Gen Yers Create Their Own Jobs

When Gen Y college graduates, the children of Baby Boomers, can't find job openings or even internships, they start working for themselves. 

For many college grads, entrepreneurship isn't a lifeline but is a fallback. 

When Reed Shelger, 27, at Rice's Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, couldn't find a summer consulting internship last year, he used his background as a former NCAA Division 1 college wrestler to open a wrestling and martial arts gym in Houston. Nearly a year later, he says the business is thriving. His career prospects have improved, too—he's fielding consulting job offers. "In hindsight, it couldn't have worked out better," he says. "I have the best of both worlds."

MBA students who in years past may have easily snagged jobs in finance or consulting are turning to entrepreneurship as their plan B.  At top schools like here at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, record numbers of students are drawing up business plans. Driving the trend are risk-tolerant members of the millennial generation, ages 18 to 29, who are entering B-schools in droves but don't want traditional careers. "It's a sea change," says Thomas Kinnear, director of Michigan's Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.

One sure sign that entrepreneurship is taking off: surging interest in business plan competitions, where moguls-in-the-making present ideas to angel investors and venture capitalists.  Applications for Rice University's MBA competition, which offers $800,000 in prizes and is the world's largest, are up 40%.  Ross' Michigan Business Challenge had a record 85 applications, while submissions to the Wharton competition are up 22% this year.

Source: BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK, March 22, 2010

 Therese Marie Boldt: Yes! You Can Land A Job (Even) In A Crummy Economy