About the Author:

Tyler Durbin is the lead author and editor here at GenYJourney.com.  Tyler shares his daily experiences as a recent college grad and young professional and loves to talk with readers and followers about theirs. Say something below in the comments or stop by Twitter and connect with @TylerDurbin.

Today’s a bittersweet day. I have decided that the long-term ideas for GenYJourney are something I no longer wish to pursue.

GenYJourney was conceived and designed to be a platform to spotlight the great, young talent that is out there and bust through all the negative stereotypes of Gen-Y’s. Since the very first blog post that I wrote on a plane on the way home from a job interview during my senior year in college, I’ve been extremely passionate about this project and making it a quality resource for others like me wandering the real world looking for answers – basically a user’s manual for life after college.

Along the way, I’ve always had 3 goals for GenYJourney:

• Provide a candid perspective to education and career development for my peers
• Build my own personal skills in writing, interactive marketing, content development, and social media.
• Meet and build relationships with as many people as possible

I’m very proud to say that all 3 of these have been achieved. That makes me very, very happy and thankful for all you wonderful people that have helped along the way. I’m surrounded by a lot of very special people that play equally important roles in my life and career. I could not ask for more.

Next Steps

For all of you who don’t already know:

I’ve (finally) transitioned to the career track that I’ve been pursuing for 2+ years. I’m now a proud employee of GSW Worldwide – a VERY strong advertising agency serving the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. More specifically, I’m the marketing manager for their digital innovations lab, iQ.  It’s a challenging job and has had me on the floor laughing, pounding my head on the desk in frustration, challenging my every skill, and meeting some of the most talented people I’ve ever been around.  Every day is the most challenging day of my career and I love that. I have a lot of areas to improve on but never does 10 minutes go by that I don’t think about ways that I can improve myself – a feeling I have not previously felt.

This is a position that requires quite a bit more of my time than my previous gig. It’s the type of work that I never want to put down. Honestly, it’s jumped GenYJourney on my priority list. That’s why we are sitting here together talking about this now…

Here’s what you can expect from me in the near future:

• The launch of TylerDurbin.com.  This will be a portal for talking about digital marketing, social media, advertising and branding. Think of this as the brainstorm room. It will be an area where I can leak some ideas, talk about them and share insights.

My goal for TylerDurbin.com is to make the AdAge Power 150. I will absolutely be discussing this more on TylerDurbin.com once the site is launched.

• My twitter feed will move from internship and career discussions to more things about the many elements of marketing. I hope that the people who follow me now will enjoy these discussions but I COMPLETELY understand those of you who choose to unfollow me. It’s cool, I know I’m pulling a 180.

• Columbus folk: I’ll be out and about a little more. Tied down less by coordinating content teams and blog posts, I’ll be able to do more of what I love: drinking coffee and beer and meeting new people.  Feel free to pass along suggestions for events to attend or for us to set some time to get to know each other >> @TylerDurbin

• A lot of my professional work is on display at WhatsYourDigitaliQ.com – iQ’s website. If you have any interest in technology there are some really talented people talking about cutting edge technology…lots of good ideas!

This almost feels like goodbye, but I’m totally not going anywhere. I look forward to spending even more time getting to know each of you.