The Review

Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: Jacke Green Jacke Greene is author of a career guide book for recent graduates.

In a generation that grew up learning family values with the Tanner Family, teenage pitfalls with "90210" and a twisted sense of what is real with reality TV, the organizational gap between younger generations and baby boomers seems to be spreading further apart in the business and corporate worlds.

Jake Greene, author of the career guide "Whoa, My Boss is Naked! A Career Book for People Who Would Never Be Caught Dead Reading a Career Book," provides a unique insider's look at the transition from college student "couch potato" to corporate business culture.

"I wanted to write sort of my answer to the 'corporate tools' for 'corporate tools,' " Greene says. "There are so many professionals today without any perspective and so much organizational 'Kool-aid' that they miss out on other opportunities. It doesn't have anything to do with the size of the company or traditional versus non-traditional."

Greene uses pop-culture references from the past 20 years to explain subjects like office politics, and how not to become a "corporate tool."

He says he has had a strong passion for pop culture and a love for television and movies for a long time. He says the guide is something different, contrasting from the standard 'twelve steps to success' type business book.

Greene says he thought a lot about his friends and their own experiences in college and starting out in the business world for his inspiration and structure.

"For me, when I was writing the book, I had a certain audience in mind and representative of friends from high school and college who didn't really pay so much attention to lectures when they were paying to be there," he says. "Why were they going to read a 200-page lecture? I wanted to have very short chapters centered around pop-culture examples that could be consumed in very short sittings."

In a generation often criticized for its lack of motivation, Greene says the book doesn't suggest people be lazy, but focuses more on a smooth transition from couch to office.

"I think there are a lot of general misconceptions that I think anyone who is in their 20s will face," Greene says. "There's entitlement, laziness and lacking focus, but it's not your responsibility to battle those but be aware that they're out there. But it's pretty easy to do away with those if you improve your communication skills and work effectively."

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