"The Millenials"

Every once in a while, CBS News' venerable 60 Minutes newsmagazine is good for a really interesting, a little less-than-serious news story. "The Millenials," airing on the May 25 edition of 60 Minutes. If you missed it, CBS's relatively powerful video archive has the story available for viewing on-demand.

As Morley Safer reports, the Millenials are those of us who were born between 1980 to 1995. Your surly author, born in 1986, is most definitely a part of this group. Safer's story characterizes us as a group of people who walk around with a sense of entitlement, because we had doting parents and were on soccer teams where we were awarded trophies even if we hadn't won a game that entire season.

Let it be known that the soccer team I was on during my kindergarten year, the Red Panthers, won two games that entire season and we were still rewarded with a trophy and a pizza party after it was all said and done. (As a five-year-old kid, that pretty much made it all worth it right there.) Does that make me feel entitled to getting my dream job immediately after my graduation from San Jose State?

Yes and no. As an only child, my parents told me I could do anything I wanted to do and be anyone I wanted to be, as long as I worked hard and put in maximum effort. I think my hard work and determination through high school and college has paid off, after all, I have a pretty awesome job doing something that I want to be doing. Do I think I'm entitled to this just because I happen to be a part of this "millenial" generation? 

Hell no. But I do proudly wear flip-flops to the office almost every day, and a T-shirt every Friday. This is Silicon Valley, after all. 

My company is headquartered here in Silicon Valley, but we also maintain a large office presence in San Francisco, thanks to a major acquisition in 2005. Many of that former company's staffers still work from there, and there's a decidedly different atmosphere there. I generally make any excuse to go to the San Francisco office, where people walk from cube to cube in their socks and take Nintendo Wii breaks. It feels more like home, I think.

If there's one workplace where a "millenial" can feel welcome, it's going to be here in the Silicon Valley.