Millennials have heard it all before.
They are technology addicts and would rather fire off illiterate text messages than entertain a deep thought. They are narcissists darting from one virtual stage to the next. They have zero attention span.
Those are only a handful of the unflattering media assessments millennials have been hit with in recent years. There’s plenty more where those came from: show-offs, shameless, and selfie-absorbed, for a start.
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To begin with a trite truism: There are two sides to every coin. Which is to say that, for every data point, observation, prediction and proclamation about millennials in the workforce, you can usually find a contradictory point of view.
So where does that leave the vast legions of millennials who are just launching their careers (or hope to!) and the army of companies that are thinking about employing them (or not!)? Perhaps it begins with a dose of due diligence and a bow to the Dirty Harry challenge of, “Do I feel lucky?”
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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
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The Millennial Preparedness Survey questioned 3,000 respondents across nine audiences and examined skills, traits, use of technology, workplace attitudes and expectations, along with opinions of executives about millennials and vice versa, and much more. The survey identified a number of solutions to alleviate the preparedness problem and found high levels of agreement among different stakeholders on those solutions. But the study also highlights a lack of consensus in how stakeholders actually define preparedness and views vary on which skills are needed.
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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.
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Get ready, corporate America. The millennials are coming.
The largest generation in the modern era is arriving in the workforce with a different set of values and the power to shift business culture to meet them. Whether employers believe millennials are lazy entitled narcissists or savvy pragmatic idealists, it’s time to take them seriously. Especially because there are “issues.”
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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.
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Known by some as the Amazon or iTunes of e-learning, Portland, Oregon–based OpenSesame offers more than 20,000 online courses on subjects such as how to develop employees’ skills, comply with regulations, and grow your business, all through its massive open online course (MOOC) platform.
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Bentley University’s Millennial Preparedness research study raised a number of issues about millennials in the workplace. The PreparedU Project, in this series entitled “Generational Voices,” features 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.
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When Gen X bad boy Bret Easton Ellis calls you Generation Wuss, no doubt you’re going to mount a defense. But is there any truth to the author’s claim that millennials — “Who [were] cocooned in praise — four stars for showing up, you know?” — crave recognition and can’t handle criticism? Or are millennials pushing for a more open, transparent, and communicative workplace culture that benefits us all and makes us more productive, loyal employees?
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