Why Being Proactive is Crucial for a Young Person's Success

Hi all, my name is Hanna. I’m an incoming senior at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and I’ve spent the past few weeks working as an intern with the Five In A Boat (FIAB) team on some incredible upcoming projects. As this month celebrates International Youth Day, I wanted to write a little bit about my work experience here at FIAB, and why I think being proactive is so crucial for a young person’s success.

As a college student who has not yet entered the workforce full-time, thinking about the future can sometimes feel like a daunting task. After all, most young people in the Global North have spent the majority of their lives in a school environment and, upon graduation, that comfortable world is replaced by something altogether new and unfamiliar. The thought of navigating that transition used to cause me a lot of anxiety, as I didn’t know what to expect after college. 

However, at FIAB, I’ve learned about the ins and outs of a company that manages more than just a client’s public image: it works behind the scenes to ensure that everything runs smoothly, and makes hundreds of business connections in any given week. Once you get your hands dirty, the workforce no longer appears to be a row of closed doors. Instead, I now see opportunities to grow, learn, and push myself.

The UN reported this year that the youth NEET rate worldwide (the proportion of young people not in employment, education or training) currently resides at 30% for young women and 13% for young men. This statistic is made worse with the acknowledgement that COVID caused a loss of around 155 million full-time jobs in 2020, which will most likely affect current and upcoming graduates more than anyone else. Instead of looking at this as jobs lost, I choose to interpret it as an open door for millions of new jobs to be created. 

Some jobs might be so cutting-edge that we don’t even know they exist yet. Young people are on the forefront of technology and culture, and we have an incredible opportunity to change the world as we know it. However, we can only succeed if we lead with our best foot forward and hit the ground running.