CEO today … peon tomorrow.
That’s the dejected outlook I heard from my friends when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000-2001.
The job market ahead looks better–the Labor Department is expected to announce optimistic job stats Friday–but take a look back too. The heady Internet culture of the late 1990s wasn’t a forgettable blip. In its wake, the workplace changed for the better. Let me explain:
Many professionals in their 20s were lucky enough to ride the dot-com high–enjoying not only paper wealth, but also the kind of significant responsibility previously unimaginable at such a young career stage.
As companies dissolved left and right (including the New York Silicon Alley start-up where I worked for a year), my friends and former co-workers froze in fear. After starting a company or jumping in as the No. 3 hire at age 25, they were appalled at having to enter the regular corporate world with its old-fashioned hierarchy and traditionally long path to seniority–otherwise known as “paying your dues.”
One of my friends, who was a few years out of college and by then owned his Manhattan apartment, refused to have any boss but himself and spent the next year playing electronic Scrabble online.
A co-worker of mine was laid off and started marketing himself as an independent consultant, which failed because no one trusted the “dot-com kid” with an earring anymore.
I wondered what else was in store for those spoiled or scarred by early success.
Here’s the point: Finding a job is always challenging, but for professionals in their 20s and 30s today, the whole Internet experience radically shifted our work expectations.
First, in 1999 it seemed like “jobs fell off trees,” as one local career counselor put it. Lesson No. 1: Getting a job is easy.
Also, young business and law types left old economy companies for technology firms in droves, which inflated salaries on both ends. Lesson No. 2: We will get rich quick.
But now, as the recovering economy begins to produce more and better jobs, it seems at least one good factor from the dot-com era remains: companies increasingly have unconventional, flexible expectations for employees. Workers are seeing more responsibility and creative opportunities early on, plus a lot more self-direction.
“The old kind of traditions and mandates by which human resources people made their decisions are not holding as much water as they used to,” says executive search consultant Lin Stiles, who says hiring managers today are more interested in risk-taking, atypical candidates.
Employers have adapted to retain talented professionals, knowing that this generation’s new motto is “follow your own star,” not “company loyalty.”
They’re happy about it, too, Stiles adds. Companies report less absenteeism, sick days and turnover.
Stiles also says that employers really don’t have a choice anymore: Companies that resist change and remain too regimented won’t attract new young blood.
Why is this shift important to you? Our generation, informed by the Internet companies’ corporate shakeup, will benefit most. It means more jobs that we want, not just space-filler positions while the market is tough. It means a democratic, self-directed work environment where we can excel.
I worked only briefly in Internet land, but I was impressed by one thing I saw: open-minded organizations with independent spirits and transparent operations.
Some things from the dot-bomb dream world are thankfully gone–I’ll die happy if I never hear another pitch for www.stupidbusiness.com–but some lessons from those innovative workplaces remain. Lucky for us, the growing job market seems to recognize and reward the moxy that made it all happen.
For help on the nuts and bolts of the job hunt, check out RedEye’s jobs section Monday.
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asneumer@tribune.com
