Gen Y Now Book Review

As part of my research, I wanted to do a book review on 'Gen Y Now'; the book itself adds to the ever-expanding genre of 90s nostalgia, add a scrunchie and Furby into the mix after reading this and I felt like travelling back to the first years of my life. The point of reading this book as part of my research was to really help me understand just how my target audience currently shops, splurge and live their day to day lives, as someone from generation Y I think I have somewhat of an idea, however continuously research to confirm this will help further progress my knowledge and also benefit my FMP by allowing me to process important aspects such as marketing and sales (considering how my app will make revenue as a business). 'Gen Y Now' mainly focuses on the new evolution those in the workplace are experiencing whereby the masses of 'baby boomers' are retiring and it is now the time of Generation Y to take their place, the book itself begins with demographic research to concrete practice of just how useful we as a generation are, however, the statistics used will really benefit me in terms of just how they live their day to day existence, for example; 'People between the ages of 15 to 24 make up 20% of the world's population.' This is a prime example of why I believe my app will be successful, out of that 20% doing my own further research I discovered this graph; In the US alone, 71% of 18-24-year-old Americans use Instagram, as this is my target audience this cements further the estimation that my app should be successful. For future reference, I consider Gen Y to be those born from the 1980s-1998.

To continue on, my book review can be found below;

Title of Book; Gen Y Now
Author(s); Buddy Hobart, Herb Sendek
Year of Publication; 2014

Biography of the author(s); Buddy is the president and founder of Solutions 21, a business management and consultancy firm based in Pittsburg. Solutions 21 regularly perform seminars on leadership and behavioural styles. Herb is a men's basketball coach at Arizona State University, Herb works with generation Y daily and knows first hand about developing gen Y successfully.

Name and description of Publishers; Wiley publishing develop digital content helping people skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

Summary of contents from books inside cover or blurb; 'There are 80 million millennials, and they are transforming the modern workforce. Your organisation stands to gain from Gen Y from employee engagement-if you know how to achieve it.

Chapter list;

1. Introduction
2. Back to the future 2   
3. The generation
4. Prejudice  
5.  Overcoming stereotype
6. Gen Yers are lazing and slacking
7. Gen Yers feel entitled
8.  Gen Yers post-recession Attitude
9. Gen Y is research orientated
10. Gen Y is delaying parenthood and marriage
11. Gen Y has a vision for themselves 
12. The ambition gap between Gen Y men and Women
13.  The human investment
14. References and research 
15. About the Authors
16. Index

Facts taken from reviews;

1. 'GenYers have been brought up looking after their own interests –  what is best for their advancement in the short haul.  They are consumers (even in education).' 
2. 'the characteristics of Gen Y. Members of the group were raised in overprotected environments with parents who respected their every word and deed.'
3. 'Nonetheless, Tulgan's manual represents an excellent resource for managers struggling to understand Gen Y.'

I really wanted this book to sustain a neutral balance however throughout the book I noticed the use key phrases such as 'manage' and 'supervise' in a patronising term as if to suggest that we, as a younger generation must be continued to be treated like so. It is very frustrating to read and I found myself wanting to read the book less and less due to the derogative terms used to insinuate that we are not an articulate generation, in terms of the research I found useful for my FMP the underlining suggestion I found is that Gen Y want to be climbing the ladder of success very quickly and with that in term comes the prize or larger salaries, in knowing this it can be assumed that Gen Y overall have a modern income meaning more money can be spent on things such as online shopping, which is great for my app to be sustained. 

The main strong points I took away from Gen Y Now were; 

1. The use of strong and well thought out research allowed for the points they made to be very clear and informative.
2. The mix of academic thinking with the added influence that is clearly made by Herb of generalised thinking of the general public means that those of any intelligence or level can understand the concise points being made. 
3. Both authors made a convincing argument that Gen Y should be 'babied' as the generalised stereotype is that we are not responsible enough and 'rush things' for example;"Teach Gen Yers to postpone low-priority activities until high-priority activities are well ahead of schedule." 

The overall weakness of the book was the downright rude insinuation that we as a generation are incapable of truly working to a high standard level like those of older generations, I wasn't expecting to get so personally offended by a book but it was unjust and unfair to those in Gen Y who what gone to university or worked to a high level in their work after leaving school. My aim by reading this book was to seek out statistics that would either prove or disprove my theory that 'Snapthat' would be successful amongst the generation Y and after fighting my way through disproving bias I feel like yeah, my app can fit into the market successfully but it does not justify the unjust feeling I have in my stomach at the clearly bitter authors of this book. 

In conclusion, I feel like I found some slightly useful statics to use pushing forward with my research. It is good to see that authors are taking on board the fresh independence of younger generations to predict how the job sector of this generation will succumb to unpredictable times. The statics found can and will be beneficial to me and out will outway the cynical overtone of the entire book looking down at generation Y. Personally, this book doesn't seem to offer enough entertainment or enlightening education for me to recommend this book for the simple enjoyment of reading or really research, I probably won't use this book again unless truely needed.