So this week I am on vacation. I sitting on my deck (actually kind of cold outside, I am glad I had the pool closed yesterday) having a cup of coffee and replying to some Emails and reading through the stack of magazines that have been sitting in my office with sticky notes attached that say “Looks interesting”. With the massive amount of magazines I receive this is how I identify the stories I want to read and set them aside for a reading binge like vacation time.

This morning I read Business Week (Sept 18th issue) mostly because I was interested in two articles the first was about offshoring legal services to the Philippines and India and the second was about the boardroom leaks at HP when I stumbled across an article entitled the Best Places to Launch a Career. The article gives some ideas on how to recruit and retain young talent, specifically the Millennial generation:

• Don’t fudge the sales pitch
  • Makes sense, the world is a different place. Applicants spend significant time interacting in social networks like MySpace where they can ping a virtual network of peers for information. The information gleamed from social networks far outweighs a balance sheet or corporate propaganda.
• Let them have a life
  • Work hard and play hard (one of my personal favorites), Millennials expect this balance.
• No time clocks, please
  • Measure quality not quantity. Again this makes perfect sense.
• Give them responsibility
  • This refers back to my post on “The (Code) Linux”. Hillarie management makes this a difficult prophecy. Developing a web of trust allows ownership at the furthest edge of corporate infrastructure.
• Feedback, and more feedback
  • Managers should assume the role of mentor not task master.
• Giving back matters
  • Encourage altruistic behavior

This was an excellent article. Always interesting to see what companies are doing to attract talent and spur achievement and personal enrichment within corporate culture.

This my first post in a multi-part series entitled “Vacation Reading”. Look for Part 2 sometime later today or tomorrow.

-RJB