LinkedIn – The Next Wave
The world’s largest professional network has a new featured article that highlights some of the youngest influencers in 15 different tech and business industries.
LinkedIn has grown from a small social network to a booming professional platform used by millions around the world. From small startups to Fortune 500 companies, employers use LinkedIn as a reliable resource to gain insight on current talent and share their views with a professional network. In fact, many employers and recruitment agencies now use LinkedIn as their primary resource for hiring new employees.
LinkedIn is becoming more and more popular with the millennial generation. The Pew Research Center showed that in 2013, youngsters between the ages of 18 and 29 made up 15% of the LinkedIn demographic. In 2014 that age group increased to make up 23% of the overall demographic.
Although the increase in percentage isn’t huge, it’s easy to note the trend is that more and more college grads are utilizing LinkedIn to dive right into the professional world. Even most college students have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile with the hope of future employers noticing their dedication in school and extracurricular activities.
Today’s generation of 20-something year olds have raised the bar. The startup frenzy has turned many recent graduates into entrepreneur-minded machines, with many of them turning over huge profits in a short amount of time. This young generation is undoubtedly proving that they’re willing to put forth the effort to achieve success, and they’re making every effort to appear professional online.
LinkedIn went through 15 different industries and highlighted some of the most influential people under the age of 35 in each industry. Take a look at “The Next Wave” feature here.
This list of top professionals aged 35 years and younger shows the impact of these ambitious dreamers on growing industries.
Naturally we looked first at the “Enterprise Tech” and “Consumer Tech” fields to see some of the influential millennials in our own industry. Here are some profiles we just couldn’t ignore:
Chris Wanstrath, CEO and co-founder of GitHub, is a standout example in the tech industry. GitHub was born in a sports bar in San Francisco when Ruby enthusiasts Chris Wanstrath and Tom Preston-Warner started talking about creating some kind of online hub for coders to share their Git repositories. Long story short, GitHub has become the world’s kernel for coding enthusiasts to share their work and collaborate. Wanstrath went on to create an enterprise version of GitHub, which now powers corporations such as Etsy and PayPal. Today, GitHub is valued at more than $2 billion dollars.
Lisa Seacat DeLuca, a mobile software engineer and inventor for IBM, is considered “the most prolific female inventor in IBM’s history” and already has 180 patents to her name. Her inventive mind has made her an influential technology strategist. DeLuca told LinkedIn that “[the] inventing process gives you a different mindset”. This mindset has led DeLuca to become one of the youngest yet most influential tech strategists in the world.
Cassidy Williams, developer evangelist and software engineer, has disproven any stereotypes about only males getting into software development. At only 23 years of age she’s already worked on in-depth software engineering projects for Venmo and Clarifai, while also making an appearance at the White House and has also been a key presenter at several conferences. Williams was featured in Glamour Magazine as one of the 35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry.
Palmer Luckey, founder and inventor of Oculus VR, has really raised the bar for most 22 year olds. He started messing with virtual reality in his basement when he was only 16. His fascination with the mysterious technology led him to create Oculus, the world’s first viable virtual reality headset, and a recent acquisition from Facebook for $2 billion has made Luckey a very rich man. He claims that VR headsets such as his own will one day be as ubiquitous as the smartphone.
These inspiring young dreamers show the world that there really are no limits when it comes to creating the next big thing. The tech world has no boundaries, just as “The Next Wave” shows us.
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