What Today’s Young Job Seekers Say They Really Want

At last month’s ERE Expo in Hollywood, Florida, Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads assembled a panel of four of today’s sharpest young job seekers.

Among the findings:

Only one of them uses LinkedIn.
They were not swayed by free swag at job fairs.
They were hesitant to be contacted by Facebook and SMS, which is often regarded as impersonal, unprofessional, or even spam.
If they’re receiving text messages from a recruiter or employer at 9:00 p.m., it’s a bad sign that they’d be working until 9:00 p.m. on a regular basis at that company.

Click below to see the video with these four young job seekers:

A major theme was that young job seekers long for face-to-face contact during the recruiting process. One of the No. 1 takeaways was that some good old-fashioned face time is necessary to make sure the position and company culture are a good fit for the candidate.

Another recurring point was that this new generation of workers needs to like what they do. Despite the economic state, young workers have the benefit of mobility and won’t stay in a position for long if they aren’t happy. This seems obvious, but it can often be overlooked when trying to fill a position on a deadline.

Mobility within the company was also discussed. If young workers feel stuck in their position with no room to move upward, they will consider other options. It’s important to make candidates feel like they will have a future with your company with options down the road.

Overall, honesty about the company and taking the time to reach out and make sure the position was a good fit does not go unappreciated. Some highlights are above; the full unedited video can be watched here.