By Shane Moise, San Francisco Regional President
The holidays are here and with them all the travel stress, the cold and flu season, shopping, and overeating. Beyond these seemingly a-typical yearly occurrences are the rumblings of controversy over the political correctness behind the meaning and historical significance of our nationally recognized days off. To some Thanksgiving is a time to be with family, to others it’s just another carefree day in the year to enjoy away from work, while to others it is the celebrated recognition of an event long ago that catalyzed the end of their native culture. I lay these varied experiences out to illuminate existing dichotomies of human historical perspective within a unified national celebration.
So this holiday season, as many of us go out shopping and fly home to be with family, there are masses of talented and educated young people stranded in a jobless economic wasteland. As a young man, I’ve bore witness to negligence that will leave an indelible mark upon American finance and governmental institutions for generations to come. I say that with confidence because I have dedicated time, energy, and what little resources I have gathered in my short term on this earth to changing the modus operandi, the status quo, and the rules of the game that have left so many outside in the cold.
To that end, I am thankful for the privilege of having a job and for a professional environment that encourages thoughtful innovation, social justice, and retrospective reflection for growth and movement forward. While these days are undoubtedly frustrating and desperate times for many of us in the United States, I find personal solace and am contented by the quiet revolution rumbling and growing with each passing day. As you read this and as friends and family are traveling to far away places, young people and students are networking with each other, learning and experimenting with new technology in the development of a new way forward.
A year ago, I was unemployed and took chances on short term and temporary contract jobs. I applied for jobs at every level and had to remove my educational experience from applications to avoid being tossed out of the pool for being over qualified. I took up part time work for promotions and struggled to keep myself from drowning completely in school loan and credit card debt. The future seemed utterly hopeless in a story that rings too true amongst the youth of our generation; I am a young professional with too little experience and for that too great of a risk. In a market where competition is measured more often by years of experience than by the innovation, character, creativity, and energy that youth can bring into an organization that challenge is overcoming not only the barriers or race, gender, and politics but also those of age. Of course, professional insight is developed over years of experience, but times have changed and the systems, economics, and politics of our generation demand something new.
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