Over the last week, I’ve been reading some fascinating yet troubling articles about Gen-Y and the topic of work – or should I say lack there of. And it seems to be a ragging battle between those outside Gen-Y dictating notions of what the inside of Gen-Y looks like. While, at the same moment, these Millennials gracefully watch from the outside hoping to get in to the workforce.
Not to sound too harsh, there are non-Millennials who understand the enthusiastic and highly optimistic Generation Y. My beef – which is slang for problem – is with all the Gen-Y naysayers and their equations of Gen-Y, which for some reason, don’t include Gen-Y.
Old Perspectives on New Times
The biggest issue Gen-Y and Millennials face is the fact that individuals from outside this generation take pleasure in making assumptions about us – I’m one of those Gen-Yers you’re looking into, while I myself look for work. They believe they understand us through their perspective. However, that perspective is based from a completely different time.
The technological advances over the last two decades have changed the world in extremely profound ways. Advances that Millennials have grown-up with. Advances that have altered life to points of which we’ve never even been close to. Yet, there’s the belief that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Harvard Business Review seems to believe this. They recently published an article about how Millennials won’t change the workplace but rather, the workplace will change us. And although the article points out the changing environment, there is a firm belief that even then the workplace will whip Millennials into shape. That’s something I find perplexing, since daily Millennial behavior is already drastically redefining the workplace through the many aspects of technology (and I will add, because everyone always makes a big deal, that although this behavior is not entirely exclusive to Millennials, there is something to be said about patches of older individuals exhibiting this behavior as opposed all Gen-Y growing with it.)
Now if that article had argued that Millennials aren’t changing the workplace because they themselves have yet to enter it, I would agree. It seems that Gen-Y faces enormous barriers simply just to enter the workforce, never mind how they’ll change it – but wait and see. Besides the issues of education and experience, employers are upping the ante in position requirements. It’s an obvious inclination to want the best employees. But when do our notions of “best” go to far.
Trying, Hoping To Get Work
From personal experience, I’ve been told by interviewers that I “simply wouldn’t be interested in the position.” And then there was the “I specifically put these requirements down and will be looking for someone who can meet them all” – I met 95% of those requirements and since when was 95% a bad score to have, on well, anything. Not to mention a close colleague of mine that had to go through 5 interviews, yes 5, for an entry-level position. Deservingly, she got it. But how disheartening would it have been if she was one of other two people who went the distance and didn’t get it.
Although this isn’t the case everywhere, it’s predominately been a difficult time landing that job. Ask any Millennial. Youth unemployment rates are disastrously high across the globe. Yet, no one is absolutely doing anything about it. There has been portrayals that there is a skills crisis. Something truly ironic considering this generation is highly educated and extremely motivated. And then, I’m even further mystified when I come around glorious articles like this, “I Can’t Find a Good Employee from Generation Y.”
The article, which was published on BNET, is a story of a salon-owner and the many “hardships” she came across when looking for young-talent. And after a lengthy interview process and hiring two individuals, one decided to quit. But the best part comes when the humble salon-owner absolutely puts-down Gen-Y with the most negative rhetoric. These two excerpts are her most priceless examples,
It seems impossible to find good hires from the generation of 18-to-25-year-olds today. With the huge pool of unemployed people, it’s just shocking to me that there aren’t hard-working people available to choose from.
And it only gets better,
There are a few gems out there, but they’re really hard to find. The overwhelming majority are over-privileged youth.
Misguided Understandings
I can just imagine the reactions people are having. Some are nodding in agreement and others are simply furious. Not to mention that the author for some reason states that she became a home owner at age 22. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds. And talk about the biggest BS – which is an acronym for bullshit – I’ve ever seen or heard. I could easily come up with over a hundred “gems” that would absolutely blow you away. Of which all are looking for work. Of which I have the highest levels of confidence in.
It’s not a matter of being good or a hard-worker, it’s about being perfect. It’s all about the “perfect-fit.” Can anyone even keep up with this growing sense of perfection? Understandably, higher positions require more. I’m not disputing that. But to be everything you want in an employee at entry-level is utterly ridiculous. When will employers realize this?
Yet, around and around we go. Twentysomething Millennials such as myself have to be wrong, right? Because we lack fundamental experience, knowledge and life’s lessons – take a look at the comment a very wise Gen-Xer left for me on the Harvard post from above. It’s ironic because we’re not asking for the best jobs, but everyone is asking for the best employees. Until society understands that there is fundamental misunderstandings about Millennials, Gen-Y can do nothing else but wait. Don’t worry, even after all this, we’ll still be waiting on the outside, looking in.
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