Y Not?

By Brian Frascella, Contributing WriterBrian Frascella is a product engineer at Moog Inc., an MBA candidate at the University at Buffalo and a contributor to the Careers and Education in Engineering blog on designnews.com. Design News has invited Brian to occasionally share his thoughts on his transition from college to the world of work.

Generation Y:  unemployable, lazy, and a sense of entitlement. Sound about right?

How did we get this reputation?  Is it because we text, tweet and communicate in acronyms? Is it because we use Google instead of flipping page by page through the 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica? As a member of Gen Y, I’m here to say we’re not the slackers and self-absorbed young adults pop culture might have you believe; rather, we are creatively efficient.

Here’s an example. My first project as a freshman in college was to find the height of the school clock tower. Being the engineer that I am, I used my protractor with a paper clip hanging from it to look up and determine the angle at which the top of the tower was at with respect to my position. Then I used trig to find the height. My roommate called the school facilities department and asked the height of the tower. My report described in great detail the mathematics used to achieve the answer. His report briefly described a phone conversation with the facilities department. We both received the same grade. That was my first real-life lesson in creative efficiency.

I am writing a plea to all of the managers out there: Gen Y workers prize speed, efficiency, learning and the latitude to make decisions. We can take an array of tools (old school and new school) and use them to the fullest, as a creatively efficient employee.

Recently, The National Association of Colleges and Employers found that only 25 percent of the college graduates looking for employment found a job. That means there’s a lot of creatively efficient Gen Ys out there right now, Mr. or Ms. Hiring Manager.

Give it a try, hire a Gen Y.