer ties and cooperation with the western continents and ideally support the IMF in the global crisis.
While many may fear China’s growing superpower, what would happen if China was not able to sustain its markets in years to come? Amazingly, with a population of over 200 million in the Generation Y age group, way outnumbering the 7% over 65’s, and 5 million graduates entering the market each year, China is still struggling to find the right talent, especially in key positions and with few top talents in the pool, the long term future of China’s leadership is still uncertain.

Read the rest of this entry »

With job cut backs and hiring freezes, graduates may be wondering what’s in store for them this year.
The Graduate Market in 2009 report by High Fliers and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) own report, there will  be less opportunities for graduates in this years’ hiring round despite reported increases predicted earlier in 2008. Cuts are of course being firmly blamed on the credit crunch/recession.

Last year there were approximately 2.8 graduates for every place in the leading companies and with more graduates coming onto the market this year competing for potentially less jobs this ratio is likely to be at least 3.5 to 1. Competition is likely to increase again in 2010. Yet stories continue that employers are looking to overseas candidates in order to find the skills they are looking for, as found by the AGR. Focus on university league tables showing the employability of their graduates is likely to increase and employers may be thinking of targeting their rounds very carefully.

Most of the vacancies continue to be based in London and the South. According to the AGR, banks are likely to cut graduate vacancies by at least 28%, together with cuts in graduate starting pay. Engineering sectors may see an increase in graduate vacancies but continue to have a shortfall in the right calibre of candidates. So perhaps engineering graduates will be less inclined to head to the City for banking jobs this year, but the shortfall in this field continues. And there appear to be reports of pay freezes for graduates elsewhere.
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It’s Friday and just for fun and to make all those GenX and Baby Boomers feel a bit better about all this talk about Y’ers …. we thought we would make you smile with some famous quotes and perceptions about age (we’ve kept it to the clean ones!):

 The older your get, the better you get – unless you are a banana (Ross Noble)

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? (Anon)

You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you can do while you’re down there (George Burns)

It’s sad to grow old, but nice to ripen (Brigitte Bardot)

You can live to be 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be 100 (Woody Allen)

Growing old is compulsory, growing up is optional (Bob Monkhouse)

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age (Lucille Ball)

The old believe everything, the middle age suspect everything and the young know everything (Oscar Wilde)

Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve been waiting, now it’s here. The test. The ultimate quiz to see if you are more aspiring to a Y or a boomer!

As we have said before, being Generation Y is a lifestyle, not just an age group and now is the chance to check if you have the “Y Lifestyle” !

After twenty years of research and a doctorate from Cambridge, this is the questionnaire that you’ve all been waiting for… well ok may be this has not quite been tested along with the best psychometric tools in the world… but it’s fun, so have a go anyway.

You know the rules. There are no right or wrong answers blah blah blah. Answer honestly and usually nothing can be held against you.

So answer yes or yes to 22 questions if you want to be sure not to make a mistake and prove that you are aligned with young people.

Here we go: Read the rest of this entry »

In a week of chaos across Britain as it continued to snow, more in inches than metres, and whilst our Aussie colleagues were literally BBQ’ing on the beach, what were our Y folk up to? Was there some positive light to come out of the week or was it all grey slush and misery?

So ok, getting anywhere on any kind of transport was difficult and well done to all of you who battled through to get to your destinations and to panic buy all those cartons of milk (did you need so many?!). Shame on you who used it as an excuse to stay home! No seriously, was staying home such a bad idea? What about the perils of bad weather and associated safety risk? What about all those important events and practise nights. What of productivity and the effect on industry at a time when businesses need every drop of income right now? More doom and gloom I hear you say.

Perhaps there are other ways to look at this. What about the peace and quiet to get those reports done and catch up on all those emails? Two days in your PJ’s and with your favourite snacks to hand and iTunes to play without headphones, could you breathe a sigh of relief that you didn’t have to go to college or the office and save a bit of time? Well many could see that there was an awful lot of time being spent on Facebook and online chat this week, and a remarkable number of photos of snow filled driveways, gardens and parks! What an industrious lot we are, and yes we still know how to build snowmen and other well known snow loving (?) British characters .
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Following some of our earlier articles, it is clear that cross-generational working is essential in the times ahead. If you think that baby boomers should be leaving the scene, think again, they bring wisdom and real experience of surviving a recession and managing change. Gen Y can bring collaborative spirit and a fresh perspective. But it is predominantly our Generation X middle managers and leaders who have the challenge of bringing all this together.

As managers, it is time to be prepared and open minded about what each of the generations brings. Those seniors may have worked in a different era but the experiences are no less valid and they’re amongst the users of the internet and web 2.0 tools just like everyone else.

Our Gen Y need an encouraging hand, genuine interest in what they have to say and what they want to achieve; it’s not about their managers making assumptions or judgements, or ensuring these newcomers have to go through the same paces they did.

In the article “I’m way more Generation Y than I thought, you too?” by 23 year old Victoria Gutierrez, she looks at the fundamental differences in her Y world and that of her boyfriend’s father who is busy conforming to the traditional hard working career guy image just like many of the others that she perceives follow in similar footsteps. Victoria remains frustrated, trying to bring her unique contribution, finding something exciting and creative that allows her to be herself at work.

So what are these Gen X senior and middle managers going to do to bring these  groups together? How are they going to cope with the pressures of change? How are our new Gen Y middle managers going to embrace these strange times? And how are we going to support them?

Of course there are plenty of leadership development programmes and workshops out there, change management guide books and all the rest. In fact we urge you to keep investing in your leadership and think carefully about how you can do that in an imaginative way. The top companies distinguish themselves by the way they develop their leaders and think about the young leaders of tomorrow.

However, we need to think about what is different and not just fall back into our old ways. First, what is similar: Recognition, Leadership, Meaning and Authenticity: Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know, baby boomers seem to be the only ones who love the name of their generation!

It doesn’t change the world and it’s nothing new, but here’s a small article which allows us to illustrate this. For those who missed previous episodes, we have 5 demographic generations right now:

• Generation Y (aged 14 to 30 years)
• Generation X (ages 31 to 45 years)
• Baby Boomers (aged 46 to 65 years)
• The Silent Generation (age 66 to 84 years)
• The Great Generation (age 85 and beyond)

So why is it since the baby boom, generations were given only one letter?

Because authors/sociologists William Strauss and Neil Howe published a book entitled Generations, in which they described the Amercian generations since 1584. According to them, there were altogether 4 types of generations that follow in an endless cycle. If their thesis (published in 1991) has not been terribly well followed by historians, it was a Canadian writer, Douglas Coupland, which, in the same year, made a book “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. It describes the angst of this generation in search of new spiritual values. Read the rest of this entry »