we have to change our tune? NYTimes, bite me.

and this is what's wrong (ok, one of the things that's wrong) with the mindset about work in america. i wish i could comment right on the site, because i would.

sure, yes, i agree, don't get me wrong.
persistence? important. hard work? important. paying the rent? important!
as usual, in the words of my dad, 'it's not what you say, but how you're saying it.'

excerpt:
Meanwhile, Eric Papp, the 24-year-old founder of Generation Y Consulting in Tampa, Fla., recalled how he had run into a friend who was dressed in gym clothes having just worked out in the middle of the afternoon. “I asked how his job was going and he said it was going well but he had to quit,” Mr. Papp recounted. “He said ‘It interfered with my social life. I had to work weekends.’ ”

None of this surprises Daniel H. Pink, an author who specializes in navigating the workplace. “This generation has been spoon-fed self-esteem cereal for the past 22 years,” he said. “They’ve been told it’s all about them — what they want, what they are passionate about, what they find fulfilling. That’s not a bad message, but it’s also not a complete message.”

IT SHOULD BE ALL ABOUT US. and yeah, maybe that's my "GenY" mentality.
why SHOULD the guy have to work weekends if he doesn't want to? it wasn't the job for him. he didn't love it enough, or find it fulfilling enough, to sacrifice his weekends and be a slave to the clock like other workaholics. clearly he's not doing too badly if he can quit that job and still have the funds for his social life. where's the rest of that picture, NYTimes, hmmm?

not to mention that in the same breath as you defunct GenY's values, you cite a GenYer who created his own consulting firm. how does that fit into your description? he took those values of self-esteem, work-fulfillment, and self-definition and made it work for him. kudos to that, sir, kudos to that.

if i never sat down and asked myself what i wanted in a job, i would never have gone into advertising. i know this for fact, because it's something i had to sort out midway through my college years sitting in a career services office hating my internship options.

it's not how "it's not about us" or these old rules you think we should follow.
it IS about us because we're going to be in your shoes. and well, we think they need to be shinier.

to struggling students entering, i wouldn't spout out negative dogma about how no one has a plan and how you are unimportant. you are important. it's your life. everyone's priorities are different, and i'd say to examine yours. write a list, seriously. do you need your weekends? what salary do you want to make in the future? do you want to take your work home with you after hours? would those answers change if you really loved what you did? what do you love to do?

persist. don't settle.
all the costs--photocopying and coffee retrieval--are worth it. correct, you may not land the thing you love in your first job, but PLEASE, please please, pursue what you love. if you love what you do, i'm going to love that you do it well, and there's success in that. and yes, it will look like work, NYTimes. but it doesn't have to. i still wake up every morning and say "do not want" because i sacrificed my love of sleeping in for the love of my work. but i love my work.

someone out there is doing what you love. join them.
do whatever it takes to join them. get involved.
and if no one is doing what you love? make it happen.
someone else loves it, too.