Since I lobbed the grenade publicly, I will apologize publicly. I think I was a bit too harsh in my criticism of your article and for that I apologize.

I do get weary of the X, Y and millennium thing and the notion of ?it?s all about me?. Obviously I am a little older and am disappointed at the attitude of some of the younger folks, on a daily basis. I am of the school where a person earned their position or rights and is not entitled to them. And, they are earned over a greater period of time. There is no substitute for experience over a ten, twenty or even thirty year period of time.

All great kids, indeed (please forgive reference), but I caution recruiters to keep it real. I get far too many phone calls from candidates who want to leave their company after a year because the job ?was not what they expected?. Oftentimes it was the recruiter who created the expectation.

Good work, Matthew, but Britney Spears? I wonder what her resume and references would look like.

Best of luck,

DK

So your gut was saying something different than the other posters here-so what? Matthew is a talented writer, but I find his position incoherent.

For example, he writes in one sentence:

?Our only shared motivation is, at its heart, to be unique. Try to lump us into a convenient group, and you’ve already failed’

And yet just a few lines later he says:

?By and large, thought leadership is correct in assuming that we do not want to pay our dues and have an unearned sense of entitlement.?

And a little later:

?You better make it about us, not you, in the interview process’

And again:

?The most effective value proposition to the millennial candidate isn’t selling the organization, it’s selling the perception of the role’s prestige against the marketplace’

And yet again:

?Starting out on a career is still the first rite of true adulthood and independence for a huge majority of us, so we expect to be treated as adults.?

So which is it, are Millennials treatable as a distinct subgroup or not?

I agree with Matthew?s first point: Millennials are not a group that can be thought of differently than other Americans.

People tend to overstate differences in culture and understate the similarities of that little walnut at the center of our brains. All people seek prestige. All people seek the top value for their time and efforts. All people want to be recognized as unique individuals. All young people desire the privileges of adulthood (although a great many do not act on the desire). All of those drives are universal.

The difference with Millennials is that many have never seen a day of hard times. Can you imagine a 19 or 22 year old in 1943 telling his drill sergeant that he does not want to pay his dues, and furthermore, he is not sure about the prestige of his assignment? A young lady in 1932 focused on what the resume will look like in five years? I make a major exception for entire generations of the urban underclass; they have only known hard times, but that?s a discussion for another day.

Lets see how all this talk looks if the impending R word slides toward the D word. Its going to be as quaint as a 100% stated income 5/1 option ARM.

‘The truth is that corporations need you (or your smarter, more educated counterparts in Asia or Europe) to fill their roles.’

Please reserve comments like those directed at Mr. Charney for the kids that are playing on your front lawn.

I do find it intriguing that so many companies are falling over themselves trying to appear appealing to your generation. In truth few will actually make changes at the fundamental levels you touch on – career path, skills training, and recognition (short and long-term).

The bottom line remains – you will be expected to come into the organization and perform the job function for which you were hired, and do it well. Then, and only then, will you be able to embark on the other roads of enhanced projects and learnings.

Why? Because businesses hire people to perform the functions that the BUSINESS needs to have performed in order to meet the company’s objectives. If they don’t, then they fail as a business.

No one really wants to have to pay their dues – I know I didn’t WANT to, but I still found I had to pay them. Why? Because getting the work done well is what it’s all about. If you’re good at what you do then your career can have exponential interesting opportunities. If not, well, text your friends about how lame your company is…

And so yes, I agree, your generation is truly not significantly different then those that came before. You want to be recognized as an individual. You want to be rewarded and recognized for doing something well. You want to learn new things and have exciting and meaningful work. You don’t want to be locked into a ‘career path’ that forces you to conform to the middle (mediocrity??).

As I write this, I can almost feel myself slipping into my father’s cardigan…and an eerie tingle of a craving for a pipe with cherry scented tobacco. I think I’ll take another slurp from my designer coffee instead.

It seems the perception out there is we are all entitled brats who look for get-rich-quick schemes, so we can get on the cover of US Weekly and fend off paparazzi. Well, this isn?t true. In fact, we work hard to provide good lives for ourselves and our families, just like everyone else. The difference is that we need to feel important and need to feel like we are accomplishing something in our daily lives, not just showing up for a paycheck. We need to constantly be stimulated by what we do (thanks to the Nintendos our parents all bought us in 1985), which makes higher profile, multi-faceted positions more appealing. Thanks again for the article.

Thanks for this interesting perspective from one of their own as opposed to those selling ?solutions? on how to hire them. (Now THAT is a bit, as the author so aptly puts it; creepy.)

Wonderfully refreshing and right to the point. This article is a winner.

The only real fault that I can find in his article was his assertion that Britney Spears is a better musician than were any of the members of Abba. For a card carrying member of Gen X, them’s fightin’ words! :-)

Professional recruiters believe in the truth in recruiting and not ‘storytelling’.

By the way, Britney Spears is not a musician and he clearly does not know who ABBA is.

Mr. Charney is an embarrassment to the recruiting industry.

DK

On Wikipedia, I?m sure you saw prior generations such as mine ? the Gen X (where the Gen-Y derived their name), as well as the Baby Boomers, the Depression Era, and the ?Builders.? One could argue that everything you?re going through, the Gen-Xers have already gone through, largely for the same reasons (lack of bodies to work the millions of low to mid-level office jobs in large corporate environments as well as an educated population that wants to do more than work in a cube). Or that the ?Baby Boomers? have most likely been the most ?catalogued personage in the annals of history.? Please source other pop cultural references outside of your Us Weekly to find the multitude of movies, television shows and music that reflect the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, ?free love,? the drug explosion, and the onslaught of the corporate culture (see: Yuppie) that the Boomers have given us. Pretty well cataloged, to say the least. Go back further to read how many articles were written about WWII, how many movies were made, documentaries, and books published (Gen-Y still reads books don?t they?) that reflect this generation. Please, take one more step and learn about the ?builders,? the generation that built and defended this country. When I say ?built,? I mean it. New York, Chicago, Boston, Philly, and Baltimore were the urban hubs at that time. L.A. was still an orange grove. This generation built the infrastructure, the roads, bridges, sewers, and skyscrapers that defined our country ? amazing stuff really.

You see, each of these prior generations helped build this country. They fought the wars and they did things, they have a ?resume? so to speak. Even my generation, the X-ers can lay claim to the technology revolution. Sure we may have tripped during the dot.com era but hey, we took a chance ? earned some stripes on the old curriculum vitae.

To think you?re a ?different? generation or one that is smarter, more well-prepared, and educated than previous generations is more than pure vanity, it?s flat out wrong. The truth is that corporations need you (or your smarter, more educated counterparts in Asia or Europe) to fill their roles. The ?Boomers? are retiring and now their looking to their twenty-something year old replacements, who often cap off a long day of blogging by playing with video games (toys), creating alternative digital identities, or shopping and they are getting worried. We?re all waiting ? no, looking forward to – the Gen-Y?ers making their mark, defining themselves and doing something.

In the spirit of your original article, of course I jest a bit. But really, if you have any ideas how to hire your counterparts, keep ?em coming. Good article ? I really enjoyed it.

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