For those of you who are a Young Professional, you might let out a little chuckle at the mention of this phrase.  It's a big buzzword these days, particularly here in Ann Arbor.  At almost every networking or business community event that I go to I hear the term at least once; "Keeping Young Professionals here is the key to our success as a region...", "We have to appeal to Young Professionals with...".  I definitely don't want to discount this thinking.  It's important for a community to have a diverse population and that includes age diversity.  But, the thing that always trips me up is the definition of a Young Professional. 

I think that most of the things that I've read define this group as college graduate working professionals between the ages of 23 and 35ish.  And that's all fine and good but the range of perspectives and interests represented by that group is vast.  How do you begin to understand and address all of the associated needs that these Young Professionals have?  Does an investment banker care about the same things as a social worker?  What sorts of social opportunities is an introvert looking for?  Is a 23-yr-old looking for the same things as a 33-yr-old?  What do you need to provide for someone who has more of an entreprenuerial spirit versus someone who likes the structure and stability of a large organization?  Does getting married and, maybe even more so, having kids automatically displace you from this category no matter what age you are? 

On top of that, there's the old chicken and egg issue of jobs.  There aren't a whole lot of jobs for new college graduates or people with a couple of years of experience in Ann Arbor, let alone the rest of Michigan.  If there isn't a job for you, you probably aren't going to stay somewhere for very long, no matter how desirable of an area it is.  But if it's not an area that's desirable to these Young Professionals, will businesses choose to locate there, therefore creating jobs?  

I am much better at posing questions than answering them so I'm sorry if this leaves you feeling a little unresolved but as a community I think that these are questions worth asking and trying to find answers to.

On an unrelated (and less important) note: I got to ride in a Porsche Boxter convertible in Orange County, CA this weekend. While the highlight was definitely being there for my college roommate's wedding with some fabulous college friends, I have to admit this was a close second. Even if you're not a car person, it's an experience everyone should have.