Prior to landing a post-college job, I was amazed at the limitless number of articles I read about my generation – a generation of entitled, pampered, 20-somethings who feel like they deserved a good pay check and corner office despite having zero experience. Personally I never felt like I was owed anything and would have happily accepted a job at nearly any rate as long as I was doing what I love. The negativity toward my peers actually helped me when I got into the working world, simply because I wanted to prove all those Generation Y bashers wrong. In fact, companies can take advantage of our generational quirks that have often been regarded as unconstructive.
First of all, we are trained multitaskers. Sure we can check our Facebook account while changing the song on our iPod and sending a text message all at the same time. But this means we can answer the phone, respond to your email and search for that site you requested in record time as well. Our ability to do multiple things at once has the potential to save companies time and resources.
Second, we are the first generation to have been raised on computers. Granted, we’re not all computer experts, but for the most part we understand how it works and can learn quickly. Even if we haven’t created a PowerPoint presentation since grade school, we know the basic functionality of the program, and we can quickly find articles, websites, blogs and other references to solve any of our questions without bugging you for answers.
Third, we need you. And by you, I mean your company. As entitled as some of us may seem, in reality we don’t have experience, the economy is terrible and we can’t take any job offer for granted.
Regardless of the bad reputation attributed to Generation Y, we are a smart, technologically inclined, quick paced group of youngsters who are eager to learn and strive for advancement. As long as companies understand our eccentricity and use it to their advantage, maybe they’ll find that we aren’t so bad after all.
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