Gen Y: These Young People Know What They Want
Filed in archive Human Resources on December 18, 2006
Struggling to hire 17-29 year olds (echo boomers)?
Business owners and entrepreneurs better wake up and smell the coffee, times have changed and the youth of today do not think like you would expect.
If this post hits the baby boomers where it hurts, so be it, but these kids are not only savvy they are also very entrepreneurial:
"They want to create a custom life and create the kind of career that fits around the kind of life they want," says Bruce Tulgan, the founder of RainmakerThinking, a management training firm in New Haven, Conn., and an author specializing in generational diversity in the workplace. Via USA Today
In a post back in May I defined this group called:
Generation Y (Echo Boomers): age 17 - 29 in 2005, this is the generation that has never known life without a persistent internet connection or a life without computers. They love Instant Messaging (IM) and manage a large list of friends via instant messaging. IM was their first social application. Many have been instrumental in innovating Web 2.0 with social applications and tools.
In The Secret To Recruiting Echo Boomers I document that this net-generation is curious, intelligent, focused, willing to adapt to change, self reliant, confident and ready to pursue their dreams via entrepreneurial pursuits.
It is time to start approaching your human resource and hiring issues differently, help them to find meaning in their work, encourage them to be creative, innovate, and loosen the control strings. Don't be their boss, work with them.
Tags: echo boomers baby boomers entrepreneurs business they+want these+young
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Response from:
Katie Konrath
(12/18/06 3:19pm)
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However, I suspect a lot of this is to do with the decreased job security we face in the workplace. Our parents were willing to start off in a low-level job that demanded a lot from them because they knew that the company would take care of them and promote them for their loyalty and hard work.
My generation has grown up watching our elders be laid off by companies they've given their entire lives to. With the spread of globalization and the offshoring of even white collar jobs, our job security will be even less.
Why would we take a tedious, demanding job that doesn't fulfill us when we know that the company we depend on doesn't share our loyalty? Personally, I'd rather depend on my own ingenuity and create my own employment. At least then I know my hard work will count for something.