Young Talent Is Everywhere!

Credit: Clemson Staff

Every week I read something about young talent. The old guard is concerned about the next generation of leaders. Up and down the line of their business talent is aging and has one eye on the door. How will they find, entice and develop young people? Where will they come from?

I’ve certainly seen it. I’ve lived it too. Conference tables were surrounded by senior citizens. Our company and our industry were aging. If you didn’t have white hair you looked out of place.

Having said that, talent is everywhere. Young people are looking for careers. They’re looking for guidance too. They’re looking for mentors.

Some of you know that I taught at Clemson. It was late in my sales career. A retiring peer approached me at an event and asked if I might be interested in teaching a class. Before I had time to think about it, I heard myself say, “that would be fun. Sign me up.”

I taught sales. Once each week I made the trek to the Clemson campus and taught sophomores, juniors and seniors how to sell printing. It was an absolute blast.

Here are the realities of that class. Most of the students weren’t interested in selling. They were graphic communications majors and needed an elective. Sales was part of this specific sequence so it qualified.

I won’t bore you with the curriculum. If you follow me, you’ve read what I have to say about selling anyway. It’s a damn hard but very simple process. There are no shortcuts and selling is full of rejection.

What I will share is that these students were looking for something to be excited about. They’re studying print but only have a classroom picture of what print is. They don’t grasp or understand the many levels of opportunity that exist in one of the coolest industries in the world. We can change that and need to.

We did a good job of inviting guest speakers. Paper companies, packaging executives and alumni working in the industry agreed to speak. The students loved these sessions. Guests talked about what it was like to work in their respective positions. It was real life stuff.

Regardless of their major and focus, students don’t know what they want to do professionally. They haven’t lived enough life to answer that question. They haven’t done what they think they want to do ten hours a day, five days a week, fifty weeks a year…yet.

One candidate studied to be a graphic designer. She figured out, during class, that she didn’t want to spend eight hours each day at a computer. She flipped over to sales and became a 7-figure contributor. Another decided packaging was her gig. Yet another started in client service and moved into sales a while later.

The possibilities are endless.

During my time at Clemson, I was asked to join a mentor program. These things are all over the place. HP has one or did. Most colleges do. Many churches do. If you decide to become a mentor, finding an organization to help you won’t be hard.

Let me prepare you. This is fun. You spend time with a young person that is just starting to figure out life.

They are full of questions and enthusiastic learners. What you have to share is important to them.

Mentees are prospects for employment too. They’re in the mentor/mentee program because they want to excel. They’re submitting to your thoughts because they value your experience.

Being on the Clemson campus was great for our talent bench. We added sales reps, estimators, client service representatives, prepress technicians and web developers. I had the identical opportunity as a mentor.

Parting shot? Young talent is like sales prospects. They are all around you. Get involved and you’ll have more prospective employees than you can find work for.