Millennials

Can today’s millennial women break through the barriers, stereotypes and inequities that have so plagued women in the past?

We all know that millennials are tech savvy, diverse and highly motivated when it comes to advancing their professional careers. But did you know that they're also passionate about social causes? 

Millennials — roughly defined as someone in their late teens to someone in their early 30s and often labeled as “lazy” and “self-centered” by those from older generations — not only want to help make the world a better place, they’re actually doing something about it.

The fact that many of us had to overcome significant hurdles as we banged our heads against the glass ceiling doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to help smooth the path for the women who come after us. If we don’t, how can we expect our male colleagues to do so? As Madeleine Albright famously quipped, in her 2006 keynote address to the WNBA, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

Bentley’s PreparedU research study outlined a number of possible solutions to help millennials, higher education faculty and staff, and business leaders better meet one another’s needs. What does that mean in practical terms for college-age millennials? We asked a panel of experts from Boston-area schools. 

When Bentley senior Aaron Pinet walked in to a job interview at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the first question he got wasn’t about his grade point average or accounting courses. The conversation starter was his service-learning work: presenting policy-related research on energy literacy to congressmen on Capitol Hill, or developing a financial literacy curriculum for prospective college students.

When asked in Bentley’s Preparedness Survey what they most want in new millennial hires, business decision makers identified “integrity” as the top quality.

But can integrity be taught? 

When a panel of Bloomberg executives gathered at Bentley University’s PreparedU launch event, held at the media giant’s New York headquarters this past January, they emphasized one thing over and over: a college education should do more than just prepare students for jobs. This mirrors findings from Bentley’s preparedness research study, in which 74 percent of respondents affirmed the value of a college education in preparing students not only for their professional life but also for everything from pursuing a passion to contributing to society.

In this final installment of our seven-week Careers of the Future Series, Fred Ledley, professor of Natural and Applied Sciences and Management as well as director of the Bentley Center for Integration of Science and Industry, explores what exactly it takes for millennial students to prepare for tomorrow's careers — including those can't even be imagined today.