Back In My Day...

So who hasn't heard their parents or someone older start a sentence like that? Even I may or may not have done such things, and I'm hardly what I'd consider ancient (yet).

The simple fact is that we all live in the present. What each of you needs to do is take advantage of just that. I'm sure everyone is aware that the economy is not what it was a few years ago. There's nothing any of us can do about that right now though, especially since I'm assuming President Obama and Tim Geithner haven't added us to their daily blogroll quite yet. We're working on that one though...

If there's one thing that even older people will concede about this generation, its that we are technologically adept to say the least. The good news is that the world is moving more and more to a place where technology is king. Utilize those skills to make yourself more marketable than 40somethings who may have more experience.

Anyone who's ever met with any of us can tell you that if there's one thing we stress, it's networking. Every single day more people are moving their networking abilities onto the internet, a forum that most of you will find more familiar and comfortable than the Gen X'ers and Boomers that are also on the market. Platforms such as LinkedIn are gaining new users by the hour and are becoming the central point for many people's networking experience. You might not necessarily find a job directly through LinkedIn, but you can almost certainly find levels of success.

Times are always going to change. Our parents had to use card catalogs and typewriters to write papers during college. They definitely didn't have LexisNexis or even Google, two tools I know I heavily leaned upon during my college days. Our kids will probably laugh at the concept of dial-up or even not having phones without internet. But we can only live in the present. Currently you have that advantage over other job seekers of understanding social media and knowing how to use it to your maximum benefit. It's the way the job searching world is going at the moment, and I'd think you want to take your place at the head of the line.