More of those Nice Young People

Starting with Life Before Noon, I stumbled onto a network of Millennial blogs that paint a very different picture of Millennials than the media portrays. These nice young people are much more of what I was expecting (and experiencing for the most part) and far less of what I've been hearing about until very, very recently. Here are a few of their blogs worth checking out (and even recommending to your students; a little peer pressure couldn't hurt):

Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist: Advice at the intersection of work and life

Penelope Trunk writes career advice for a new generation of workers. She explains why old advice - like pay your dues, climb the ladder, and don’t have gaps in your resume - is outdated and irrelevant in today’s workplace. She has a reputation for giving advice that is counterintuitive but effective, like take long lunches, ignore people who steal your ideas, and stop vying for a promotion.

Trunk is known for test-driving her advice before spewing it. Her own career choices have been featured by Time magazine and the Guardian as examples of the new issues people face at work today. Both the New York Times and Business Week cited Trunk’s writing as especially in tune with this new workplace. In her personal life, Trunk routinely (often awkwardly) demonstrates buzzwords before they buzz, like the quarterlife crisis, portfolio career, and shared-care parenting.

Her book is Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success (Warner Books, May 2007.)

Trunk spent ten years as a marketing executive in the software industry and then she founded two companies of her own. She has endured an IPO, a merger and a bankruptcy. Prior to that she was a professional beach volleyball player.

Brazen Careerist

What’s this site all about?
Remember those college career centers that you never used? You probably wish you had taken advantage of them (like we do), but now (maybe) it’s too late. Well that’s what we’re here for. We’re an online career center aimed at Generation Y — young professionals who want to design and define their careers using the new rules for success.

What’s a Brazen Careerist?
A Brazen Careerist knows that defining your own career, finding the right field, and pursuing it are key ingredients to a fulfilling life. Like the tag line suggests, when you define your career on your own terms first, you control your life.

Where are all the good bloggers?
Right here, of course. The Internet is loaded with talented writers, but there is no way to easily search for them. The Brazen Careerist network is made up of a vibrant, curious and ambitious group of career-minded bloggers, passionately covering a variety of fields: personal development, entrepreneurship, public relations, technology, marketing, and politics, each blog offers a unique, informed perspective to our ever-expanding audience.

Are all the network bloggers writing about careers?
No! We believe that everyone should write about their passion. If your current job isn’t focused on your passion, then you should do whatever you can to turn your passion into your career. Whether you want to be a fashion designer or the next great pro volleyball player, then you should be actively writing and reading about those interests. So join our conversation and make your voice heard!

Twenty Set

Twenty Set was created by Monica O’Brien. Monica originally had the idea to start a blog about topics she was interested in, such as gaining wealth and becoming an adult, in order to build her personal brand and establish a name for herself in social media circles. As a younger member of the twenty set, she struggles with the concept of success and how to achieve it, and wanted to share what she has learned with other people in their twenties who may have the same questions.

Young Go Getter

YGG began as a small forum back in August of 2005. It was originally created as an alternative to the other entrepreneur forums available at that time.

Since then, it’s grown into a large community of young go getters spread across the globe. It’s no longer just a forum. It’s exactly what our tagline says it is, the business playground for entrepreneurs young at heart.

We’re now on version 4 or so, built upon the lessons learned from the mistakes we made in the previous versions and the invaluable feedback from all of our members. It will continuously evolve as we make more mistakes and experiment with the standards implied upon most communities.

Hopefully YGG becomes a daily read for you and enables you to develop contacts and businesses that you normally wouldn’t.