There seems to be a lot of love at TalentEgg lately.

Someone from our team – who will go unnamed – has been providing us with daily reports on his ascent into love (which is super-cute).

And, in a nice twist on a practice that is usually considered vandalism, the outside of our building was sprayed with the cutest love-graffitti in the whole wide world. We’re talking pink hearts and cute messages.

Unfortunately/fortunately, the building owners have recently started to repaint the entire building, covering up the love-graffitti. I took this picture the other day so that we could preserve at least a little bit of it:

We work really hard at TalentEgg. Honestly, we really do.

You know how there’s this image of startup culture as birkenstocks, miniature basketball nets, Playstations, etc? Well, that’s not us. The front half of the office is really quiet – doing work. The back half is constantly on the phone, drumming up new business.

That being said, we do break for the occasional hilarious video. And this one is certainly hilarious (and also loosely connected to careers!)

One of my biggest pet peeves in the Gen Y ‘market’ that I work in is reports and presentations that portray opinion as fact.

Specifically, I’m referring to characterizations about Generation Y where the data is gathered from Generation Y. For example, “Gen Y panels”, where Gen Y-ers are asked to share their opinions of themselves, or surveys that gather Gen Y opinions of themselves.

When talking about employment, I find these reports to be even more misleading – how can a Generation Y-er accurately predict what they’ll want in the workplace, when their experience in the workforce is limited (if they have any at all)?

A better method is to ask Gen Y to report on their actual experiences. And in the case of a Generation that is just starting out in the workplace, it may mean that the only real data we can use to understand their workplace behaviour is based on the way we were raised.

That being said, today’s article in The Mark, “How to Keep Young Talent in Canada” is a good read for any employer looking for the basics on Gen Y and their expectations in the workplace. Enjoy!

TalentEgg launched in April, 2008 – only a few short months before the markets crashed. In one respect, we were lucky to have launched before the recession, giving us enough time to build the momentum necessary to get through the slump.

On the other hand, I’d be lying if I said that late 2008 – and 2009 in its entirety – was easy.

That’s why articles like this one is very encouraging:

“Unemployment rate falls to surprise 7.9%” – National Post

The article reports that Canada has added over 400,000 jobs since July, 2009, “recouping almost all of the jobs lost in a slump that began in the second half of 2008”.

This makes me smile.