I probably should have come across the term 'echo boomers' - the kids of the baby boomers - before but they are featured in this Business Week piece on the best places to launch a career in the US. Interestingly, Disney take top spot followed by Google, Teach for America and other more traditional firms JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs et al.

But the article goes on to cite the impact made by the generation raised on web.

the Millennials are eager for feedback and impatient to make an impact on their new organizations and on society at large. Networked in a way previous generations were not, thanks in large part to Internet phenomena MySpace (NWS ) and Facebook, they come equipped with many of the skills required by big employers, such as computer fluency and a knack for teamwork. But the same social networking skills and consumer smarts that make them valuable employees also make them acutely discerning job seekers.

Confronted with this demanding generation, also sometimes known as Generation Y or the Echo Boom, companies are scrambling to attract and retain the most talented among them. Some executives say they are offering entry-level employees more variety and challenges, providing senior-level mentoring, and even giving them opportunities to work for causes they believe in. Granting more competitive pay and benefits, faster career advancement, and more responsibility means taking big risks with the greenest employees on the payroll. Says Claudia Tattanelli, chief executive of Philadelphia research firm Universum Communications, which surveys Millennials: "The challenges are a completely different set than they were two, three, or six years ago."

We can but speculate about whether the 150 million networkers cultivated by MySpace, BEBO and Facebook will bring with them new and valuable skills when they enter the workplace en masse but it is worth considering in what Jonathan Schwartz the CEO of Sun Microsystems writing in today's FT describes as the 'particpation age'...