Thoughts from a First Generation Millennial

This week’s guest blog brought to you by Brad Haugen.

I just taught my sixteen year old sister-in-law how to use Twitter last month.

Hi, I am a first generation millennial.

While teaching her the ins and outs of the Twitterverse, I realized something: Twitter doesn’t matter— not to her. She can understand how to work it – it’s not that complex. It’s more that she doesn’t see the purpose. “Why would I want to broadcast this to everyone?” “It seems like texting, but I can’t write as much.”

Or as fast. 

She was uninterested in sharing links, and her photo library on Facebook is easier to access. Many will say that the younger wave of millenials don’t understand Twitter. I say they just don’t care. The bottom line is that they can learn it, and they will (or else they will learn whatever the next version is) rather quickly as they get older. Technology to them is like riding a bike. And in a generational Tour de France, they are Lance Armstrong.

At twenty seven, I am the oldest child in a large family of my Generation Y brothers and sisters. I am not as technologically savvy as my 16-year-old counterparts will be at my age, but I can program, Photoshop, Tweet and find anything on the web in a matter of seconds. I have strong opinions, I understand technology and I expect to be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

I have more than one thousand Facebook friends, and I know all of them. Money matters to me, but not as much as it does to most people. I think happiness comes from good friends, family, a positive attitude and learning.

That is the portrait of me in the mural of my generation, one that our parents and their peers formed for us by emphasizing the value of piano lessons, soccer camps, exotic family vacations and liberal arts educations.

Those of us who are fortunate to be included in what is (for many) considered to be the most enigmatic of generations also bring with us something valuable to the table: perspective. I say this with complete humility, as I know that I am still green in my career and have much to learn from people whose intelligence literally baffles me on a daily basis. Yet I also say this with complete confidence, because I have been alive long enough to know that my parents cry, my teachers are not all-knowing and my colleagues make mistakes, just as I do.

I read a recent article in the New Yorker by Malcom Gladwell, entitled “How David Beats Goliath: When underdogs break the rules,” that gives us an allegorical portrayal of how innovation and adaptation lead to survival. It isn’t rocket science, yet many organizations are trying to avoid reinventing the wheel because they are used to a certain way of working—that’s the whole round peg square hole thing. Companies should take note.

Some already are.

At my company, a well-known advertising agency, we have already begun to explore how we might change for the future. We have an internal team working daily to explore new models around technology, entertainment and brands.

And we are doing it right.

We didn’t hire anyone, but instead repurposed the most innovative thinkers we already had. I am happy that I work in a company that asks me “what do you think?” They talk to the agency and use our collective knowledge to figure out better, newer ways of working. Ultimately, this team has been built to bring about the greater company’s demise. The way we in advertising have worked in the past is changing, and we are now trying to best understand how we can evolve into a company that can accommodate that change. And we’re not the only industry that is facing this impending metamorphosis.

Banking, marketing, entertainment, publications. All of these are facing critical shifts in their respective consumer landscapes as a result of the rapidly changing digital landscape and unfortunate economic downturn. They will start to panic and hop on Twitter without knowing what they are doing. The management team will scratch their heads trying to figure out how to use new technologies to their advantage. Heck, they might even put together a task force of their most trusted SVPs to address their growing issues. They need to cut costs, so they will lay off many of their young analysts, account managers or junior producers.

Then what happens? Low morale, low energy.

Low results?

You bet.

Instead of looking right under their noses for help, they decide to cut costs so they can invest that money in consulting and upskilling.

Meanwhile, freshly laid off from his 8 ‘til midnight job, Dan, the 24-year old analyst now has time. He thinks about business school, law school and that website he always thought would make him a millionaire. He continues to go out with his friends, meet girls, party and travel. Why isn’t he looking for the next job right away?

Because he hated his job to begin with!

Millennials are an eternally optimistic generation as a whole. Not only is Dan’s life better now, but it will be better from now on. He can go to Asia, write a book, get his MBA, start the next Twitter or shoot a film. He knows he can do anything he wants because his parents, coaches, teachers and other role models always told him he could. “Impossible” is not a word in the Generation Y dictionary.

And now Bank X or Consultant Y has just lost out on a hungry young mind because they needed to save $80,000 in overhead. And the saddest part of all is that these companies don’t even know what they are missing, because Dan was never allowed into an important meeting, never saw where his work was going and even when he spoke, his voice wasn’t heard. He skipped the upskilling session on Twitter because he’s been on Twitter for a year and a half. He doesn’t go to the “Lunch and Learn” about having a presence on Facebook because his brother was Mark Zuckerberg’s roommate at Harvard.

Many people from older generations feel that millennials bring with us an air of entitlement and arrogance that is borderline intolerable. Really, we just want you to listen to us – on some fronts, we know what we are talking about. If you want to learn about Twitter, don’t hire someone to come in and tell you.

Ask the fifteen –or fifty-five– of us who are right under your nose and who Tweet while you aren’t looking. Don’t simply make the interns get coffee and pick up copies, but maybe have them teach you a little something about designing a presentation in flash or keynote. Or even ask them about how to refine your presentation skills – most of them have been presenting to classrooms for more than ten years. (If you’ve had a University student present to you recently, you know what I am talking about. If you haven’t, invite one over – I promise you will learn something).

The bottom line is that millennials are getting restless in their jobs because they are simply not challenged, and they are forced to toil away on menial tasks for even more menial pay in a daily routine that, frankly, causes them to start to lose a bit of who they are. And when they confront someone about their lack of responsibility or their voice not being heard, the same speech echoes from Wall Street to Hollywood:

“You have to earn it. I worked tirelessly for fifteen years to get where I am and I am grateful for that.”

What most young people never have the guts to say back, is this:

“I get it. But who said that I want to be where you are in fifteen years?”

And that is the greater point here. Many of us who are new or new-ish in the work force are not after careers just yet. This is another period of education for us. We want a job, one where we can be sponges that soak up every bit of knowledge we come across that will help us succeed in our next career. We have a perspective on technology that is intrinsic to our upbringing. We “get it,” and we can bring that to the table. Of course we can’t solve the big business issues that come with years of experience, but we can assist you in your cause. So please: recognize that, let us help (we really want to!) and help us learn so that we can take that knowledge with us to our next career.

And while most of us don’t know what that next career is, I do.

I want to be an astronaut.

POSTED BY Webmaster | 5 COMMENTS »
LABELS: "gen xy", career, gen y, guest blog, innovation