There has been so much talk on Generation Y and the many many names that have been used to describe those born between 1978 and 1993. Most articles related to career news focus on the differences between the generation and that of many of their bosses or soon to be bosses from the baby boomer generation.  I always have found these articles to be interesting and although often times loaded with generalizations, insightful.  I may be biased since I am part of the beloved Generation Y as well.

Generation Y is a force of as many as 70 million, many of which have entered or will be entering the workforce in the coming years as companies are facing an aging workforce.  Sixty year olds are working besides 22 year olds.  Some of the things being said about Gen Y workers are that they have a high expectation of themselves.  They aim to work more efficiently than their peers.  They also have high expectations of their employers.  The day has come and gone where someone will be with the same company for 40 years and then retire.  Many Gen Yers will have 6 or 7 jobs before they retire.  Employers must work hard to keep Gen Yers engaged, excited, and motivated about their positions.  Generation Y also loves ongoing learning.  They seek out creative challenges and view colleagues as vast resources to gain knowledge.  They also want to make an immediate impact from day 1 and want small goals with tight deadlines to build up ownership of tasks from the get-go.  Now these things do not sound bad at all, but compared to the mindset of those in their 50’s and 60’s there are some vast differences.  Many of those in the baby boomer generation see the attitudes of the generation Y worker as feeling “priviledged” because of their education.  Many of these workers have been with the company and putting in their dues for many many years now and believe experience is what moves you up the ladder, not education.

I think the best advice to give to a generation Y worker is to Manage up!  Manage what your boss thinks of you, steer your boss’s plans for you, get your boss to supervise you in a way that works well for you.  All generations recognize that the next generation is not like theirs, but there are great strengths to each.  It is important to find these strenghts and learn from eachother.  If you make your priorities clear to your boss you will be able to use their many years of experience in the field to your benefit.  Use this person to help you with your project management and prioritization because they’ve seen it all before.  Investigate other skills you think your boss will be able to help you with, bring that list to your boss, and let them use their nurturing personalities to really help you obtain those new skills. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 9:02 am and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.