The Aftergrad Weekly #12
September Surge, Hustle Generation, and Erikan Obotetukudo
Welcome to The Aftergrad Weekly, a curated media bundle to keep you informed, inspired, and entertained. Every Tuesday, we share a selection of articles, something to watch, an interesting quote, and links worth consuming.
Hey Aftergrads. How’s everybody doing?!
Did you know that August is Happiness Happens Month in the United States? Apparently, it’s celebrated annually during the last month of summer, which is dedicated to celebrating things that make us happy. A lovely way to close out the best season of the year if you ask me.
In light of this new discovery, I wanted to share a few things that make me happy. Here goes. Playing tennis makes me happy, especially after putting down my racquets for 6 years. Taking pictures makes me happy. I somewhat forgot how much I love photography as an art form, until recently. And finally, healing makes me happy. Lately, I’ve been engaging in difficult conversations with my mom and my dad that have led to moments of acknowledgment and forgiveness. I’m grateful for the opportunity to accept the past with my parents still present.
This list is incomplete, but it makes me happy all the same.
What are you happy about? Anything got you excited as we prepare for fall? Let us know in the comments.
— Robert
AND I QUOTE
From the Dear Therapist advice column, I Feel Tremendously Guilty for Not Taking Care of My Aging, Alcoholic Mother, via The Atlantic.
“Once you let go of the childhood fantasy of saving your mom, you will see that part of being an adult is letting go of the hope of finding a perfect solution and accepting — and working with — what is.”
— Lori Gottlieb (2023)
QUIZ
On the Future of AI and Creativity with Insights from The New Consumer
Check if you got the right answer by scrolling to the bottom of the newsletter where we share some additional insights on this trend.
FEATURED STORY
Gen Z is the Hustle Generation by Eve Upton-Clark via Business Insider
Do we really have a choice? We’re living in weird, conflicting times. Gen Z wants to make their lives less about work, but we also need to clock more hours in the office just to survive, turning our side hustles into lucrative business ventures or picking up extra shifts to cover basic essentials. Make it make sense.
While young people often work multiple jobs through college and early in their career, Gen Zers are extending the work hustle into their formal careers. Part of Gen Z's propensity for “having side jobs and jobs on top of jobs” is due to economic concerns, Santor Nishizaki, the founder and CEO of the Mulholland Consulting Group, which helps organizations increase generational awareness, told me. Deloitte's 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that a third of Gen Z respondents worry about the cost of living above all other concerns, 45% live paycheck-to-paycheck, and more than a quarter said they doubt they'll retire comfortably. And a February global survey by Kantar, a data-analytics firm, found that 40% of responding Gen Z workers are combining at least two roles due to living expenses.
But present-day financial struggles are just the tip of the iceberg: Like the generations before them, Gen Z was sold the idea that if you found a good job and worked hard, you'd reap the rewards. But after watching that dream die for millennials, Gen Z isn't buying into what they view as a broken social contract. “A lot of the time the progression is slow, and people are feeling really underpaid,” West said. "It's just a lot of negative news at the moment when it comes to a nine-to-five.”
Read the full article here.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
You Are Powerful via 2018 Commencement Address for Claremont Colleges by Erikan Obotetukudo
An interactive keynote that mixes hardships, laughs, and dance to highlight the precarity of adulthood — reminding everyone that life will be difficult, but building a tribe and embracing your power makes the journey more bearable. With references to Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce, Amine, Black Panther, and Africa, this inspiring message humanizes the postgrad experience.
FELLOW AFTERGRAD
Erikan Obotetukudo
Fellow Aftergrads is a collection of personal profiles in which we ask a series of questions to students, recent grads, working professionals, retirees, and other humans to highlight their uniqueness in life, personality, and career. We invited Erikan as our first guest spotlight for this new series.
LINKS WORTH CONSUMING
For the week of August 21, 2023
♻️ World’s largest ‘wood city’ to be built in Stockholm
📜 The Most Disrespected Document in Higher Education
⚖️ I am dying at age 49. Here’s why I have no regrets.
👨🏻💼 I’m an experienced CEO. I applied for 1001 positions. This is what happened.
🪁 Gen Z Employees: How to Navigate Work As One of the Youngest People at Your Job
🪜 Looking for a job right now? Get ready to ride the September Surge
Subscribe to The Aftergrad Newsletter for free to receive these roundups, advice columns from Dear Aftergrad, essays on Postgrad Diary, and much more directly in your inbox.
Until next time,
Your fellow aftergrads, Robert & Victoria
P.S. See below for some additional media we’ve been consuming. And don’t forget to read the brief explainer for the quiz we shared.
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The correct answer is C — 41%. According to Dan Frommer in a report titled “AI, Ozempic and the Economy: The Three Things That Matter Right Now” which was featured in Fortune, nearly half of Gen Z and Millenials at least ‘somewhat agree’ that 20 years from now, most movies, art, music, and books will be created by AI, and almost 40% ‘somewhat agree’ that the best media will be created by AI within 20 years. Moreover, approximately half of Gen Z and Millennials believe that AI creations — for example, an image generated by a tool like DALL-E or Midjourney based on user prompts — can be considered art. For Boomers, those between 63 and 82 years of age, only 17% hold this view.