Having just started out in the PR game, it’s really helpful to get the boss’ perspective on the new employee.

I’m collecting the best posts on this subject on my blog – both to remind myself and to help others who are starting out, or want to start, a career in PR.

It’s good to see in the above comments that plenty of more senior PR practitioners are applauding the post too, showing its value no matter what stage your PR career is at.

Thanks for including my post on “Five things PR students should know about their choice of career.”

I’ve gotten a lot of notes from students and newbies since I wrote this. Most of them acknowledge that battle-savvy veterans like you and me are empathetic to their challenges.

But amazingly – and this business does not amaze me easily anymore – I’ve also heard from many young folks who take heated issue with our advice.

They complain that we’re not doing enough for them, that employers and clients should be more understanding of their tenderfeet. They argue that they should be given unlimited opportunities to discover themselves, that they should have a big say in how they spend their day so they can get the experience they think they want. They want us to appreciate that they don’t view the concept of work they way we do, that they aren’t going to take reading material home or invest their own time in making themselves indispensable. They want us to accommodate the fact that they may still be deciding what they want to be when they grow up, even years after committing to an employer.

They seem surprised and agitated that they are being held accountable for their knowledge, their maturity, their performance and even the gossipy stuff they post on their social networking page when they go home at night.

And they seem genuinely surprised to find out that a probation period is a probation period – that their boss really does have God-like discretion to fire them for not fitting in, for not adding value, for being a screw-up.

Some of these young folks even have enablers – parents, friends, other interns and junior account executives who reinforce their entitlement mentality. I know of a recent situation where a doctor dad wrote a scathing letter to the president of a prominent firm insisting that had not given his new graduate daughter enough attention or proper training, and that he was an idiot for letting her go. In 25 years, I’ve never seen anything like that before.

I try to respond to newbies who have these ideas about the world. I tell them that they’re setting themselves up for disappointment, that they’re at a self-created disadvantage against the go-getters who want it more than they do.

Then I tell them to add one more rule to the many that old guys like me are suggesting they keep in mind as they launch their career:

“Nobody owes you anything. Nobody.”

Steve

When was the last time you read a newspaper or journal article on the challenge of managing Gen Y employees? My totally subjective impression is that I come across one of these at least every couple of weeks. The articles I’m thinking of tend to …

I may have been in the industry for seven years, but this week I had to revisit treating all clients with equal service despite my disagreements. Above, I would add that one must learn to temper eagerness with respect.

I will share this with my new class next week.