I'm in my 60s and mentored Gen Z students from NYU. This is what we taught each other.

By Richard Eisenberg

Why mentoring in unretirement is great for you and young adults

If you see me soon and I'm smiling, it's because I just spent the last two weeks during my unretirement running the NYU Summer Publishing Institute's Digital Media Strategies program.

It made me wholeheartedly agree with what Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said on NPR's Fresh Air about his new role teaching at Georgetown University: "The idea and the reality of being surrounded by students...to have exposure to them, is just a very invigorating experience."

But I'd go one step further. I believe that mentoring young adults in unretirement (my shorthand for working part time in retirement) can be invigorating for both you and your mentees.

Yes, I believe the 90+ recent college graduates, rising seniors and young professionals from across the U.S. and around the world in the Summer Publishing Institute learned a lot about digital media from me and the mavens I brought for presentations, panels and workshops each day.

I know for certain, though, that my Generation Z students educated me in many ways.

Also, leaving my suburban New Jersey home each weekday and heading to New York City's Greenwich Village gave me an opportunity to conquer one of the big potential problems many retirees face: isolation and spending time only with people their own age.

If you're unretired or will be soon, I strongly urge you to find a way that you, too, can mentor young adults and see the world through their eyes.

Read: It's time for Gen X-ers nearing 60 to give their retirement plans a reality check

Hungry for co-generational opportunities

As Marc Freedman and Eunice Lin Nichols, co-CEOs of the social-impact organization Cogenerate (formerly Encore.org), wrote in a report about a 2022 survey their group conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago: "A sizable segment of the younger and older populations is hungry for opportunities not only for intergenerational connection, but cogenerational action - the chance to join forces in co-creating a better future."

Older people, Freedman and Nichols added, "want to share what they've learned from life, and younger people are eager to incorporate their insights."

In their survey, 65% of Gen Z respondents said cogeneration taught them something they wouldn't have learned had they not worked with someone older and 74% of boomers said it let them share what they knew with someone younger. More than 70% of those who worked with someone at least 25 years older or younger found the experience positive.

Mentoring is declining

Sadly, though, mentoring is on the decline.

According to a 2023 study by the nonprofit group MENTOR, young people these days are less likely to report having had a mentor than a decade ago.

Yet those of us in our 60s or thereabouts have so much expertise we can pass on to younger people and contacts who could help them launch and build their careers. A few guest speakers and panelists I brought in were journalists I've worked with during my 40-odd year career.

But mentoring and spending time with young adults needn't be wholly altruistic.

A student of the students

During my time at NYU these past weeks, I became a student of the students.

They broadened my vocabulary. For example, when I met with one of the teams to help with their final project presentation devising a new, economically sustainable, digital media brand, I was told its demographic would include "zillennials".

Not familiar with that word? I wasn't either.

Turns out, zillennials are the microgeneration on the cusp of millennials (currently ages 28 to 43) and Generation Z (ages 12 to 27).

There are varying views of the precise ages of this demographic, but generally speaking, they're around 26 to 31. Think Kendall Jenner, Harry Styles, Bad Bunny and Haley Lu Richardson. They're all about authenticity and social consciousness and reportedly have a love-hate relationship with technology and social media. (If you'd like to learn Gen Z terminology, I suggest getting "The Gen Z Dictionary" by Indiana University adjunct professor Kelly King.)

A surprising take on AI

The students I worked with at NYU also sometimes educated me on topics I thought I knew.

For instance, one frowned on AI for a much different reason than I expected and, I think, surprised the media experts I brought in to present a panel on the subject. She expressed anger about how detrimental artificial intelligence is to the environment because of its energy usage.

I looked this up and she was right.

According to the International Energy Agency, while a single Google search takes 0.3 watts-hours of electricity, a similar ChatGPT request takes 2.9. By one estimate, the energy required to run AI will be as much as 38% higher by 2028 and AI could soon be using more power than the country of Iceland did in 2021.

Not everyone wants a mentor

One other thing I discovered: Not every young person wants to be mentored.

While some students asked for advice about their résumés and job hunting, others didn't stop by during my office hours, not even to introduce themselves.

My experience with the students also taught me that when younger people do want to learn from older people, it needs to be in ways they prefer.

As workplace generational expert and "Gentelligence" author Megan Gerhardt wrote: "Younger generations don't simply want information. They have more of that than they can process. They want to understand how that information is relevant to them today. Or how to use it in service of what is most important to them personally."

Makes sense.

Have you had an experience mentoring or working with younger people during your retirement or unretirement? If so, let me know. I'd like to hear about it.

-Richard Eisenberg

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-03-24 1153ET

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.