Hillsdale College graduate and Apple employee, Niles Emerick, spoke with students and faculty on March 13.
Visiting campus through the a the Hillsdale Executive Speakers Program, Emerick presented advice in a speech titled “Bridging the Generation Gap: Secrets of a Millennial in a Gen-X World.”
Emerick began his speech like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting saying, “Hi guys, I’m Niles.” He paused for the audience to reply, “Hi Niles,” before continuing, “and I’m a Millennial.”
In his presentation, Emerick defined Millennials as those born between 1980 and 2004.
Millennials, he said, have confidence and ambition and see limitless opportunity, but often have trouble finding their careers and sometimes allow their self-confidence to get the better of them.
Emerick shared how his post-graduation accomplishments highlight his Millennial tendencies. In addition, he said he hoped, through his speech, to encourage closer relationships between different generations and facilitate a better understanding of the unique characteristics of each.
After graduating Hillsdale in 2003 with an economics major, American studies minor, and photography “passion,” Emerick moved to Boulder, Colo., to start Origins Community Church and a Starbucks career.
Five years later, Starbucks had promoted him to store manager, but he felt his calling elsewhere.
He decided to transition to Apple because he wanted a challenge.
“I would be leading people, some of whom have skills, abilities, and talents that I would never have,” Emerick said. “It stretched my ability to lead, inspire and motivate a group of people who were brilliant in areas I would not be. I took that as a significant challenge and growth opportunity.”
Emerick said Hillsdale’s unique, relation-based culture is similar to Apple.
“The culture at Apple is like trying to describe the culture at Hillsdale, there’s something about it that is special – it’s the people,” Emerick said.
Emerick began as a store manager in 2009 and has since risen to a training and development field manager.
His current position entails visiting Apple stores and acts as a resource to the retail leaderships teams to support talent development.
Emerick says he has many goals he hopes to accomplish in his future but is unsure how he will do so. He plans to continue working at Apple as long as he is able to grow and be challenged.
Emerick says his Hillsdale education has influenced him in the workplace, primarily in communication.
“Hillsdale’s focus on writing with a purpose helps me to connect with executive-level leaders,” Emerick said. “Many Millennials just talk all the time, and Hillsdale taught me to communicate thoughtfully and concisely. Also, I have a very large knowledge base that helps me connect with a variety of people, and to be the best leader in today’s business world you have to be able to draw on experience from lots of different places.”
Emerick said understanding generational tendencies is important in succeeding. In order to combat Millennials’ common failures, Emerick offered his audience some advice such as, take some risks; be okay with failure, there’s not a trophy for everything in real life; and find a mentor.
