Did the past four months just completely fly by or what? It wasn’t that long ago we began blogging about the data that drives Gen Y and careers. As I look back at the batch of posts, I have to shamelessly admit I’m entering the holidays with a strong sense of optimism for the new year. Even in tough times, our discussions on Talent Insights have consistently demonstrated that Gen Y on a whole is determined to “make it work.”

Whether it’s taking the steps they need to take to explore career paths and find new jobs that they love, staying engaged with the political process on the heels of a new administration or remaining steadfast with their commitment to social concerns, millennials in 2009 have nothing ahead of them but opportunity. And generally speaking, that’s really how they see things: through a lens of promise and hope.

We’ll be taking the next few weeks off and will return in January with more insight to help you do what you need to do better - whether it’s finding that next great candidate, finding that next great job or anything in between. In the meantime, stay warm (especially to all of our friends here in the northeast), rest up and get ready for 2009. It’s going to be quite a year.

Happy Holidays!

At the end of October, Experience refurbished its Facebook Page and we’ve seen some great traction with our growing fan base. As the universally regarded #1 online destination for Gen Y, college students and young grads alike flock to Facebook daily to do everything from connect with friends to discovering new music to joining communities (like Experience!) that resonate with their interests.

Tied in with our Facebook relaunch, last month we surveyed more than 230 Experience.com candidates with our Online Usage Survey which was designed to gauge how millennials spend their time online. And whether it’s catching up with friends, watching videos, reading the news or looking for jobs or internships, our respondents told us many interesting things - especially when it comes to looking for entry-level opportunities.

One specific area of interest the survey covered was job sites. In addition to Experience.com (which took the lion’s share of responses) and using offline college and alumni-related career services offerings, candidates most often use the big brand-name job sites. More significantly than who made the list, our respondents told us some important things that we should consider when reaching out to Gen Y.

Q: What challenges do you face when searching or applying for a job online?

As you can see in the graphic above, the biggest area of opportunity for recruiters is to optimize their job descriptions. Though the top challenge identified in the survey was “unable to find what I’m looking for,” this frustration is caused in large part due to the description-related challenges identified. Vague job descriptions or not relaying the right (or enough) information can prevent a top candidate from connecting with an opportunity that just might be that “perfect fit” in reality. Candidates may not be finding what they’re looking for because sometimes the descriptions aren’t up to par with the opportunities and employers themselves.

As I mentioned in my post from last week, there’s only one chance to make that first impression. Maximize your recruiting dollars by ensuring your entry-level job and/or internship descriptions are up to snuff and are hitting all the notes Gen Y wants to hear. If you haven’t yet checked it out, I encourage you to read our whitepaper on the subject.

Next up, I’ll take a different dive into this Online Usage Survey and will specifically look at social networking and how it factors in to the career discovery and job search process. Stay tuned!

As we enter the final stretch of the final quarter of 2008, and especially coming to work each and every day after reading the morning headlines, I often find myself thinking of some classic proverbs. One of my favorites is “if we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting,” attributed to Stephen Covey. So true in business, and so true in life. Same goes for another one you’ve heard since you were a kid: “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

When it comes to recruiting Gen Y with targeted job postings, however, candidates – no matter the industry vertical – do tend to judge books by their covers. First impressions can make all the difference on whether or not the most qualified talent will even look at your opportunity, let alone apply for it.

Diving deep into the data on one of the most popular Experience.com job search terms, we’ve found some interesting results – results that all employers should consider when crafting messaging for their job opportunities. Millennials that searched for jobs using the search term “analysts” in early December 2008 were presented with hundreds of relevant titles. The top five performing related job titles, illustrated above in terms of click throughs, collectively represent 71.7% of all returned titles that were clicked on. The employers with these titles are seeing success on clicks because they know that they only have one chance to make that first impression – and they kept things simple.

Gen Y employers are most successful with job posting click throughs when their job titles match or are directly related to the terms candidates are searching on. Easy, right? But it can be tempting add a lot of noise into the title in effort to grab attention. And at the end of the day college students and young alumni see right through this. Using ALL CAPS or an abundance of exclamation points to garner MORE CLICKS will most likely BACKFIRE!!! Believe it or not, a good number of job titles that were returned in this “analysts analysis” used such tactics.

In our It’s Time for a Job Description Makeover whitepaper issued earlier this year, we analyzed what Gen Y values and what they’re not seeing in job postings. Whether you’re recruiting an intern or a full-time entry-level hire, make it your New Year’s resolution to reassess how you write job titles and their descriptions. Make sure your words clearly and concisely spell out key benefits for your candidates – because this is what will ultimately decide whether or not top talent will take the time to submit applications, connect with your company and tell their friends all about the experience.