That's the conversation that came to my head when I read the chapter Presidential Coup in Emily Liebert's book Facebook Fairytales. Chris Hughes, who for all intents and purposes is a child, was the mastermind behind managing a new medium to get the first African American president elected. Obviously this story is quite amazing, but two things struck me:
1) He really does not realize how amazing this story is! And I start to think that all of these young people, like Mark Zuckerberg, who don't get the impact and hugeness of what they're doing / have done. I can't imagine JFK saying, yes, let's entrust my entire television campaign to a 24 year old. And still, they treat it like "Oh, it wasn't really me - it was my team", or "Anyone could have done this". Younger people have an opportunity like never before to create huge impact, and its both a privilege and a responsibility - they have the means to do it and the knowledge to do it...I don't know that this has happened before. Which brings me to the other thing that phased me:
2) My generation and above is in trouble. I went to an event the other day the speaker says the most common mistake for companies to make is to think they don't have competition, or to incorrectly identify their competitive set. Example: What can you do if you wake up with a back ache? Take Tylenol, Advil or Aleve. Basic competitive set. You can also drink an herbal tea, use a heating pad, go to a chiropractor, go to a yoga class, or get a massage. This is also in your competitive set, but one that traditional companies rarely consider. So what I mean when I say that my generation and above is in trouble is that these younger people are definitely, 100%, without a doubt, in our competitive set. I'm fighting for a job, at the MBA level, with people who may be undergrad drop outs. Let's face it - nothing in my resume competes with "Directed Barack Obama's social media campaign, generating over 5 million followers and raising $500 million in campaign funds". Hmm...yup, nothin'. Just checked, just to make sure. Nothin'.
So from a managerial perspective, managers have an even wider range of people to pick from, and talent that doesn't necessarily come in a cookie cutter format (went to school, worked, grad school, worked). So my question for you is: How will you make yourself stand out when competing with the Chris Hughes of the world?
I couldn't agree more with your point that young people have huge opportunities today that were not available for previous generations. It's crazy how much of an impact they can have and I never thought about it in terms of older generations being in trouble for it. I agree that age is no longer really a factor in career positions because so many young individuals are actually very talented regardless of having 20 years less experience than an older person going for the same job. For me, I don't think it is as much of a concern because I don't actually have intentions of entering into the field of business, but it is a good question to ask. I, too, must think about how I will enable myself to stand out about others going for similar teaching positions. I am interested to hear more about how our classmates intend to stand out and compete within the business world.
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If it makes you feel any better, I was in b-school during dot-com 1.0. Everyone seemed to have a website startup and people I was in college (a small liberal arts, non-technical college) was at CTO for some startup. We all know how most of those stories ended. Yes, a few became the Larry Page and Sergy Brins, but most did not. That said, many of the technically minded people went on to very important careers - but in more mainstream avenues such as consulting or management. Don't give up hope and don't cede too much ground to the hype.
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