Young, Motivated, They Make Their Own Career Breaks

At age 3, Tom Taulli realized he didn’t want to work for anyone else. As a child, playing with toy dump trucks meant pretending he owned his own trucking business.

Last year Taulli started a custom software company and designed a program to help law students study for the bar examination. His company, Talan Inc. in Monrovia, took in $43,000 in its first year.

“When you run your own business, you are in control and the sky’s the limit,” said Taulli, 27, who is also a student at Whittier Law School in Los Angeles. “For me, that’s really a motivator.”

That sentiment is characteristic of a growing number of twentysomethings who are creating their own career opportunities--contrary to the widespread notion that workers in their 20s are whiny, unmotivated and lazy.

After watching their parents get laid off--victims of corporate downsizings that didn’t seem to take performance or loyalty into account--members of so-called Generation X are wary about depending on their employers for the assets they will need to build successful careers. So they are making their own breaks.

“They’re pursuing a new kind of career model that we call ‘self-building,’ ” said Bruce Tulgan, founding principal of Rainmaker Inc., a New Haven, Conn., firm that studies the work habits of people in their 20s. “Instead of allowing the learning and the creative opportunities to be mediated by a large institution, they’re pursuing these things on their own.”

That means that relationships with companies take a back seat to relationships with individuals.

“Mentors have become extremely important,” Tulgan said. “A relationship with an institution may not last, but at the very least you can maintain a lasting relationship with individuals who are knowledgeable and experienced, who offer wisdom and perspective and who might have the ability to help you in the future.”

Dave Hickman, 29, relied on former employers to help him purchase the Dairy Queen restaurant where he flipped burgers and served ice cream cones in high school in suburban Indianapolis. His onetime Dairy Queen bosses allowed him to lease the restaurant for five years while he saved up money to buy it. For loans, he sought help from the bank where he worked during college.

“Every job I’ve had has served a purpose,” Hickman said.

Self-builders also make a priority of expanding their own skills. For example, Kathi Inman, a 27-year-old candidate for a doctorate in English literature at UC Berkeley, started a side business as an editor and promoter of a coffee table book.

“Even though I’m going to be leaving Berkeley with a fine degree, I think I’d better make sure that there are other options available to me,” Inman said. “I need to build up skills to make myself more marketable in case the academic job market continues to be as tough as it has been.”

Within companies, self-builders take the initiative by asking their bosses for extra assignments and being willing to make lateral moves within a company to expose themselves to a broader range of experiences.

“In these turbulent times, it is important to invest in yourself rather than in a company,” said Lisa Pelled, assistant professor of management at USC’s School of Business Administration.

Self-building is often a central element in the career strategies of Generation Xers who work in part-time or temporary jobs. Such “slacker jobs” are often just a place for twentysomethings to get money while they focus their attention on activities they hope will lead to more fulfilling employment.

As soon as they can punch out, they go home to perfect the CD-ROMs and other newfangled products they are trying to bring to market. According to a 1995 study by Marquette University, 71% of people trying to start businesses are between 25 and 34 years old, and 8% are 18 to 24.

Self-building temps take advantage of resources at the companies where they’re assigned, Tulgan said. That can mean using the dormant computers in the office or seeking the advice of a staff programmer during the lunch hour. Even clients are fair game for twentysomethings in search of brains to pick.

“They’re building a career outside their job,” Tulgan said.