Kate Rose is an MSU grad who enjoys her job at Google in Ann Arbor

Kate Rose is 25, and has a degree in Communications from Michigan State University. By her standards, she has a great job. For example, some days her friends will call her at nine in the morning and they’re shocked that she’s not at work.

“Like, ‘Kate, don’t you have to get to work?’ It might be 10 o’clock. Well, I could work 10:00 to 7:00 today if I wanted to,” Rose said.

That’s because Rose works for Google in Ann Arbor. She says at the end of the day at Google, it’s much more about content than the number of hours you’ve worked.

“The reason I’m able to work for a corporation is that Google provides an environment that is flexible, allows me to kind of work the hours that I want to, in the projects that I’m interested in. Maybe more importantly, I’ve got ownership of the projects that I’m involved in,” said Rose.

Google is just one example of a company that’s making a successful effort to attract Generation Y.

Leah Reynolds is a private consultant in Michigan who works directly with employers who want to get it right with Generation Y. She says most organizations in Michigan aren’t effectively targeting recent graduates. She says Gen Y is different from past generations. Y’ers want meaningful jobs and they want to know that their companies are trying to make a difference.

“They want to have a line of sight to, ‘How is what I’m doing, you know, applying to the overall outcome that we’re trying to achieve?’ — and be a part of the strategic aspects of what is being decided,” Reynolds said.

Basically, Gen Y’ers want to be in on the action. They don’t want to be stuck behind a filing cabinet, and they definitely don’t want to have to work their way up the traditional corporate ladder. For baby boomers, spending five or ten years in the lower rungs of an organization wasn’t the end of the world.

But Reynolds says Gen Y’ers don’t want to wait to make an impact. If an organization can’t keep up with them, and they feel like they’re in that cartoon, Dilbert, they’ll leave.

This means in order to attract Generation Y, Reynolds says employers will have to create a completely new kind of work culture.

“One that is more open to new ideas and — wherever those ideas come from. So we’re rethinking, you know, how old the person is or how much experience they have in terms of having a voice,” Reynolds said.

Okay, so making an effort to include young people in management decisions and create a more flexible work environment is a great start. But now how to get the word out to Generation Y.

Back at Google, Rose says the most effective way to do this is to go directly to campuses and recruit.

“Many of us, this is our first real jobs out of college, and we were introduced to the idea that we could work here through these college recruiting events.”

Once a company gets on campus, our Gen Y expert Leah Reynolds says they need a game plan.

“You want to make sure they’re aware of your brand, aware of what you can offer them. You want to demonstrate that you’re serious about hiring their age group. And the best spokespeople you’re going to have are the Gen Y’ers who are already working for you.”

Reynolds says the last, most important thing employers can do is create an online presence and use social media to connect with the Gen Y age group. That means a lot of tweeting, posting, and poking. And if you don’t know how to do that — well, you’ve just created the perfect job description for your first Gen Y hire.

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From 7-8 pm on Thursday, December 17, Michigan Radio aired a special call-in show for the Generation Y Michigan series. The show was co-hosted by Charity Nebbe and Lauren Silverman. Charity is Michigan Radio’s All Things Considered host, and Lauren is our newsroom intern who has been reporting and blogging on generationymichigan.org for the past few months.

Guests on the show included John Bebow (Executive Director at the Center for Michigan) and Britany Affolter-Caine (Director of Intern in Michigan).

Web content administrator Nick Meador hosted a web chat on this page during the show. You can view the chat by clicking the play button in the box below.

“Then I made a joke after that, on that same Facebook thread. I said, ‘Sometimes I wish there were a support group for people who decide to stay in Michigan.’ I was joking, that implies that it’s traumatic or something, and I don’t think it is. And then somebody else was like, ‘I would join that group.’ And then, so George and I started chatting online and he was like, ‘You should make that group, make a Facebook group.’ So I was like, ‘Alright.’ So I made the group and George is an admin…”

Buist wants Michigan by Choice to be a place to exchange ideas and promote a positive attitude. He likes to call it the “Mich-i-can-do attitude.”

“And I know that that’s glib, and I know that it’s overly simplistic. And I know the other organizations that are like, ‘Yeah, Grand Rapids is awesome!’ I know that it’s one sided, and it’s just kind of one-dimensional. But in the context of a larger dialogue, that kind of thing plays a really significant role. I mean it’s like a pep rally or something. Nobody walks into a pep rally and says, ‘Hey guys, stop playing. Stop playing that music. You understand that we might lose? We’re going to play this game and we could lose!’ Everybody knows we could lose. Everybody knows it’s hard…but there’s still a value in having certain streams of information or certain places of connection where just the positive — like, ‘Yeah, we can do it. You can do whatever you want.’ Where that –- even if it’s not entirely true -– where that is the prevailing notion.”

He says this positive attitude is contagious, and young people are more likely to invest in the community if they have hope.

You can check out the Michigan by Choice group on Facebook.

(Photo by Dustin Dwyer)

Grand Rapids does a better job than other Michigan cities keeping some young people in the state after they graduate.

Data for the Grand Valley State University class of 2008 shows that 94 percent of graduates that are working have jobs in Michigan.

Lauren Silverman went to Grand Rapids to talk with some young people who decided to stay in the city after they graduated.

“Oh my god, and what is that in your closet? I’m looking at the photo montage thing,” I say to Tucker.

“Yeah, Sarah made this for a couple of years ago because I’m such a Michigan fan,” says Tucker.

“Why don’t you describe it for me?”

“So she took some foam board and she cut out almost an exact replica of Michigan. She’s got the pinky up here and Traverse City and Torch Lake. It’s really, really cool,” says Tucker.

Tucker grew up in Buchanan, which is a small, mostly Evangelical town of 5,000 people. Like most of his friends, after high school he left for Grand Rapids. He studied at Grand Valley State University and, after graduation last year, got a job with the city.

“To be honest with you, Grand Rapids has taken a lot of those same young people that grew up in my hometown, and quite a few of them are here in Grand Rapids. There’s a whole slew of us that are here from that community. So it’s still a magnet. It’s drawing people and they end up staying too, I think,” says Tucker.

Young people sticking around isn’t an accident. It’s by design.

George Bosnjak is 28 and works for an economic development group in Grand Rapids. It’s called “The Right Place.” He says while the population of young people in other cities in Michigan is shrinking, Grand Rapids is having a growth spurt.

“Actually the last two years have been the busiest years we’ve had here at The Right Place — and the most successful by the numbers, even despite the economic times,” says Bosnjak. “So far this year we’ve closed 14 projects, with just over 4,000 jobs created or retained in a variety of industries — from Global Forex Trading, which is an online currency training company, to Farmers Foremost Insurance. Last year Priceline moved into town.”

Bosnjak says companies are attracted to Grand Rapids because they know there’s a whole bunch of students about to graduate that will be looking for jobs. And as more companies open in Grand Rapids, those graduates can find jobs and often decide to stick around.

Young people stay in Grand Rapids for the jobs, but it’s also for the community.

“Grand Valley really does push their students to get out into the community and work hard, ” says Tucker. “You know, my internship was here in Grand Rapids, and at that point it’s easy to stay. You’ve already built the road, they’ve already sort of mowed it down for you. You might as well just keep riding it.”

All of the young people I met in Grand Rapids told me about their internships. They said their internships really tied them to their community — and made it harder to leave.

George Bosnjak says local organizations are picking up on how important it is to reach out to Grand Rapids’ younger demographic.

“I think what’s unique is that almost all of our local organizations has done their best to outreach to a younger demographic,” says Bosnjak. “For instance, Van Andel Institute has a junior board, where they’re just targeting people under thirty five where to say, ‘How can we get you involved? How can you feel like you are part of the community?’ The museum has an advisory committee of young people, saying, ‘What would be interesting for you?’ I mean where else can you say, ‘I think you need to have a Di Vinci,’ or ‘I think you should have an exhibit on the history of cell phones.’ And you can get that done here.”

Local organizations’ outreach efforts are paying off. It’s no longer just businesses and government trying to get young people to feel involved in the community. There’s a whole pro-Grand Rapids grassroots movement led by young people. They’re starting their own social media groups to show off the city they love, and recruit newbies.

Young people started a Flickr group that only takes pictures of Grand Rapids. And there’s a LinkedIn group full of young people that only posts positive news about the city. Most recently, two guys in their twenties started a Facebook group called “Michigan by Choice.”

It’s true that Grand Rapids has some resources not all cities in Michigan have. But at the core of what the city’s doing is showing young people that they care about them. That’s a philosophy other cities in Michigan looking to fight brain might want to use.

Students at the MPowered festival in 2008 (Photo by Lauren Leland)

Adam Ferris moved to Dubai when he was two. He was disappointed when he came back to the United States a few years ago, when he was 17. He imagined returning to a nation full of entrepreneurs, new ideas and creativity. But at the University of Michigan, he didn’t see that ambition.

Until he came across Mpowered.

MPowered began a few years ago when two students had a dream to make Ann Arbor the Silicon Valley of the Midwest. Today, it’s a student group at the University of Michigan that gives members the skills they need to become entrepreneurs. It has almost 100 members and is growing fast.

For the past two years, Mpowered has run an entrepreneurial competition called 1,000 pitches. It’s aimed at generating business and product ideas from University of Michigan students. This year, they received a record 2,165 pitches.

Ferris, who’s now the Vice President of MPowered, says there is more passion for entrepreneurship on Michigan’s campus than at other campuses because of the state’s struggling economy.

“The average person is into it and says, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur.’ You hear a lot of professors saying that students are demanding more entrepreneurial courses and that’s great,” Ferris said.

Learning to start your own business is one way to prepare for a lackluster job market. And if you open that business in Michigan, you could have a positive impact on the state’s economy. This year, the leaders of Mpowered added a new category specifically for business ideas to revive the Michigan economy.

Lauren Leland is the president of MPowered. She helped create this new category. It’s called “Michigan Matters”.

“Which is a call to students to think of innovative ways to help the Michigan economy,” Leland said. “So one example that we gave is the tax incentive for filming movies here. What are other creative ways that can bring the economy back? That’s doing a great job but what are other ways?”

There were more than 100 entries. And not all of them are winners. Some of them just sound plain silly.

Chris Chan is a peer mentor at MPowered. He described one “Michigan Matters” pitch that was – well, you decide.

“One of the students loves imagery so he was envisioning this house where the walls were made out of glass and there were some way to put images on the glass,” Chan said. “So with the push of the button you might surround your house with the ocean for example, or you could show the Brazilian rainforests.”

It’s hard to imagine a glass house business saving Michigan. But that pitch has just as good of a chance as the proposal for a new I-pod application for counting your pushups.

Adam Ferris is a finalist for the Michigan Matters category. His goal is to jumpstart the video game industry in Michigan.

“And the video game industry is actually huge, it’s booming. Here in the University of Michigan for example has a whole major dedicated to video gaming and designing and so forth. Where do these people go, they go to other developers in other places. So why not have something that’s cool interesting that people will be excited for that could be started here,” Ferris said.

The judges will announce the winner of the Michigan Matters Category tomorrow. The winner will get $1,000 dollars and the opportunity to work with the Michigan Student Assembly to pursue their proposal.

Chris Chan says those who don’t win will still walk away with something valuable for themselves and the Michigan economy.

“So it doesn’t matter if people want to start their own business or go into finance or go into engineering or become a musician, people always need leader. People need that creative mindset, people who actually can lead and make that first step. We feel that we are actually instilling that unique quality into students and I feel like that is really invaluable,” Chan said.

And if these students stay in Michigan and start a business here, that’s a double win for the state.

Roosevelt Midwest v. 2.0 (Photo by Lauren Silverman)

Early last Saturday morning, 85 young people in business clothes walked down an empty street toward the Michigan State University Detroit Center. They were there to come up with policy ideas to make Midwest cities like Detroit a place they’d want to live after they graduate.

Monika Johnson is 20 and the Midwest Coordinator for the Roosevelt Institute. It’s a student-run policy organization that put together a two-day event called Midwest Version 2.0.

Johnson says cities like Detroit have a lot of potential, but need some major upgrades.

“People want walkable communities, they want green communities, they want opportunities for recreation,” said Johnson. “They want a night life — that’s important for people our age. And a lot of those things just simply don’t exist in a lot of our urban areas in the Midwest, and that’s something we want to change.”

Before students came up with policy ideas to attract young talent to Detroit, they went outside and got a feel for the city. Twenty-one-year-old Valerie Bieberich is Co-President of Roosevelt’s Michigan Chapter. She took the group on a walking tour of downtown Detroit on Friday. It’s not exactly how most twenty-somethings would want to kill an afternoon. Most people were a bit disappointed (there was hardly anyone around), but Bieberich said a few of the visitors saw something special in the wide-open urban landscape.

“A lot of them sound kind of surprised, like, ‘I really love it. I didn’t know! I didn’t know it was here!’” Bieberich said.

Most of the young people at the conference were familiar with Detroit, aware of both the thriving live music scene and the boarded up buildings. Lizzy Lovinger is a senior at the University of Michigan. She knows Detroit is no Manhattan, but she’s willing to sacrifice public transportation and a grocery store around the corner to be a part of Detroit’s revolution.

“I do want to be one of the aforementioned urban pioneers,” laughs Lovinger. “It’s supposed to be these young people sort of unattached to families really coming on their own and deciding that they’re going to have a personal stake in an urban environment, and really set their roots down and say, ‘This is where I’m living, and it’s not a temporary thing.’”

“I would consider staying in Michigan if I had an opportunity to participate in Detroit’s revitalization.” -Monika Johnson

If aspiring urban pioneers such as Lovinger are going to convince other young people to come to Detroit, they’ll first have to find a way to create real improvements in areas such as public infrastructure and education.

So the conference presented guest speakers who talk about current revitalization efforts in Detroit. Bieberich made it clear the speakers were there to inspire and inform, not tell young people which policy proposals were best.

In one breakout session, students talked about how to keep talented young people from leaving. And during lunch, another group of students discussed their policy ideas to fight brain drain.

Steven Gilbert from the University of Wisconsin said, “One idea that I have about keeping college students in the Midwest is maybe offering more financial and scholarship money for graduate programs.”

Brennon Zivolowsky, also from Wisconsin, said, “I think a huge issue with brain drain is that we focus on things like tax incentives, how do we keep these people here with programs. But what it really comes down to is a 20-year-old student is looking for the job he wants. I think that’s probably the biggest factor.”

Bieberich and Johnson think if they can get more community involvement in planning Detroit’s renewal, it could be the next hot city. Johnson, who doesn’t even have family in Michigan, has already fallen in love with the Detroit.

“Detroit has so many great opportunities and potential for change,” Johnson said. “In fifty years, this could be a great city. It could rival Chicago. I would consider staying in Michigan if I had an opportunity to participate in Detroit’s revitalization.”

But when the conference was over, Johnson and other students didn’t stay in Detroit. They carpooled back to Ann Arbor. That’s where they threw a big party — something that never fails to attract young people.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) is one place that attracts young adults (Photo by TImothy Vollmer)

A lot of young Michigan college students practically pledge to themselves they will leave the state after they graduate. But some of the best and brightest are pledging their allegiance to Michigan.

Chris Detjen is one of them. When he graduated a graduated from The University of Michigan last year with a degree in Political Science and Program in the Environment, he was offered a job in Washington D.C. But he chose Detroit instead.

“I was a bit conflicted about it to be honest,” said Dejten. “I initially wanted to stay in Michigan, particularly given the area that I’m interested in, which is renewable energy development and making Michigan a leader in renewable energy technologies.”

So Detjen got a job with NextEnergy. It’s alternative energy business in Detroit. He says supporting emerging industries such as renewable energy is crucial to saving Michigan.

“Michigan has an opportunity within renewable energy to retain some of the educated youth that we have here, that it really hasn’t seen in a long time,” Detjen said. “And because it is an industry that has so much appeal to young people — because young people are so concerned about climate change, because they’re interested in new technologies and innovation — renewable energy is also something that Michigan can use to combat the brain drain, I think.”

Over the last year Michigan increased incentives for renewables. Since then, Detjen has seen more young people choose to stay put. Last month he was at the Michigan Power Shift. He was one of eleven regional conferences taking place around the nation, he ran into old friends who decided to stay in Michigan because they want to be a part of a home-grown energy revolution. But not every young person wants to deal with the kind of pressure that comes with transforming a state.

“One of my frustrations has been that people, when they graduate from college in Michigan, they kind of take the path of least resistance,” said Detjen. “And they sometimes decide to go to place like San Francisco, like the Bay Area, places like Chicago, places like New York, where there’s already a huge concentration of young people who are trying to do progressive things. And they sort of forget about the fact that they live in this place where there’s just an incredible amount of need. That’s been tough for me to see.”

Another recent graduate who said no to leaving Michigan is Katie Barkel. She admits it has been tough to watch all her friends leave Michigan.

“But there are a few people who are super devoted to the city of Detroit and to the state of Michigan that are still around,” said Barkel. “And whether they’re in Detroit proper, whether they’re in Ann Arbor, whether they are sort of spread out in the suburbs, there’s still a really good group of people that have stayed here.”

Some of the young people that have left Michigan are even thinking about coming back. Anna Barson graduated from The University in Michigan and immediately moved to Washington D.C, and then New York. She’s discovered there’s a lot of grassroots activism in Detroit she wants to be a part of.

“I do feel some connection, and if I am serious about wanting to do social justice work, Detroit– I mean, it is in my home state, and I think it would be hypocritical of me to completely ignore that,” said Barson.

Moving to Detroit doesn’t have to be a sacrifice for young people. Barkel says there are plenty of ways to have fun too.

“I’m always going out to different things in Detroit,” said Barkel. “I love the Magic Stick, I love Cliff Bell’s. I just love being down there. I love MOCAD, I love DIA, I love…”

Barkel’s got love for a lot of places in Detroit. And the other thing Barkel loves: low rent. She says it’s easier to pursue creative endeavors because you can afford to live and work, and still have money left over. But Barkel says even with cheap rent and the chance to shine, some people will still complain.

“I hear a lot of people, especially at my work, saying, ‘I thought I would be gone by now. Michigan sucks,’” said Barkel. “Some people don’t want to be trudging through the snow, some people want to have more things to do, some people want to have a downtown area where there are actually things that are functional. Some people also don’t want to be in a city in a suburban area that depends solely on using cars.”

For young people that want to rebuild a city, Detroit is the place to be. Hopefully, those young people will support, or create new industries that can make a difference now and in the future. That way, when the idealism wears off, young people won’t just want to stay in Michigan because they feel needed, but because it is a great place to live, too.

“I mean I’ve thought about it but I never really imagined that there would be any opportunities coming out of graduation so I kind of always assumed I would have to go somewhere else for the first few years.”

University of Michigan student Kristen Bialik doesn't plan to stay in Michigan. (Photo by Rodrigo Gaya)

But when I asked Kristen whether she had even looked for jobs in Michigan, she said no. “It’s just sort of my assumption,” said Bialik. So she’s packing her bags when she graduates and will head to Chicago without even checking for jobs here.

That’s not unusual for recent college graduates in Michigan.

Mike Finney is CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. It’s is a local resource for businesses. He’s not surprised students like Bialik are leaving Michigan. Finney said, “The kind of employment opportunities that are attractive to that young talent simply don’t exist in Michigan.”

Or at least that’s what everyone seems to think.

Britany Affolter-Caine is the manager of a program that tries to keep Michigan’s college grads in-state by connecting them with local businesses. It’s called Intern in Michigan. She argues there really are job opportunities for recent graduates right here in Michigan.

“There was a survey done recently that looked at talent graduating from Michigan universities and at least half of them weren’t even looking in Michigan for jobs because they assumed that there were none. The employers did a similar survey and you have just the opposite perception: they assume that there’s no talent in the state. They look out of state. So there are jobs, there is talent, they’re not connecting.”

The problem doesn’t have to do with jobs, but with perception. People see Michigan as a dead zone. Friends, mentors and even parents tell their kids to get out before it’s too late.

Affolter-Caine says the problem doesn’t have to do with jobs, but with perception. People see Michigan as a dead zone. Friends, mentors and even parents tell their kids to get out before it’s too late.

“No parent wants their child to leave the state, but here in Michigan many, many parents are pushing their children out the door, out of the state, because they want them to be successful. They’ve heard the news. They think Michigan is a wasteland, which is patently false. But that’s the perception that they have, and it’s now driving reality.”

Try and convince recent graduates that there are good jobs in Michigan and they’ll look at you like you’re telling them to believe in Santa. It may be out of style to believe, but they want to — you just have to give them a reason.

Affolter-Caine says it’s career counselors at colleges and universities that can persuade students to stay here in Michigan. They’re the ones talking to students when it comes time to make the big decision.

Michigan does a great job producing college graduates, but struggles to keep them here. The exodus of educated young people has come to be called brain-drain. It’s a threat to Michigan’s future because those packing their bags are crucial to an economic recovery.

Michigan has 15 public universities that serve almost 300,000 students each year. But almost half of these students leave the state after they graduate. That means Michigan has the 8th worst migration rate in the nation. Even South Dakota, Alabama and Idaho do a better job keeping college graduates in their states.

There used to be a steady stream of college graduates flowing in and out of Michigan, but that flow has turned into a sputter that businesses fear will dry up altogether. In 2008, Michigan lost a total of 15,000 students with bachelor’s degrees to other states. And according to Michigan Future, an Ann Arbor based think tank, over half of the college graduates that left the state don’t ever plan to come back.

Melanie MacEachern is one of those graduates. She’s about to finish up at the University of Michigan with a degree in Art History and Classic Civilization. “I don’t think I’d stay here, to be honest,” she said.

Ken Darga is Michigan’s State Demographer. He says up until 2004 Michigan didn’t have a brain drain problem.

“But then as Michigan got deeper and deeper into a one state recession the people moving into Michigan went down and the number moving out went up and so we did have a brain drain that reached a peak around 2006,” Darga said.

Every state thinks it has a brain drain, but ignores the fact that migration rates for young people tend to be much higher than any other age group.

Britany Affolter-Caine is the Manager of Intern in Michigan. It tries to keep Michigan’s college grads in-state by connecting them with local businesses. She knew the problem was bad, but she was shocked when she saw the census data in 2007.

“If you look at the state and the number of students, age 22-29 with a bachelors degree or higher, no other state in the union lost more than Michigan, except for one, and that was Louisiana — that was just after Katrina!” she said.

But Darga insists the problem is exaggerated. He says every state thinks it has a brain drain, but ignores the fact that migration rates for young people tend to be much higher than any other age group. Besides, he argues, the number of recent college graduates leaving has leveled out, and it’s a tiny percent of the total state population.

While 15,000 people may not be a mass exodus in a state of 10 million, it is an exodus of brain power. The problem is simple: the people leaving Michigan are the people the state needs most.

Columbus, Ohio (Photo from sxc.hu)

Brain-drain states have come up with a whole host of incentives to try and keep young graduates in state. Ohio’s most recent initiative to counter brain drain is called the “Grants for Grads Program.” The program gives down payment aid to graduates to encourage them to buy a house in Ohio. Louisiana has a similar program in place for graduates.

Michigan should not follow Ohio’s lead. After graduation, students leave Rust Belt states such as Ohio and Michigan in search of job opportunities, not housing. Students want to explore and see other places; requiring them to settle down where they grew up within six months after graduation (as requires the Grants for Grads Program) is ridiculous and won’t work.

“What most distinguishes successful areas from Michigan is their concentrations of talent.” – Michigan Future

Research from Michigan Future, a local think tank, has shown that young people value very different things when they’re choosing where to live and where to work. While older people might be looking for a nice house in a safe neighborhood, younger people are looking for nice apartments in exciting neighborhoods with great bars, restaurants and other amenities.

So instead of spending money to force graduates to buy a house they can’t afford and don’t really want, states such as Louisiana and Ohio should be focused on building new urban spaces and generating jobs –- which will really attract young people.

Below: Michigan Future produced this video called “What makes a state prosperous?”