Scared straight: How Gen Y has benefited from the recession

    In response to the research, the Business Roundtable, the HR Policy Association, and Accenture partnered with me to develop JobSTART 101, a free, 90 minute online course for college students and recent graduates that introduces the professional skills necessary for entry-level employees to succeed in the workplace and the challenges and expectations they will face.

    I think that Gen Y's reaction to this course has been much more positive because of the recession. If we'd released it in 2007, we would have had lots of Gen Y-ers saying, "I don't need this stuff. It's all common sense."

    But, as noted in August by Cindy Krischer Goodman in the Miami Herald, today's entry-level hires have been humbled. Many of them have been down on their luck for several months, and their dreams of instant corporate domination have crumbled around their feet.

    According to a Pew Research Study conducted in February 2010, about 37% of 18 to 29-year-olds have been underemployed or out of work during the recession, the highest share among the age group in more than three decades.

    Gen Y-ers have realized that maybe they don't know everything right now and that they will have to buckle down and do what parents, mentors, and senior managers say is necessary to be successful in a tough business climate. And with only minimal prompting, in the last few years they have been actively taking the initiative to prove their worth to employers on a daily basis and hone their soft skills in the long-term.

    The recession has forced Gen Y-ers to put some of their best qualities to use -- ingenuity, efficiency, and collaboration -- in defense of their own career survival.

    For the first time, many found themselves in a hole that even their all-powerful parents couldn't penetrate, and they had to figure out how to pull themselves out. In other words, they were forced to grow up, and growing up is never a bad thing, even if you hit some bumps along the way.

    Alexandra Levit is a nationally recognized business and workplace author and speaker, as well as an expert on intergenerational communication. She is the host of JobSTART 101, and the author of several books, including They Don't Teach Corporate in College.