correct me if i’m wrong

From Schott’s Vocab on the NY Times:

Funemployed

Those enjoying unemployment.

Kimi Yoshino reported for The L.A. Times:

While millions of Americans struggle to find work as they face foreclosures and bankruptcy, others have found a silver lining in the economic meltdown. [The] happily jobless tend to be single and in their 20s and 30s. Some were laid off. Some quit voluntarily, lured by generous buyouts.

Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.

According to Yoshino:

As frivolous as it sounds, funemployment is a statement about American society. Experts say it’s both a reflection of the country’s cultural narcissism — and attitudes of entitlement and self-centeredness — and a backlash against corporate America and its “Dilbert”-like work environment.

Yoshino is wrong. The “funemployment” phenomenon is a consequence of increased productivity in the American workforce and the acknowledgement that frivolous sacrifice is highly detrimental to a modern business economy. A large percentage of corporate America still acts like it’s the 1950s and that there’s some sort of nobility associated to a corporate job. Let me share a secret with you: jobs can be fun!

Traditional corporations are obsolete. With the advent of the Internet, organizing by physical proximity and geritocracy is no longer necessary. Maximal efficiency is established with alternative methods. The paragon in this context is the success of open source software, namely Linux. A loosely organized, decentralized, unpaid conglomerate of programmers were able to produce an operating system that has grown to rival that of its proprietary competitors. That would have seemed impossible 30 years ago.

Is there a new-found sense of entitlement and self-centeredness? Of course. Our parents and their parents have sacrificed their livelihoods so we can enjoy this wonderful world. If you have any doubt to that claim, try living in an age before modern medicine and the comforts of the first-world. While I haven’t experienced those lifestyles first-hand, I’ve been brought up knowing that a great deal has been given up for my happiness. Eating from the hand that feeds an old-school, inefficient corporate system is an injustice to their sacrifice.

Conversely, the upcoming business workers of the world have a responsibility to fulfill. Adapting to new technology and embracing a culture of transparency are required of any successful future graduates. With these tools in hand, we can work toward a world in which all jobs are creative for our children and their children.

Very interesting discussion on this topic at Hacker News.

I am leaving my job at IBM (on good terms). Overall, my experience was positive and my team has been very encouraging of my decision. My excitement is physically palpable, though, and I eagerly anticipate future endeavors. Excuse me for romanticizing, but I can’t help thinking, “today is the first day of the rest of my life.”

Last week, Charlie Hoehn released a free e-book entitled, Recession-Proof Graduate: Charlie Hoehn’s Guide To Getting Any Job Within A Year Of Finishing College. The premise is that today’s generation of college graduates are entering a job market that functions unlike that of any previous generation. By defying conventional wisdom and taking risks, Charlie has established himself as an Internet marketer and film editor that worked with a Who’s Who of popular Internet personalities, including Seth Godin, Tucker Max, Ramit Sethi, and Tim Ferriss.

I loved this book.

Charlies provides a voice of reason in to a generation that is inundated with more knowledge on a daily basis than previous generations thought imaginable. Discerning that knowledge — especially when it comes to career decisions — is hard. The themes are those I’ve encountered myself, struggled with, and written about: knowing when NOT to take advice, leveraging the Internet for networking, and increasing your productivity and comfort levels to remain competitive.

The motivation for this book is largely based on observing peers that are frustrated with the conventional job search. The points that really resonated with me are:

1. “Shotgun blasting  your resume.” The importance of your network is greater than ever before.  Social networking on the Internet allows us to connect to the smallest niches in the world. The people that comprise these niches are the ones you want to work with. We are no longer constrained to geographic boundaries. Not only can we connect to groups of people with which we are more strongly aligned, we can do so with less work. Better and cheaper. Win-win.

2. The misconception of “no good jobs in a recession.” The opposite of this is true. Recessions eliminate bad jobs. Recessions are simply correcting mechanisms for the market. They inevitably bounce back, and the nation grows stronger as a result (proven by United States GDP data from the last 200+ years). We are continually pushed toward greater automation, and there’s no automating challenging, creative jobs. The clearest contemporary example of this is the dearth of the Big Three U.S. automakers. They were ousted by car companies that not only paid their employees less, but had greater automation and hence could increase profit margins. I feel this example is rudimentary enough name not to cite data, so if you want to challenge it, feel free.

In short, my greatest sympathies go out to those that are affected by the recession, but these people are forced to attain higher skill levels to remain competitive in the job market. I think most people would agree with this; whether our nation will foster personal growth and education for these individuals is another issue.

3. “Grad school is stupid in 95% of all situations.“ The pursuit of a graduate degree should take place if and only if it’s 1. intrinsically-motivated or 2. absolutely necessary in your industry. Aside from that, the pursuit is illogical, economically-speaking (the only exception I might grant is an MBA from Harvard or Stanford or Wharton, simply because brands of elite schools have such a strong reputation).

This book’s weakness is that Charlie doesn’t address his audience directly. His advice reads as though it is universally applicable to all college grads, although it’s primarily suited for the business school crowd.  Doctors, lawyers, and most engineers are still part of an old-school world.  I would say those in the liberal and (non-mass-media) fine arts are in-between; they can be smart and leverage the niceties of the modern world, but can’t completely rely on it. Those in software engineering, marketing, advertising and mass media can anticipate careers in a world that’s completely been re-invented in the last 15 years.

Additionally, the latter half of the book pertains even more narrowly to Charlie’s discipline, marketing.  As a freelancing software engineer, I suspect my approach would be somewhat different, although I don’t have enough experience to determine what that difference would be.

To be fair, this book is merely a precursor to a longer, more thorough study of gen-Yers. Find out more information at Hoehn’s Musings.