The unemployment/underemployment problem facing millennials predates the great recession. It goes back to the early programming they received from their parents when the economy was booming in the early 2000’s. And parents haven't let up. Dreams? Passion? Love? Sounds more like the teaser copy on the back of a smutty romance novel than sage career advice. The mindset of today’s parents is all about getting their kid to aim for the stars, to believe their dream, and to

You invested a lot of time, energy, and money bringing on that new employee. They show up on that first day ready for your orientation doing their best to disguise their nervous anxiety. Feeling a bit anxious yourself, you want to get them up and running as quickly as possible so as to maximize your ROI. After all, you need to prove to yourself and your team that you made a great hire. As the day draws to an end, you begin to reflect on how things went on Day #1. But it's

In 2004, I presented my Employing Generation Why keynote speech to about 300 sales managers of Southwestern, the renowned educational book publisher and distributor headquartered in Nashville, TN. With a 150-year history of getting top-quality college students to forgo their entire summer vacation to sell books door-to-door on a commission-only basis, Southwestern is unlike any company I have ever heard of or worked with, and they are remarkably effective in building core wor