Why Career Advice from Family Can be Risky

They’re family.  They’re the ones that know you best. They’re the ones that will give you the cold hard truth and love on your wounds later.  We’ve all gone through situations and called home only to leave the conversation feeling annoyed, angry, or even confused by the advice.  I have a great honest adult relationship with my parents and I think everyone should have someone they go to for the realest truths.  So yes continue to ask your family their opinion but take it with a grain of salt and here’s why:

Millennial: To be or Not to Be, that is the question

      

Is it?  Or am I Gen X?  Or am I a generational outsider?  Merriam Webster defines a millennial as ‘a person born in the 1980s or the 1990’s’.  I was born in ’87 (and proud), yes I remember watching FraggleRock and singing to Zoom Zoom from Zenon: Girl from the 21^st Century; don’t play, you remember too!  Over the years I began to embrace the ‘millennial’ tag, but something started to stand out to me, how we were viewed by older generations. 

A few days ago I read an article, addressing the lack of self-identification with millennials.  Pew Research Center, wrote the article 'Most Millennials Resist the Millennial Label' addressing how generations truly view themselves.  Despite millennials being the largest and most influential generation ON EARTH, only 41% of millennials identify with the label; while older millennials identify with Gen X.  The survey found that Millennials are uncharacteristically more willing to pin negative stereotypes upon their selves.  What?  Ok, we’ll keep reading.  The article goes on to say that 59% of millennials think 'we’re self-absorbed'. What?  Ok that’s when I stop the presses.  The younger generation must be the ones answering these surveys!  Your saying, the generation that is pushing harder than any other for equality, free healthcare, free/reduced education, is ‘self-absorbed’.  The generation that pushed for equal marriage, the generation that said no more war, the most educated generation; said we’re ‘self-absorbed?  Hmmm.  I start to feel conflicted because I view our generation as ‘innovative’, ‘empathetic’, and ‘relentless’.  In this moment I’ve never felt more proud to call myself a ‘millennial’.  Then the career coach in me questioned, ‘if we see ourselves so negatively, no wonder other generations do as well’.