I had the pleasure recently of leading a discussion for the AICPA as part of a webinar titled, The Top 7 Issues Facing Young Professionals. This blog post was requested to recap some of the resources (books, apps, and advice) that we discussed. 

It was a great group. Sixty-seven percent of those in attendance represented Generation Y, 33 percent represented Gen X — and I represented the Boomers.

First, here are the top 7 issues facing young professionals from our research at the MACPA:

1. Information overload (including accounting and tax complexity)
2. Work / life balance
3. Generational issues and communications (including upper management not sharing knowledge with the younger generation)
4. Developing networking skills
5. Keeping up with technology, especially the cloud
6. Finding career guidance
7. Understanding social media benefits

As we began discussing the issues, the chat box fired up with active particpation and the “conversation” quickly centered around three key areas — networking, social media, and technology tools. I promised to recap these on this post, so here goes:

1. Networking and the idea of “non-sales” selling, which I think is critical for all professionals:

• We are in the moving business and I bet you are too!, my post about Dan Pink’s (@DanielPink) book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
• Like it or Not, You’re a Salesperson, post by Bill Sheridan (@BillSheridan)
• Cool tool: Evernote Hello

2. Social media:  Here are some great blog posts from us and others:

• Check out all of our posts on technology and social media here.
• The people CPAs need to follow on Twitter, an AICPA article by our own Bill Sheridan
• Social media: Time sink or productivity booster? by AICPA Social Media Strategist Stacie Saunders
• AICPA Facebook chat with Tom Hood: Getting an ROI from Social Media via Return on Attention (ROA)
• My social media tips on YouTube, a playlist of interviews about CPAs and social media
• Use social media, don’t let it use you, by Rumbi Bwerinofa, CPA, CFF (AICPA guest blogger)
• Cool Twitter tools: Hootsuite, TweetDeck
• Books: Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk, and The Corporate Blogging Book, by Debbie Weil

3. Cool technology tools: My favorites for scanning and staying ahead of change are Evernote, Flipboard, and Zite.

4. Education from MACPA’s Business Learning Institute:

We will continue this conversation at the upcoming AICPA EDGE Conference in Austin on Aug. 7-9. I hope to see you there.

Tell me what you think and list your own cool tools (and additional questions) in the comments below.