To hear Jenna Weber tell it, being a young professional in Madison can sometimes feel a little like living on a tiny islet — after spending four years on a much more populated landmass (think Tom Hanks’ digs from Cast Away versus, say, Australia).
“People come to Madison a lot of times for school, and they go to UW-Madison or Edgewood or Madison College, and you’re kind of in a bubble there — you’re in this huge university atmosphere, you’re thinking Badgers, you’re thinking having fun, you’re thinking great academics, all those things,” said Weber, 25, a business development coordinator with SVA and the president of the fledgling CONNECT Madison, a young professionals group that grew out of the Leadership Greater Madison (LGM) 19 class.
| “I think that each generation brings different strengths to a workplace and an economy, and if you’re missing one of the biggest generations coming out of school, you’re missing a huge part of those skills that they provide.” — Jenna Weber |
“Once you graduate and you get to a workplace, a lot of times you hear that our members are the youngest person or one of the youngest people in their corporation, and then there’s a huge age gap to the next set of professionals. So you go from being surrounded by all people close to your age to going to an environment every day where you’re kind of on an island.”
As one of the members of LGM 19 (the 2012 class), Weber participated in a project presentation on economic development that identified the local “brain drain” as one of the factors holding back the Greater Madison region — and that discussion sparked an idea. Why not create a group to help Madison’s young professionals grow their careers and become better integrated into the larger business community? The next year, CONNECT Madison was born.
Part of the goal of CONNECT Madison, says Weber, is to take a look at the reasons why many young professionals leave the UW and seek out opportunities elsewhere before returning to the area to raise families. And part of the solution seemed to be providing a resource that could help young people acclimate to Madison workplaces.
“A lot of people our age leave and come back when they’re further out in their careers as executives,” said Weber. “And it’s really great to have a resource vehicle to connect those young professionals who feel like they don’t have someone to talk to about a certain issue, like ‘how do I talk to my boss or someone who’s 20 years older than me about this issue?’ Or with things they might not be comfortable talking to an executive about, we provide an area where we can share ideas and ways to attack different situations.”
Land of opportunity?
Officially, CONNECT Madison’s goal is to “enrich the Madison community by offering professional development, community engagement, and relationship-building opportunities to local young talent.” The group is invitation-only, and all members are nominated by a current member, an executive at their workplace, or another community leader. For now, the group is capping its membership at around 50 young professionals (and has already hit 48 in less than a year), allowing members to connect with each other on a more personal and intimate level. At the same time, a high level of participation is expected from the group’s members. Members are expected to make at least 80% of CONNECT Madison’s monthly meetings, and though there is no strict age requirement as of yet (the range is roughly 23 to 40), most members are in their late 20s and early 30s.
But while there may be a feeling of isolation that comes with living as a young professional in Madison, for Weber and the rest of the group’s leaders, the real problem lies with the opportunities that are often left on the table.
“What we all kind of found in our research and looking around Madison was that there’s a ton of opportunities if young professionals are willing to look for them and search for them on their own, but there weren’t a lot of opportunities that were being served up for them if they wanted them,” said Weber. “So we wanted something that was just a go-to place if you wanted a connection to an executive, if you wanted a connection to a community group, if you wanted a connection to a board that you were interested in.”
The group’s first official event was a kickoff meeting at the Overture Center last February (featuring In Business Publisher Emeritus Jody Glynn Patrick) that drew more than 100 curious attendees. Since that inaugural meeting, each of the group’s monthly gatherings has featured one professional development keynote speaker as well as a speaker from a community organization who has shared opportunities for volunteering.
“Every single community speaker we’ve had so far that’s presented an opportunity has gotten volunteers or a team of volunteers from our group to get involved, which goes to show that these emerging leaders are more than willing to get involved with different groups and different projects in the community if they know the opportunity is available to them,” said Weber.
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While the group is just shy of its first birthday, its leadership team already sees significant progress toward making its goals a reality.
“The concern is if people don’t get invested in the community and they’re struggling to advance their careers and they don’t think they can do it here, then they look to other communities, other opportunities outside of Madison,” said Peter Osmon, a partner with Borakove Osman, LLC, and vice president of CONNECT Madison. “And I think we’ve done a great job of bringing in executives and CEOs to show young professionals who’ve joined the group what opportunities lie here in the community, and then tied to that, getting people involved with different civic groups and charitable organizations. I think we’ve really provided an opportunity to identify ways to really get connected and involved in the community.”
The greater good
Obviously, the group is set up to help give Madison’s young professionals an easy on-ramp into the larger business community, but to Weber, it can help contribute to the health of the local economy as a whole through its “millennial retention” efforts.
“I think that each generation brings different strengths to a workplace and an economy, and if you’re missing one of the biggest generations coming out of school, you’re missing a huge part of those skills that they provide,” said Weber. “Whether certain traits that millennials have are better or worse for a workplace, I think just the diversity they bring and the different perspective they bring are crucial to keeping the city cutting edge and keeping us relevant.”
In addition, says Weber, the energy and creativity millennials can bring to any workplace can be invaluable.
“People who are executives are often looked at as mentors because they have the acquired skills of a long period of time, and that’s absolutely true,” said Weber. “But then I think there’s also a reverse mentoring that’s possible with young professionals, and that’s bringing a fresh viewpoint, it’s bringing energy, it’s bringing enthusiasm. [After being in the same industry] for 20 years, you might lose that spark you had when you first started, and that’s something that young professionals can definitely bring — that energy about trying something new, about being in a new industry. So they can kind of bring that excitement back to someone who might be further along in their career.”
But while the youth brain drain is something the Madison business community needs to be concerned about, the baby boomer brain drain is a looming issue for all communities and regions. Having young people who are engaged, then, can only help prepare local companies for the inevitable offloading of their most experienced staffers.
“Yeah, I hope this is a group that can be positioned to help fill some of that void, but also to really help identify the people who are actively trying to move forward in their career and actively trying to fill some of those vacancies that will be there as that generation leaves the workforce,” said Osmon.
Look for Jenna Weber’s new column, Fast Track, premiering in the March edition of In Business magazine.
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