20 Something Success

Steve Dorfman speaks on Gen Y

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:56:00 +0000

I bumped into Steve Dorfman, founder and CEO of Driven to Excel, and he took a few moments out of his time to speak with me! He also founded Young Professionals Leadership Group. One excellent piece of advice (that I need to write an entire post about) is that you should NEVER SAY NO to an invitation. I 100% agree and it's great advice. Check out the interview below.

Tee Morris speaks on Gen Y

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:16:00 +0000

I had a chance to speak with Tee Morris after his 'Anti-Social Media' presentation at the Washington Networking Group. He is founder of Imagine That! Studios, and bestselling author of Podcasting for Dummies (among other books!). Below is our quick interview where he gives all of us 20Somethings some advice.

How to write your performance self-review

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Most people groan when they have to write a self evaluation -- you shouldn't. Review time is the time designated to be all about YOU. More importantly, its your chance to directly affect the mindset of your manager right before he writes your review! Basically, your manager is asking you to tell him why you are valuable and deserve a raise -- don't' blow it.

If your company uses a template, they might ask you what sorts of tasks you enjoy doing. You should answer the question, but I have always found task based reviews lacking. This is a very brief example of something you could write:

I like working on strategy work, process improvement work, or managing projects. I also think that answering this question in a task-based way does not capture what I would really like to do. I am more concerned with making sure that some of my values are met. The questions I ask myself are:

1.    Am I learning something new on this project?
2.    Am I building on skills that I want to improve? (i.e. strategy work)
3.    Am I working in a command and control environment or am I empowered to make change on the project?

It’s a much more complex mix of variables that determine if I like to do something, and these questions are a large part of it.

You should also put together a list of specific topics you want to discuss during the review. Make sure you include your managers concerns and ask them to tell you how you fit into the organization, and what their vision for you is over the next few years.

Lastly, make sure you remember all the awesome things you did over the year. Don't limit it to tasks, talk about your energy, motivation, what you brought to the company culture, how you helped peers, make sure you highlight all the intangibles.

20Something TakeAway:

Make sure you drive the conversation. Don't be a passive victim of your manager, be an active agent in the conversation!
Make sure you talk about intangibles.
Forcing the company to talk about where they see you will make them think harder about helping you move your career forward.
Review time is YOU time. You spend 364 days a year focusing on what they want. They can spend 1 day focusing on you.

Ignite #2 Video Posted

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:42:00 +0000

Ignite Baltimore had technical difficulties, so they borrowed MindGrub's video in order to post my talk. Unfortunately, they also ran out of tape before my talk was done! Enjoy what you can!

What to do when you have a lost opportunity?

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:05:00 +0000

Recently, after receiving rave review at the PMI Region 5 Leadership conference, I was talking to a client that wanted me to speak at their non-profit organization in Charlotte, NC. They offered to fly me down and pay for the flight, hotel, and any incidental expenses. I readily agreed. Then, they asked another question that totally caught me off guard. "Are there any other fees?"

I have spoken to different chapters of various industry groups, and have always understood that they don't typically pay for speakers. So when asked, I stammered that there were no other fees.

I immediately knew I had bungled the answer, because they were clearly willing to pay something to have me speak there. What to do in this situation? I had just left money on the table when I clearly could have gotten something out of it!!

I had two options:

Be embarrassed that I bungled my response and decide to go ahead and do the presentation for free.
Try to salvage the situation and so something about it.

I decided to do #2. But, there is something wrong about going back and asking for money after you had already told them that it was free. I emailed one member of that organization whom I spoke to and asked them if they had a few minutes to talk on the phone, as I would like their advice on something. Then, on the phone, I explained that I was trying to get my speaking career off the ground, and if she had any advice. I went on to say how I was new to this and still don't have the experience to make all the right decisions. She deals with speakers all the time, so I would like to pick her brain. After a good discussion, I asked if there was anything she thought I could do in regards to the current situation with the nonprofit organization. She said she would see if there was anything she could do about getting me at least something for my efforts! Yes, it wasn't a promise of compensation, but now at least there is a chance to get something where as before there was no chance -- and I made a great contact with someone that can help me in the future!

The moral of the story? Don't worry if you screwed up -- Don't worry about "going back on your word" (this is what it felt like to me), but you can always try to salvage a situation. I'll make sure to keep you folks up to date on what really happens.

20Something TakeAway:

It's never to late! Swallow your pride and go hat in hand to ask for what you really want.
Be humble and ask for advice.. after all, people love giving it.
Get people emotionally and logically on your side -- you can do this by asking for advice and putting them in your shoes.

Come watch me at Ignite Baltimore tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:26:00 +0000

5 Minutes, 20 slides. What would you say?

I accepted this challenge, so I will be speaking at ignite baltimore tonight! Swing by if you are in the Baltimore area. The goal is to spark new conversations and collaborations across cultures and disciplines.

http://ignitebaltimore.com/speakers
The Windup Space
7 pm
12 w. north ave, baltimore, md 21201

How to find a mentor

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:55:00 +0000

As a 20Something, you should constantly be on the look out for mentors. Having a mentor can really change your experience of a company from being the miserable to likable or from likable to totally awesome. So if we all know its important, how does one go about finding a mentor?

Walk into peoples offices and start talking to them. Yes, it sounds crazy, but it works. I've done this to dozens of people. They are usually very friendly and willing to sit down and talk with you. I have NEVER had anyone not be friendly or be open to talking. Often, I end up talking for over an hour!

Here are some pick up opening lines you can use:

Hi, I see you all the time but I haven't officially met you, I'm Bruce.
Hi, We sit next to each other but I haven't really talked to you. I'm Bruce.
Hi, I work on this project, but I've always been really interested in department/role. Do you have a minute to chat?

From here, ask about them, talk about yourself, and then this part is really important. ASK for their advice/opinion on something! This is how you can start the mentoring relationship. Then stop by regularly if you guys get along and if you like that person.

Super Hint: My friend Jeff Landsberg of www.tonmiletrader.com fame gave me this awesome tip that I have used to great effect. If you are a guy, find a male mentor that does not have children, or one that does not have a son. They will see you as "the son they never had", and do a really GREAT job being a mentor/champion. I do not know how this works for females, but I suspect that most women want to help other women succeed in a male dominated workplace.

Catch me in the Jan IIBA Newsletter!

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:28:00 +0000

I was invited to speak at the Baltimore Chapter's 5 year anniversary, and I made a mention in the IIBA's January Newsletter! This newsletter is sent to all IIBA members worldwide! I'm on page 8.

On December 9th, 2008, the Baltimore Chapter celebrated the 5th Anniversary of International Institute of Business Analysis with fellow Business Analysts, Sudina Search and Bruce Yang. We enjoyed birthday cake after dinner and all 22 attendees received their five year pins. Bruce then presented: “Generation Y: Understanding and Working with the Next Generation of Talent.” Generation Ys have never rolled down a car window, nor known ofa world with more than one Germany. Now, they are entering the workplace in record numbers. The talk discussed what is behind their need for immediacy, as well as what motivates and mortifies them. Poised to be the highest performing—and highest maintenance— workforce in history, understanding Gen Y is a crucial yet daunting task for all IT Professionals.

Click here to see the entire newsletter

What attracts me in a job posting

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Claudine Meilink on Twitter : "Millennials - What attracts you in a job posting? Details about the position? Info about benefits? Where do you look for jobs"

The current way of job hunting:
Person: I want to be an consultant.
IT Consulting Firm: We are the best consultants! Join us!
Staffing Consulting Firm: We are the best consultants! Join us!
HR Consulting Firm: We are the best consultants! Join us!
Government Consulting Firm: We are the best consultants! Join us!

The problem with the old way is that there are a million consulting firms, all saying they are the best. Furthermore, most Gen Yers, don't really know what they want to do, or want to do a lot of different things! I believe that job hunting is difficult because we are not having the right conversation. Instead of talking about roles and job titles, we should be talking about values and skill sets.

I don't care if you call me a "Business Analyst" or a "Consultant" or a "Process Analyst". I just want my job to: 1) Allow me to do 'Problem Solving'. 2) Be a democratic organization 3)Empower the workers to affect change. 4) etc..

The best job posts are ones that describe what the potential hire should value and what skills they should have. Some from Seth Godin and the Twitter Jobs site. "You're relentlessly positive." "You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes." "You are comfortable with ambiguity, and rarely ask for detail or permission." "someone who is largely self-motivated, who finds satisfaction in reaching self-imposed goals, and is willing to regularly raise the bar on those goals."

Contrast phrases like that to one you find on the careerbuilder website "Analyze business user requirements to properly configure Open Text Livelink ECM"

Benefits fall to the bottom of the list. They don't affect my decision at all, as long as you have the basic stuff like healthcare.

I look for jobs mostly online. However, job posting websites are really terrible. 90% of the jobs listed suck and are not right for me. I don't get why I have to wade through 100 job postings to find even 1 that remotely appeals to me. I would much rather recruiters take the time to read my blog and my twitter, or find out about me from an article I published or from a presentation I delivered.

Tips on how to network

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:38:00 +0000

All throughout college, we were told 'network, network, network!' so I listened, and still never got anything out of it. It's not that I didn't understood the premise of why networking is so important, but nothing ever came of it.

Now I realize I have been doing it all wrong. Networking is not just shooting the shit. Networking is not talking about sports, weather, etc.... thats called being friendly. Networking is a deliberate, focused attempt to discover possible value for others and for yourself. Here is a template of how to network that I've begun using to great success:

Me: Hi, how are you doing? What do you think of event?

Them: Its great.

Me: Awesome, I think something positive about the event. What is it that you do?

Them: I do online banking for ING.

Me: Oh thats great! It seems as if marketing a bank that has no branches would be very difficult, how do you do overcome that?

Them: We blahblahblah

Me: Wow, thats a great point, have you heard about this thing called twitter? blahblahblah I am a financial services consultant. I just list a major accomplishment. I would love to talk with you more about what it is that you do, do you have a card?

20something TakeAway:

The Goal of the template above is to establish rapport, get contact information, and be remembered. Next, go home and research everything thats happening with online banking. Then contact them and say you want to grab lunch. At lunch, you can try to accomplish more (finding a new job, selling them a service, etc)
Get right to the point - "What do you do?"
Be interesting and demonstrate that you can provide value to them. For example, you could spin twitter as a way to build INGs client base and deal with customer questions.
Be passionate when speaking and smile a lot.
Always say positive things about the event you are at, even if it sucks. Nobody wants to talk with negative people.
Remember that even if the person can't help you, you might be able to help them. Karma baby.

My voting experience

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:16:00 +0000

I went to the voting place at 10am. I decided to do some last minute research on the 10th congressional district in VA while waiting on line. Unfortunately, there was no line, so I had to go back outside and do the research on the iPhone. Then I went back inside armed with knowledge. I went up, showed my ID, got my yellow voting card, then went to vote on the electronic ballot. They had around 5 or so electronic machines, and 10 or so paper ballot stations. I'm not sure if you get to request a paper ballot or not, but there was only one person using the paper one. There was 2 people in front of me on the electronic ballot line, I voted, took a picture, and was nervous that I was breaking an election law by recording my vote. Thankfully, either nobody noticed or nobody cared.

The whole thing took less than 5 minutes.

Fighting Ageism

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:53:00 +0000

As a Gen Y worker, you face a very steep initial climb when working with others. "They" will take one look at you and assume that you are the person fetching the coffee, instead of someone who genuinely has value. Here is just one example: I remember my first meeting with a director. The food chain was as follows Director > Manager > Leader of Grunts > Grunts. The participants in the meeting were the Director and 2 Grunts. Unbeknownst to the Director, I was actually the Leader of Grunts. The other grunt was a 40something women. The Director never looked at me ONCE the entire meeting. He spoke to her, he asked her questions, and he totally ignored me. Even after I had answered all the questions, he continued to direct his questions and comments at her, even thought I was clearly the one with the subject knowledge (shedeferred to me when asked a question).

Over the next 2-3 months, every interaction went pretty much the same. But eventually, I noticed that he slowly started looking at me and talking directly to me. It was only after I had proven myself over the period of months that he finally got that I was the guy who he needed to talk to in order to get things done.

People will assume that you, as the youthful one, are just the coffee fetcher, the bag carrier, the note taker. You will have to fight against ageism again and again in order to be seen as competent.

20Something TakeAway:
Now that you are aware you face this initial obstacle, you need to know how to fight it. There are a couple practical tips you can follow.

Do a lot of interrupting. Interrupt and restate what they told you in your own words. Just say, 'Wait, I want to make sure I got it right, what you are saying is X.' This will show your self confidence because you have the guts tointerrupt -- not a lot of people have guts in the workplace, they just wallow in their own ignorance. Second, it demonstrates that you 'get it'. Most people talk for 30 min and then they have no idea if they got through or not to theiraudience . If you repeat back what they are trying to tell you, it gives them a chance to verify they conveyed the information correctly.
Ask a ton of questions, especially questions that poke holes in their logic, try to 'beat them to the punch'. Ask questions to clarify, but moreimportantly , if you can follow their logic, try to find where things may go wrong and say, 'wait, if you do X then Y, what about Z?' Usually they will say, "Great question! You beat me to the punch and I was just going to get to that!" If they say that, you just proved that you can think by yourself, and not have to rely on others telling you.

Irked by Gen Y Generalizations?

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:54:00 +0000

I just read a post (http://www.genpink.com/gen-y-generalized) by a Gen Yer who says they are very irked by generalizations about us. It is very true that being put in a box -even if its 100% accurate - feels uncomfortable. I get frustrated often when people claim that Gen Y feels entitled, when in fact, a more apt term coined (i think) by Tammy Erickson is immediacy.

Looking for similarities in ourselves is very important. We need to know how to communicate to other Generations our needs and wants. It's not a surprise that many Gen Ys are disillusioned in the workplace, and the only way to help ourselves is to start communicating our generational differences to "The Man".

One helpful hint is to dig deeper than the superficial. You will find many values that Gen Y shares. I believe that one of the basic tenants to hold dear for organizations is that we are only motivated to do things if we want to do them. Historically, you will find much more command and control situations, where you as an employee, you ought/must/should do something. Now its all about "How can I make this person WANT to do this?"

You can't generalize about if someone is a vegetarian, hair color, or married just because they are part of Gen Y. What you can generalize is about values, not specific things. For example, Gen Y follows the Just In Time model of learning. Instead of working in procurement for 10 years before knowing how to write a contract, we learn via the internet and talking with experts in the field. Instead of planning things way in advance, we coordinate in real time. Instead of synchronous communication, where everyone must be available at the exact same time (meetings, phone calls) we do much more asynchronous communication, where you can look at things when you want to, like text messaging, posting on forums, and twitter.

Introducing Google Docs to the CEO

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Last month, I was asked by the CEO of my company to co-author an article with him. Over the next few weeks, I would write a very basic draft, print it out, then meet with him to get feedback, iteratively developing the article. As expected, I had to do many revisions and edits, slowly getting the article to where both he and I wanted it to be. However, there were certain points that we touched on where I felt like I was trying to guess what was in his brain. I felt that there was a specific way that he wanted a sentence to sound, but wouldn't come right out and say it.

Enter Google Docs. I already do all my work on Google Docs. Here is an explanation of what Google Docs is.

I find that being able to log in anywhere and get to my work immediately is really helpful. I broached the topic of using google docs for our article. He was interested in giving it a try and immediatly, there was a ton of benefits.

He felt empowered to alter the article - I saw him add some very good parts to the article. Before, it was just me with the power to edit, now he also has the power to edit. With that power, he could immediately make some simple edits that made a huge difference. We went from him being a Passive "Victim" of my writing to being an Active Agent in creating something great.
Being able to edit makes you think harder. I found that he thought harder and more deeply about the article after being able to edit it. It's one thing to "review" and article, and another to be reading it with a blinking cursor. It makes you really think about how you can improve it.
Asyncronous Communication. A CEO has very limited time. Trying to find time on his calendar for a face to face meeting (syncroneous communication) was difficult. Now he can work on his own time, and edit the document when he has time.
Life is easier for me. No more trying to read his mind. He still tells me the big changes and ideas he wants, but for the smaller things, he can just do it instead of trying to explain it to someone else.

Recently, I was helping a coworker with a project (creating an RFP). My sole job was to take comments from 5-10 different people and incorporate their comments into the "main document". Each person would turn on track changes in Word, make their changes and then send them to me, and I would type them into the main document. Many people had the same comments, and there was an incredible amount of duplication. I billed around 20 hours of work for this. At over $100 an hour, over $2,000 was spent on basically copying and pasting -- a pathetic waste of money. Had the document lived on Google Docs, each person could just directly make comments into the document, saving a lot of wasted time and money, not to mention avoiding duplicating their own work.

20SomethingTakeAway:

As a Gen Y, we can easily add value by teaching others in the organization about new things. Even if they are not used, you will be seen as an innovative leader that has creative ways of doing things. I do not know if the CEO will start using GDocs for all of his collaborative things, but maybe I changed his life! He will surely remember this moment -- it is not just another article co-authored with another employee, but a learning experience for him.
When bringing up a new "scary" technology, make sure you appeal to people's innate sense of wanting to learn. Almost everyone likes to "try something new, once" be up to date on the new-fangled technology.

Speaking at Freddie Mac on Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

I am speaking at Freddie Mac's Analyst Community Exchange on Friday, Sept 19th about business analysis. Tell your Freddie Mac friends!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +0000

Advice for those of you in college:

Most "experts" recommend you figure out what you want to be in life and work towards that. I.E. "I want to be a politician" and so you would find a job as an aide to a politician. I agree with this, if you do know what you want to do or be, this is the first step and you are ahead of the curve. However, I find that 90% of people (including myself) don't know what they want to be when they grow up!! That way of thinking is also a relic of the past, when people stayed in one role for their entire lives. The future is where people can follow their dreams and be more than just one thing. You can be a professor AND a consultant AND an author AND a politician! Once we start looking at our careers that way, we need to start rethinking how we approach our goals.

If you know exactly what job you want, that's great and you should go for it. For the rest of us, think about what type of KSA (knowledge, skills, abilities) you want to use in your life. For example, I value the following:

Being challanged
Making a large impact
Creating Value, not just analyzing it
Growing organizations from small to big

So what I would do is seek out jobs that help get me closer to the following. I don't think about what specific industry when looking for a job. I don't care if I work in a Technology or Financial company, or a Non-Profit or a For Profit company.

20Something TakeAway:

If you know what job you want -- great! You are ahead of everyone else. Start doing things that will bring you closer to your dream job.
If you don't know what job you want -- Find out what you value -- what you really care about. This list can change as you go through life.
When looking for a job, ask questions specifically targeting your list. If you like lots of social interaction, ask a bunch of questions designed to understand if your job has lots of social interaction.
At work, always seek out those things on your list and seek to develop your skills that you value.

Successful? or More Successful?

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Recently, someone asked me the question "What industry are you successful in?" Initially, I was at a loss. I have been invited to speak at the IIBA (International institute of business analysis), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I have published an article in Mortgage Banking Magazine, and am currently co-authoring another article with the CEO of my firm. The projects I've been are are hugely varied. Am I a technology guy? A mortgage guy? A speaker on Gen Y?

I had never really thought about success as being limited to an industry before, but it did beg the question -- What exactly is "success"? I've always wanted to be successful, but I never considered myself a "Top 25 under 25 entrepreneurs" kind of guy.

Success means that you are making progress in your life goals. You cannot ever be "Successful" if you are not moving towards something, but can be more successful as you continually create new goals for yourself. Conversely, you can never be a 'failure'. It doesn't really matter where you start, as long as your making forward progress.

If you want to be a writer and you publish an article, you are more successful than before. If you want to move up in the company and the director wants you to work on a special project, you are more successful than before. If you are unemployed and need a job, getting an interview means you are more successful than before.

There is no line between 'successful' and 'unsuccessful'. Success is not reaching a six figure salary. It is not the title of 'VP'. As long as you are progressing to what you want to accomplish, I would say you are successful. This blog is dedicated to helping you progress, no matter where your start point is.

Asking for an honorarium - failed attempt.

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:00:00 +0000

I was recently invited to speak at Freddie Mac's Analyst Community Exchange:

A group of people interested in learning about trends, standards, techniques, best practices, publications, and training related to requirements elicitation, specification, classification, attribution, validation, and management in Freddie Mac development projects. We also seek to present Freddie Mac business-related topics to increase our member's business acumen.

I responded to the email asking the following:

1. Will there be a projector set-up?
2. Is this open to all people including non-Freddie employees? - And can I invite people?
3. Is there an honorarium?
4. Approximately what is the size of the group? (5? 20? 100?)

I asked the first question as an opener, an easy question so I don't seem so harsh. Question 2 was figuring out if it was a private organization. I am guessing that, public/nonprofit organizations do not give honorariums, and for profit/private organizations should.

That brings me to the third question -- will I get paid? And the last one plays two roles. One is to sandwich in the ugly question #3 so they do not dwell on that (people usually remember the first and last thing the most). And secondly, it lets me know if the honorarium is reasonable (based on audience size).

I got the response back, and basically this is only open to Freddie Mac employees and there is no honorarium. Bummer. A couple of thoughts:

I definitely did the right thing by asking. You always want to ask for some benefit to yourself, whether it's monetary or not. He didn't get mad at me for wanting money, in fact, he apologized that there would be no honorarium -- nothing lost by asking.
My main question is, should I have asked for an honorarium in a more direct manner? Perhaps a statement such as, "My typical honorarium is $1000." And then see what the response is?
Another question is now that I've been "shot down" Is it appropriate to ask for smaller things like travel expenses?

Happiness 101 - Positive Psychology

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I started taking an online "class", Harvard University's most popular class, Psychology 1504 Positive Psychology. Harvard has made videos of the lectures available online. A loose collective of individuals came together via a google group called Happiness 101. We follow the class 'in real-time' which means that the class took 12 weeks to finish, so we will take 12 weeks to finish as well. Every Sunday, we meet online and discuss the lectures. I think this is pretty amazing, and here is why:

The vast majority of participants are Gen Y. Yes, this is ancedotal evidence, but I have a hard time picturing Gen Xers or Boomers self selecting to participate in this class. We learn everything on the internet, from the benefits of a double mascectomy to what goatse is. Why not take it one step further?

This is a loose collective of people coming together and doing something, not because they can make money, but because of passion to improve oneself.

Of course, people have been self organizing for a very long time (book clubs, knitting clubs, biking clubs), but technology allows us to now easily access the best minds in the world (Harvard, MIT etc, TED, etc)

20SomethingTakeaway:
If you are doing something 'on the side' just because you are interested in it, how can you relate that to work? You really get no benefit from keeping it to yourself. Figure out a way to get some benefit out of learning stuff you don't have to. If you can write a freelance article, do it! If you can come up with an 1 hour brown bag presentation for your company, do it! You don't need a "good reason" to do this. Just send out an email saying, I want to teach you about XYZ. At the minimum, you are building political capital within the organization. You can even go to your Director of VP and say, "Hey, I've been taking a class in positive psychology and would like to share what I've learned by giving a presentation during lunch. Would you be interested in coming?" I bet they would be. And I bet they would be impressed as well!

Once you have a big boss coming, getting the rest of his or her downline to come is going to be no problem. (Tell them, I'm doing this presentation and the Director was interested in attending, so I figured I would invite all of you too!)

The bottom line is looking for a Win/Win situation where you can pursue your passion projects AND leverage the 'thing you would be doing anyway' in order to build political capital in your organization.

10 Reason why I should be sent to TechCrunch

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:42:00 +0000

10. The tech community has a closed social network, meaning they only really interact with themselves -- They need more 'outsiders' like me to attend.
9. One way to get an outsider to attend who normally would not attend is to give away free tickets!
8. Brilliant ideas that are at TechCrunch can inspire not just other techies, but regular folk in 'traditional' business.
7. Nobody has really taken the time to see how TechCruch relates to mortgage giant Fannie Mae - I can do this and talk about it (they are one of my clients)
6. Great ideas spread like viruses, what better way than to infect a speaker? I give presentations about Business Analysis as well as Generation Y.
5. I've published articles, TechCrunch can find a whole new audiance in them.
4. TechCrunch will have a chance to influence me in the formulative years of my career.
3. I still have a lot to learn about what innovative ways there are to use technology
2. I am easily inspired by great ideas
1. It will be a LOT of fun! =)

Searching for Job Satisfaction

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:39:00 +0000

Earlier, I wrote about how the Chief of Staff wanted to meet with me and discuss our companies people strategy. First, it's an amazing feeling when it's not you who is going to the senior management team and begging for an audience, but the other way around. Kudos to her for realizing that 20Somethings have a unique perspective and can make a big contribution.

Second, I spent the night before preparing for the meeting. This is an important step, and you should never skip it. Remember, in order to succeed, we need to use our natural strengths to our advantage. I came up with lots of stuff, and the discussion went really well. A portion of our discussion was about what people are looking for in a job. I found a really helpful and interesting post on the HBS Editor's Blog entitled Make Sure You're Engaging Your Top Talent. The most interesting thing I took away was this part:

Intellectual stimulation
Inspiration, or strong belief in the mission of the enterprise
Camaraderie/social interaction
Time/flexibility/convenience
Advancement up the ranks
Financial rewards
Various extra freebies and boondoggles

Basically, this is what people look for. And when they do not get enough of the top ones, they are unhappy. However, when you ask why they are unhappy, they only mention the bottom ones. People either do not really understand why they are unhappy or are afraid to say it, and use the bottom ones as a cop out.

20Something TakeAway:
When you complain about the low items on the list, think if that is really at the cause of your dissatisfaction. If you chase the bottom ones, perhaps you will never be truly satisfied with your job. On job searches, try to come up with some questions that will help you understand how well the organization scores on the top few bullets.

I'm Published in Mortgage Banking Magazine!

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Several months ago, I spent about a month on and off co-authoring an article for the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Banking Magazine. This magazine is the premier trade magazine for Mortgage Banking! You can check out a PDF version of my article here:

The Promise and Perils of Reverse Mortgages

As a 20Something, credibility is something that we need to work very hard to develop. It will open all sorts of doors for you if you can be seen as credible. So what does it take to build credibility? It's made up of two parts, Trustworthiness and Expertise. Being published by a trade magazine is relatively easy because they have so few contributors, but it increases your Trustworthiness factor by a LOT. The thinking goes, 'If Mortgage Banking Magazine trusts him, who am I to qualm?'. Furthermore, you are seen as 'vetted' by the community and are accorded the due respect.

Another benefit of today's internet driven world is that you can write an article and shop it around without ever telling anyone your age. This helps you avoid the bias against 20Somethings, which makes it more likely you will get published.

The Towel-Monkey and Pivot Points

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:13:00 +0000

A pivot point is where a small difference in performance can make a big difference to a customer.

The first night after checking into a cruise, I came back to my room to see a elephant folded from towels on my bed. Each night it was something else, a monkey, a sting ray, a swan. This is a perfect example of a pivot point. On a cruise, you expect great food, you expect room service, but folded towel-monkeys? Not so much. Everyone on the boat is absolutely delighted with them. One day, when I came back from a day long tour only to find that I didn't have a towel-animal, I found myself to be very sad -- much sadder than I expected.

These little towel-animals make such a big impact that I even saw one person, on their last night on the cruise, seek out the room steward and tip him, exclaiming, "We LOVED the animals!"

Someone else commented that they pictures of each animal every night before the go to bed. Another said they adopt each one and form a "mini-zoo" in the stateroom.

I'm pretty sure that no other thing on the entire ship can meet this in terms of value. Folding an animal must be incredibly cheap, but the payoff is unbelievable.

This goes to show that pivot points don't have to be expensive endeavors, and are really impressive. Remember, the value of a pivot point is inversely related to how much it is expected.

20Something TakeAway:
Think of your personal pivot point -- What can you do as an employee that people would be delighted with?

Seth Godin's 3 laws of great graphs

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:26:00 +0000

I couldn't have written it better. Master marketer Seth Godin has three laws of great graphs:

1. One Story

A single story, one story per chart. "Oh," the attendee says, "our costs are going through the roof!"

2. No Bar Charts

The problem with bar charts is that they should either be line/area charts (when graphing a change over time, like unemployment rates) or they should be a simple pie chart (when comparing two or three items at the same scale).

3. Motion

Here's the surprising one: You should animate your charts.

Interestingness: The Reptilian and Limbic Minds

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Yang) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:21:00 +0000

Lizards have a brain, which we can refer to as the reptilian brain. Rats have the same exact brain, except with more crap on top of it, we can refer to this as the Limbic brain. Humans, have the same brain as rats, with even more crap on top of it, the Neocortex.

The Reptilian: SURVIVAL! This section of the brain is all about survival: Food, shelter, and fight or flight.
The Limbic: FEELINGS! This section is all about emotion. Feelings of love, anger, passion.
The Neocortex: LOGIC! The boring, rational, 'thinking' part of your brain.

The brains are listed strongest to weakest. When more than one brain is 'talking' humans tend to listen to the stronger one. When you feel highly passionate about something, it will trump your better judgement. If you are starving, your not going to be feeling very adoring.

One very important note is that humans will rationalize everything, and even if they are listening to the reptilian or limbic brains, they will rationalize and give a logical reason for their behaviors.

20Something TakeAway:

Appeal to people emotions whenever possible. Be passionate and enthusiastic. It appeals to the stronger limbic brain instead of the weaker neocortex.

Use this interestingness:

When you are giving feedback to others. (Don't just tell me it's important, make me FEEL it's important.)

Source: Made to Stick