“The best career advice to give to the young is to find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” — Katherine Whitehorn

Brazen CareeristMost of you are reading this post from work… so slackers listen up. Maybe you’re surfing the net because it’s Monday morning and you’re bored. If you’re YOUNG and bored… then Penelope Trunk has a few ideas for you in her book, Brazen Careerist.

She begins by explaining how many twentysomethings now experience the “quarterlife crisis” and writes, “The journey toward quareterlife crisis begins at college graduation, when the typical student has about $20,000 in loans, no skills to land a job, and no money to pay sky-high rents in the cities where being single is the most fun.”

“Job-hopping in your early twenties is a great idea — especially if you’re still sleeping at your parents’ house. After all, the point of this period in life is to find the right work for you. But if the job-hopping doesn’t stop by age thirty, the feeling of instability intensifies to crisis.”

Alexandra Robbins, who wrote the book, Quarterlife Crisis, and I assume coined the descriptive, offers some telling statistics on her web site. Here’s a fun fact: 56.8% of men and 43.2% of women ages 22-31 live with their parents. Trunk quotes Robbins on the transition to adulthood, “Our generation cannot gain a foothold in society until age thirty. But our parents’ generation has age twenty in their head. The crisis is a clash of generations.”

Trunk also adds, “Fifty years ago, people expected to find a job for life right after college and be married with kids by 24.” Trunk continues on to explain how you can become settled before you hit a crisis. That’s the point of the book… so go buy it. It’s worth it for the practical tips!

But keep in mind, the reason twentysomethings find themselves stuck in crisis mode is largely economic. Anya Kamenetz of Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young argues, “Contrary to popular stereotypes, the reason kids are moving back in with their parents, can’t land career-path jobs, and take longer to graduate from college and settle down isn’t just a widespread generational laziness or some other pervasive psychological flaw. The reason is overwhelmingly economic.”

Susan Berfield at Business Week wrote about the Debt Generation two years ago in an article called Thirty & Broke. This is “the first generation that came of age with the Internet, grew up marketed to at every turn… and they could be the most indebted generation in modern history.”

“Two new economic realities are at work. Many had to borrow serious money to attend colleges that are ever more costly. And as soon as they entered school, they were offered credit cards; by 30 many have accumulated thousands of dollars of that very expensive debt, too.”

“When these students start out in the working world, many use their credit cards to fund a richer lifestyle than they can afford, get by between jobs, or cover emergency expenses. The average credit-card debt among 25-34-year-olds was $5,200 in 2004, 98% higher than in 1992.”

They exemplify “a generation with an unusual sense of entitlement. They were brought up as consumers, comfortable with prosperity, certain of their eventual success. For many 30-year-olds, establishing themselves takes longer and is more complicated than they thought it would be.”

Suze Orman advises that young adults need to understand the difference between necessities and indulgences. “If you rely on your credit cards to make ends meet, you must limit the plastic spending to true necessities, not indulgences. Buying groceries is a necessity. Buying dinner for you and your pals at a swank restaurant is an indulgence you can’t afford if it will become part of your unpaid credit card balance.” The first step to moving beyond the quarterlife crisis is getting out of debt and living within your means.

So what’s the solution? Is there a quick fix? John answers this in his Almost Debt Free series and provides a tactical approach with his downloadable Expense Tracker. If you haven’t taken the time to read it, now’s a good time. If you’re young and cash-strapped then you’ll relate to the rocky path he’s endured and benefit from his money mantra:

1. Almost Debt Free: Good Debt vs. Bad Debt
2. Almost Debt Free: Organize Finances
3. Almost Debt Free: Making a Budget Possible
4. Almost Debt Free: Expense Tracking
5. Almost Debt Free: Too Much Sacrifice?

For other careerist thoughts: click on Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 for more about Trunk’s book.