Paul Revere and the NEETS

Written by Carol Christen

Tuesday, 13 July 2010 19:46

The NEETs are coming!

Or so many media articles would like us to believe.

What's a NEET? Well, it could be you. NEET is a new acronym for Gen Y: Not employed, in education or training. Since last spring, there have been an increasing number of articles claiming that the youngest generation of workers may become a lost generation. This gloomy prognosis is due to the slow rate of job creation; experienced adults staying in the workforce rather than retiring; adults returning to the workforce by taking entry level jobs that young adults usually do; and the diminshing number of good paying, interesting jobs.

But do media announcements make it so?

No. It may be statistically true that young adults who come into the workplace during recessions never achieve either the salaries or career goals as do those lucky enough to begin their worklives in boom times. However, not to worry. For the next decade, it's higly unlikely that there will be boom times. Given the economic dynamics already in play, and the apparent unwillingness of US politicians to really tackle our country's economic problems, it will be a number of years before the US or the global economy experiences a true expansion.

In other words, you and most of your cohorts are in the same boat. It's lean times.

How can you still prosper? Here are three tips:

1. It's your life, take control of it or you won't like where it goes. Understand that getting a good job, gaining the skills, education, training or experience for that good job will take a lot of effort on your part. But, the effort can be fun and give a great payoff as well. Gone are the days when you can just tumble out of high school or college and into a great paying, challenging job.

2. Get a plan. Think of yourself as a business. Start-up young adults need a start-up plan. Not a plan that is floating nebulously around your mind. A plan that will help you achieve your life and work goals needs to be written down on one page, well researched and critiqued by successful adults. Such a plan helps you anticipate obstacles and build in solutions around them. It also takes about 90 hours to put a good plan together. This includes time for analyzing what you want in a job, Internet or library research and getting out and talking with people about their work.

Don't think you can do this on your own? Get a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute for Teens, 2nd edition. Next, ask an adult you like and trust to help you do the Discovery Exercises. Then, you'll be well on your way to creating a career plan that will help you build a bridge to your dreams, both personal and professional.

3. Develop your own career, because no one else will. If you start when you are about 15, there's a good chance that by the time you are 19 or 20, you will be working in a field that interests you and on your way to a dream job.

How do I know that? Because for over 30 years, that's what happened to the teens and young adults with whom I've worked.

Do you need to know what you want to do at 15? Certainly not. But, you do need to know your interests and begin learning about all the different jobs that might use them. In other words, at 15, you need more career awareness. At 16, keep expanding your awareness of jobs that might use your skills and strengths, but add time for career exploration. At 17, you'll need to do five to seven job shadowing experiences and an unpaid internship or two so that have enough experience at 18 to put together your first career plan. This plan needs to include a cluster of jobs that suit you and what education or training programs can help you attain a job in the field of your choice--perhaps even a job of your dreams.

Will you stay in this job forever? Will you just have to create one plan? Not likely. You need to learn the process of career planning because you'll need to use it over and over during your worklife. Also, constructing a career plan at 18, is not so much to help you get your ultimate career, although it may. The point of your first career plan is to help you get a job that will get you working in your favorite field. If you can get some training while still in high school or the the first couple of years after you graduate, it's very possible that not only will this job pay enough to finance the life you want as a young twenty-something but it will help you finance more education and training that will keep you expanding your job options.

So, what does Paul Revere have to do with the NEETS? They are coming and you've been warned. For teens and young adults who are not willing to put together a plan, or not willing to learn how to put together a plan, welcome to your NEET world.

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