Everything Studies Aren't Telling you About Millennials and Job Hunting
Millennials have had their fair share of interpretations in the workplace. We've been called everything from self-centered and lazy to genius. Except when it comes to job hunting, hiring and keeping Millennials narrows down to one factor: fulfillment.
During school I worked at a structured internship at a digital media company here in New York City. Soon after, I completed a remote internship with Rhapsody before following my path into the startup landscape. At each level I noticed the fulfillment factor has kept my peers happy and steady; or the absence of a fulfilling environment left them regretful of their position and, likely, their industry.
Younger and younger founders are successfully setting the benchmark for what it means to be an entrepreneur. I have a theory that a lot of millennials in the startup space are weighing themselves against the Evan Spiegel’s of the world. Yet, curating similar talent comes with a structure. Here’s what the data isn’t telling you about millennials on the job hunt.
Onboarding
The transition into a new role can set the landscape for the rest of your tenure. Much like user acquisition, a poor onboarding experience can cost your company. Many Millennials show promise and skill which is why they're recruited, but their skillset is often exploited rather than nurtured. Many times these talent individuals are quickly put to work for the betterment of the company rather than correctly introduced to their role and responsibilities to put them in the best position to be happy and successful.
Onboarding is a time where employees should get acquainted with their KPIs, the vision of their upper management, and a roadmap of growth under your roof. Millennials take this time to learn about company customs and how to best approach their position. This learning period is valuable for both the new employees and the employers. When I accepted the Content Marketing Manager role at Augment, I had to get well acquainted with a completely new industry. To ease the transition, all new hires had a week of introduction into the entire augmented reality market and a series of team building activities that involved our New York, Paris, and Florida offices. For me, “Onboarding” at previous companies meant hands-on client work from day one.
Impact
We fear the days of menial work and truly seek to have a hand in the growth of a company. Regardless of the title, a position of impact is where I've seen my peers at their happiest; which is why I believe an entrepreneurial spirit should be a prerequisite.
I've seen social media mavens quit because their responsibilities quickly turned into a content distribution house. Or even a developer who becomes uninterested at work because he or she is periodically being assigned to smaller, less urgent projects. Millennials want a chance to make a positive impact and prove their worth within their role.
Free beer and the dog-friendly office isn't enough to keep millennial prospects around in the long run. Aside from the perks, or lack thereof, I always felt satisfied if I was able to align with my boss's vision for myself and their vision of the company in the next 3 years.
As a millennial, we feel like the college diploma has dropped in the exchange rate for job opportunities. With that said, in route to a fulfilling role, Millennials want a roadmap that defines success in their professional track.
Promising equity that may never come to fruition and a relaxed work environment doesn't replace the necessities that make millennial employees successful in the workplace. As more companies invest efforts in these areas, in return, millennials will invest their professional future.
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Computer Service Desk Technician at Strategic Data Systems (San Diego)
8yHere is a quote that I read somewhere, "Being young is not an accomplishment."
Tiffany & Co. | e-commerce | digital commerce | product management | everyday technology products | enterprise systems |
8yInteresting read. Thank you for sharing your views. Considering myself a millennial, I can totally relate. Unfortunately, a lot of companies are still not prepared for this kind of attitude toward a new job and millennials' high expectations.
Helps manufacturers reduce costs and emissions with explainable white-box machine learning.
8yOne of the keys to keeping millennials engaged is to create a workplace that encourages free movement of information. I am by no means the first person to note the significant gap between consumer technology and workplace technology. But I think there is an under-appreciation of how that technology gap influences workplace culture. The millennials came of age in a fully networked world, where they gladly provide constant updates about their location and activities to anyone in their network. It is a tremendous culture shock when young people come to work and find critical information buried in siloes: file servers, email inboxes, etc. There is no workplace search engine. If you are lucky maybe there is a shared drive that is accessible from home, but there is certainly no enterprise SEO. Enterprises are just starting to figure out that lightweight file sharing solutions like Box and Dropbox can be more effective than cumbersome enterprise solutions like SharePoint. Collaboration technology is starting to focus less on cumbersome hardware and more on SaaS services, but there is still a long way to go before employees can really collaborate effectively - in real time or asynchronously, regardless of geography. Millennial workers expect a culture that values influence, networks, and dynamic decision making. They mostly find a workplace culture that still emphasizes hierarchies, power, and static decision-making. The issue is so much larger than IT figuring our how to support BYOD. The issue is to unlock the productivity of the 21st century knowledge worker on the same order of magnitude that modern manufacturing unlocked the productivity of the 20th century manual worker. Do that and your employees will be engaged, no matter what their age.
Engineering Design Manager - Rotary Drilling Tools at Komatsu Mining Corp.
8yEnvironment is achanging and species adapting. Evolution
CEO/Founder at Detroit Audio Lab
8yYes, you will be put to work for the betterment of the company. If you feel you are not then quickly find another position as that company will likely fail.