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And this is why marketers get the “big” bucks.

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Generation Y – also knows as the Millennial Generation, those born in the 1980′s and early 1990′s – is a demographic that can no longer be ignored.  Millennials have grown up with digital technology and social media. There are the ones that you see playing with their smartphones, whether it’s for gaming or to browse their Facebook feed or Twitter replies.

Millennias are the future of the workforce, and by not connecting with them educational institutions risk alienating their future benefactors.

Outreach isn’t the only hurdle at colleges and universities. Overall, budgets are diminishing that would allow higher education institutions, more specifically departments within the institutions, to hire and train the necessary staff that is needed to successfully integrate with social media networks.

Educational institutions need to embrace the Millennial generation. Colleges and universities need to have the foresight to realize that social media isn’t a passing fad. While it still could change quite a bit, it is indeed here to stay. Today is a good time as any to start utilizing it and not be left behind.

My Dad and I circa January 1986

I worry about being a father, but I do not stress about it.

I stress about providing for my wife and our unborn child. At times I’ve afraid, yes, but not to the point that I become anxious and frozen with fear. No, fear is what pushes me to succeed. Fear is what keeps me looking insides myself and to push myself further. Fear pushes me to succeed.

I worry about having a solid and stable job so that there would be no financial troubles in our family. I do not stress about it because I know that I am doing what I can at this moment in time. Although I always look to the future.

I have read that financial planning for college should start when the child is born, and I worry about that too.

I worry that I will not be strict enough to set boundaries, that I will be too mellow, but that will pass.

I worry that I will not be able to say no, that I will love my child too much. But if I really love my child, saying no will at times be for the better.

I do not worry about being a good father, I know that I will be one. I have lived and I have learn. And I would like to say that I am still learning.

I know that if I worry that means that I care. And I will be alright when it comes to fatherhood. And in that regard, glory will be mine.

I was sitting in a seat that was adjacent to the train-doors, and here walked in a woman and simply stood in front of me. I looked up. I noticed a small bump at the base of her tummy (yes, I said ‘tummy’ because I like that word and that it connotes care) and noticed a little bump (yes, I said bump).

At first I wanted to get up and offer my seat. I really did. But what had kept me from doing so was fear of offending the poor woman if in fact she was not pregnant.

How am I supposed to know? Shouldn’t there be a sign or something? I don’t know.

I was raised to open (and hold open) door. Pull out chairs for women. To say “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” To hold the fork with my left hand, and knife with my right. And to give up my seat…in certain situations.

I no longer feel compelled to give up my seat to people with children because more often than not the seat would go straight to the child. Am I wrong to think that way?

This would never have happened when I was a kid. My father and mother, when offered a seat, would sit down themselves and then sit me up on their lap. This almost never happens today. And I can’t stand it when I see parents let their kids, ones that are young enough not to pay a fare, sit in a seat that could be occupied by someone who has paid their hard earned cash to by a ticket to ride.

So, getting back to my story, before the next train stop arrived, I had decided to just get up and walk out of the train car. It didn’t hurt that I had to and could’ve transferred at the next stop.

I did so walking out and not looking back. Mitzvah, an act of human kindness, compelled me to do so. I don’t want to be praised. I rather have that woman think that I had to get off because it was my stop. Call me crazy, but I don’t need anyone’s approval.

One résumé sent to an employer doesn’t guarantee an interview. If I had to create a spreadsheet of résumés sent versus interviews  that I had went to, honestly, the numbers would be heavily skewed towards résumés, which would be balanced only by a few interviews.

Consider the fact that with the current economic climate: the job market is favoring the hiring companies.

Hiring companies and hiring managers aren’t going to force their hand. They will wait patiently because there are a lot more prospective candidates for every job than there was before the Recession hit.

Never stop, because it will be hard to resume again. It could be a character trait, but getting a job, especially during the Great Recession, is an especially difficult task. Even when you get that elusive interview, don’t stop and think that you will get that job. Keep looking until you have an offer in hand. Or else, be ready to lose valuable time.

Interview practice does make perfect, because looking back to the interview that I’ve had just after graduation and the ones that I’ve had recently, there is indeed a big difference. Don’t kid yourself and think that you will ace the first interview that you go to. You will get nervous, you will make mistakes, you will stammer.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Just like riding a bicycle, interviewing is something that you get a hang of as you ride along. And after you’ve been off that bike for a few years, it will take a bit to readjust and regain what I call interview swagger.

Dress conservatively, because that is what is expected.

I’ll tell you an anecdote.  The evening before one of my interview I was under the impression that I had a white dress-shirt ready that I would wear the next morning. As a started my morning ritual, I discovered that the shirt was small. No, I did not grow over night. It just happened that it was a dress-shirt belonging to my brother-in-law.

A mix-up happened and I had nothing to wear. I had to put on the next available shirt that I could find, which turned out to be purple.

“Well, can’t do anything now,” I thought. I thought that the interview was all about my presentation. I was in denial.

I didn’t get that job, and no matter how hard try to think that it was something about me that didn’t fit right with the person that was interviewing me, I still think it had something to do with me wearing a purple shirt. Will I ever wear a purple shirt to an interview? Never!

Now, I’d love to hear of your interviewing experiences and suggestions!

Etan Thomas, an NBA veteran of 11 season, provided a rebuttal to Stern’s and Cuban’s arguments [via ESPN].

“…Is it fair to force someone who wants to take a different path to remain in college or even to attend college in the first place?,” wrote Thomas.

No, no one ever has to go to college. Most people attend college either because they want to or because they see it as an avenue that will help them attain that dream job.

No one is forced to go to college, but at times those with the desire don’t lacks the means.

“Do I, or anyone in the NCAA or NBA power structures,” wrote Thomas, “have the right to take that dream from him because I feel that it would be more advantageous for him to stay in school another year?”

Certainly neither has the right, but both have the inherent ability to do so.

Is it a dream shared by many to play in the NBA? A most definite yes. Is it a right? No.

After all, playing in the NBA is just a job. And one with a career span of about three to five years.

“One of the purposes of going to school is to find a good job,” wrote Thomas. “[A]nd if someone can get a good job before finishing school, why should anyone stop them? Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and it turned out OK for him.”

Thomas is right in that the purpose of finishing school is to get a s0lid job, but saying that Bill Gates dropping out of Harvard turned out ‘OK’ is saying nothing at all.

For one Bill Gates, there are thousands of entrepreneurs that were never able to get their ideas off the ground.

“If schools are are going to treat basketball like a business,” wrote Thomas, ” they should treat it like a business from top to bottom and college athletes should be paid. Or, as I’ve argued all along, they should be allowed to go to the NBA, where they can be paid.”

The issue of school, colleges and universities paying student-athletes is a whole separate issue from them being allowed to go straight to the NBA in lieu of the league mandated minimum. Once again, if we treat this issue from a business perspective, then the NBA has the ball in their corner in regards to setting the qualification necessary to enter the league.

Like any business, the NBA could conceivably require high-school grads to attain a four-year degree before they could declare themselves eligible for the draft. Unlikely to do so because staying the full four years isn’t an ideal, the NBA could work towards a middle ground that will allow players to develop before joining the Association.

Just  because you can drop-out of school, doesn’t mean that you can go straight to the NBA.

For anyone chasing a dream, success does not come without its hurdles.

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This is probably the longest that I’ve gone without drinking a cup coffee in years. And I quite literally mean years.

I don’t think that I will exaggerate when I say that for the last few months I had literally drank at least one cup of coffee a day. At least one. Sometimes two. Thankfully I haven’t had the urge to throw in some energy drinks into the mix.

There are a lot of vices that people can get addicted to, such as drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, just to name a few. Coffee isn’t quite mentioned as often as others are.

Coffee is as strong addiction as any. Maybe even more so sinister because it isn’t really viewed as a deadly vice. But, just try to not have that daily fill of the warm liquid. Just try.

I had decided to go cold-turkey.

The first day, no, in the first few hours, I started to experience a mind numbing headache’s – a symptom of withdrawal, as I was told.

A few hours and my body was already craving caffeine. I did not relent. No coffee, caffeine or energy drinks.

And today, day 18 of my coffee-less existence I struggle to not to succumb to the evil calling of java beans every time that I walk by a Starbucks.

But maybe some day soon, after my wife gives birth to our child, I will no longer be able to fight the diabolical thirst of caffeine due to the long sleepless nights, and that will be the point when I will break by sobriety. But one things is for sure – because I have witnessed so many lives ruined by hard-core drugs -  caffeine will be the only vice that I will ever give into.

Why did I give up coffee?

Plato has said that the “lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. ” And I intend to preserve my body so that it can serve my family.

As I await for my wife to bring a new life into this world, I know that I will have to keep up with the little ball of joy as it grows older. I realize that eventually it will be stronger and faster than I am, and that is why I have to be strong for as long as I possibly. To be that strong shoulder that can be leaned on, physically and mentally.

And there is no greater learning method than to lead by example.

Photo of the prophetic line.

Did you know that Richard Wright predicted twitter 61 years ago?

Here I was standing on the train and re-reading ‘Black Boy,’ one my favorites. And by sheer happenstance, I discovered that had talked about tweeting around the time of World War II.

In autobiography published in 1945, Wright writer the following about the time that shyness left him frozen in-front of his classmates:

‘”Just forget us and write your name and address,” the teacher coaxed.
An impulse to write would flash through me, but my hand would refuse to move. The children began to twitter and I flushed hotly.’

Well, ‘they didn’t have cell-phones back in 1945′ you say?

Okay, I could be mistaken on the actual meaning on twitter back, but they twittered anyway. Right?

By the way, take a look at the cool video below where Arthur C. Clarke predicts the Internet, way back in 1971.

Oh yeah, please support my blog by purchasing a copy of ‘Black Boy‘ via the link below.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter via @ArtemAltman.

My wife and I in highschool

I am going to be a father. Is there a more of a life altering statement that a man can hear in his lifetime? A radical change will soon happen – actually it has already started – my wife and I will bring a new human being into this world.

Is there a more life altering statement than “I’m going to be a dad?”

Up until nowI could only imagine what it must feel like to be entrusted with the awesome responsibility of watching over a life over so fragile – innocent – a life that sprung from my own.

I look forward to the new responsibility. Also, I realize that I am not allowed to fail. Because if I fail, it will not be simply me who has failed. If I fail, I will undoubtedly harm another life – one that sprung from the very fibers of my being.

If God has created man in his image, am I not a creator of sorts? The precious life that is currently growing inside my wife’s belly, will it not be in my image?

I have never been the one inclined towards the theological, but if image is not the only thing transferred to us from the divine, do I not foster the eternal responsibility to my future born child?

And that is why I cannot fail at being a great father to my unborn child.