Johnny Lechner, Professional Student -- Afflicted With On-Set Career Crisis, Says Gen Y Career Coach
Twelve years of school & thousands of dollars on a college degree hasn’t taught Johnny what he needs to be successful. Gen Y Career Coach says CNN’s Heidi Collins interview with professional student proves he’s got On-Set Career Crisis.
(PRWEB) May 5, 2006 -- When CNN reporter Heidi Collins interviewed Johnny Lechner, a college student on the “twelve year plan,” she asked him what he was afraid of. His answer: regretting not doing one more year of school. But Gen Y career coach, J.T. O’Donnell, says Lechner’s real fear is for leaving the only thing he knows how to do well -- being a professional student. O’Donnell is so familiar with this problem as a result of her work with college students and young professionals that she’s given it a name: On-Set Career Crisis. O’Donnell says this type of affliction comes from being overwhelmed by the decision to choose a career direction without any clear guarantee of success. “Kids are graduating from school today without any idea of what they want to do or how they are going to achieve the success they believe is expected of them. They're also having a much harder time finding their internal motivation for work and the best way to find professional satisfaction on their own terms.” (See CNN's interview with Johnny at this link http://news.yahoo.com/i/2448.)
O’Donnell says this can be attributed to the now popular discussion around helicopter parenting and the effects pop-behaviorism has had on the way young people today have been taught to motivate themselves. “Gen Y has been guided from an early age to focus on the prize. The on-demand, instant gratification generation has been coaxed into desired behaviors using all sorts of bribes. Presents, praise, stickers, grades; you name it, this generation is used to being given an incentive to do what’s expected of them.”
O’Donnell says the problem of On-Set Career Crisis becomes acute when a professional student is forced to leave the comforts of an externally motivated world in order to seek satisfaction from internally motivated efforts. “Their first decision as an adult is to choose a career. But that’s like telling them to go pick one food out of a mega-grocery story, without reading the labels, and then being told that it will be the only food they’ll eat for the next two to five years; a pretty unappealing thing to do. It’s no wonder why people like Johnny Lechner would rather stay in school.” O’Donnell says that in spite of spending thousands of dollars on expensive college degrees, Gen Y hasn’t learned how to assess their professional strengths and preferences and then translate them into viable career options. “Career success and satisfaction comes from knowing what you are good at and what jobs will let you shine. While there are thousands of career paths a young person can take today, after proper analysis, the list can be shortened dramatically, enabling a student to make an informed and effective decision with respect to their first job out of college. Unfortunately, this process hasn’t been taught to Gen Y, leaving them overwhelmed and unhappy at the prospect of becoming part of the American workforce.”
O’Donnell says the number of Johnny Lechners in America is on the up rise and will continue to grow unless educators recognize Gen Y’s need for tools that will help them understand and tap into their internal motivation for work. She also says that parents need to recognize that as their children’s first and most impactful teachers, their own personal and professional success has influenced their children’s perceptions and thoughts on career.
“It's sad, but a lot of young people I meet today think ‘career’ is a four letter word. They’ve watched their parents struggle and stress over their careers and have decided to rebel against a life strained by professional success. But at the same time, they have no role models or resources to find the work-life balance they seek,” says O’Donnell.
Is history destined to repeat itself with Gen Y? “It already has. On-set Career Crisis shows the same symptoms as Mid-Career Crisis. Depression, anxiety, frustration, confusion, denial, avoidance, distractions; they all come from not knowing how to find the professional satisfaction a person desires. And it’s going to keep on repeating until our society starts to recognize that career success as ‘The American Way’ seems to have many Americans paying a heavy price: personal dissatisfaction and an unhappy life.”
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb381064.htm
He could have stayed in school all that time AND had a freaking PHD by now. Does he not even have a bachelor's?
What a maroon.
I doubt it.
Not everyone has someone else to pay for it.