Bentley University’s Millennial Preparedness research study raised a number of issues about millennials in the workplace. In the coming weeks, PreparedU, in a series entitled Generational Voices, will present opinions from millennials and non-millennials alike on a wide variety of these issues. These views may contrast or coincide, but each will provide perspective designed to enhance insights resulting from the PreparedU data.
Bentley University’s Millennial Preparedness research study raised a number of issues about millennials in the workplace. In the coming weeks, PreparedU, in a series entitled Generational Voices, will present opinions from millennials and non-millennials alike on a wide variety of these issues. These views may contrast or coincide, but each will provide perspective designed to enhance insights resulting from the PreparedU data.
The Millennial Point of View
As the 11th employee of Waltham-based startup Care.com, reporting directly to CEO Sheila Marcelo, I had a front-row seat to the company’s early history and its mission to create a bias-free, progressive corporate culture where every single employee — regardless of gender, age or diversity — could thrive.
As we reported a few weeks ago, millennials now account for more of a third of the workforce, and are projected to comprise nearly half of all working Americans by 2020. Still, 66 percent feel misunderstood by older generations, according to our PreparedU survey.
There’s no set formula or clear-cut “solve-for-X” equation that can propel recent female college graduates to success in their careers, even though more than half of the corporate recruiters surveyed in Bentley University’s PreparedU research say that women are better job candidates than men.
In the end, I believe that moving ahead depends on the individual, and on so many other variables — like mentors, timing, opportunities and company culture.
Each year, more than 95 percent of Bentley seniors have jobs or are in graduate schools within six months of commencement. And Bentley’s Career Services Office is ranked third in the nation by the Princeton Review.
And somehow they felt they had to do better.
Something in Bentley’s PreparedU study caught my eye: About a third of business executives and recruiters surveyed disagreed that a college degree is a sign that someone is ready for the workforce.
Despite the fact that 85 percent of all brand purchases — a total of approximately $7 trillion annually, or more than half of the American GDP — are made by women, men still dominate the leadership, branding and product development decisions at most consumer brands. At advertising agencies, a paltry 3 percent of all creative directors are women, according to the Marketing to Women Conference, and men also firmly dominate investment decisions in consumer-facing ideas at venture capital firms.
For many, the word “millennials” has become synonymous with “kids these days,” but the reality is that millennials as a generation have already aged out of the bracket of young adults and recent graduates. In fact, the majority of Generation Y is now in their mid- to late-20s, with the oldest millennials already 32 years old — married with kids and homes and retirement funds, albeit all to a lesser degree than previous generations.
In November 2013, when Bentley University collaborated with the Bloomberg Business Summit in Chicago to present initial PreparedU top-line findings, panelist Shama Hyder made this astute observation about millennials and their career preferences: “Business in general has a branding problem. Most students still think of commerce as synonymous with Wall Street greed and Enron-like fiascos.