We've all seen articles about how to blend people into the workforce and how to "deal" with Generation Y. This strikes me as a bit odd (and at worst insulting). We have had access to more resources, education and information than any previous generation. We are expected to have cured cancer, volunteered, played three sports, and helped the less fortunate...merely for entrance into a top 20 school.
Oh, and to graduate we have to fork over the equivalent of $40,000+ per year. So, needless to say the economic reality of accepting a $30,000 a year position is kind of depressing.
I know that economic realities make this starting salary a necessity. You need entry level workers and new ideas to spur your company forward. However, ideas are cheap. Execution and ability to create effective strategies are what makes a company stronger.
Now, this is not the reality at every company -- many companies have embraced this new wave of workers and have done their best to facilitate growth and development.
This article is not for those companies. I respect and applaud the efforts of innovation, new ways of thinking, and breakdown of certain destructive corporate hierarchies. However, most of the time these companies are very new or come from a start up culture. Thus the vast majority of companies hold true to the old guard.
How to keep your corporate culture intact:
- Look at their resume and only their resume. Want to find out about someone these days? It's likely not going to fit neatly into your .doc or pdf resume. Sorry, we have cultivated rounded, engaging and interesting presences on the web. (Or at least some of us have.)
- Assume any intern can be responsible for your social media strategy. I mean your 12 year old daughter uses Myspace how hard could this social media stuff really be?
- Make it clear that no responsibility at all will be given to the candidate. Just what any person wants to hear: they will be given the responsibility for something they likely could have done before going to college.
- Embrace and promote backwards enterprise technology and block social networks. Can't have Joe slacking on those TPS reports, so you have to block the Facebook and the Twitter. IE6 anyone?
- Inflexibility. Clearly, if you want quality work the best time to get it is from 9-5.
This article was obviously written with a heavy dose of sarcasm. However, a lot of these "worst" practices are simply a reality of the current corporate world. The reality is slowly changing however. Zappos is an example of a corporation where initiative is encouraged and personality is rewarded. Other companies are following this model with a great deal of success. Give us a shot, a tiny bit of backing and guidance. You will be amazed at what ends up being created.
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tagged as corporate hierarchy, generation y, generation y hiring, generation y social media, hiring practices, how not to hire, Marketing, Personal Branding, resume ignorance, social media practices
As a GenXer I can't say that our experience was too different than what GenYers are dealing with today. Although, in hindsight as I look at my first job, I may have been at the bottom and only $27K a year, but I I learned HOW to get things done on time, within budget, and exceed expectations. I may not have liked playing a back seat and thought I could do it better myself. Though, learning discipline in a work environment was invaluable. It is very different than the discipline in school or b-school. I now have GenYers as employees and interns. I don't hesitate to let them spread their wings. I want them to. My issue is getting them to work things through with less brute force and realize that you can't always jump steps. I'll pay a top dollar salary, and have, to those that are innovative, strategic, and help drive business goals. But, GenYers have to prove themselves to me outside of education, resume, blog, and professor recommendations. I will mentor to a point. But, I'm not going to mentor like a professor would. I have a job to do too and GenYers need to figure things out for yourselves. This is the biggest issue I've had with entry level and interns. You have to do it before you are rewarded. Its just a tough life lesson.
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