A recently published, popular Forbes article entitled “20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get” has been making the rounds. While it offers some very good advice for young people about how to succeed in the workplace, it also perpetuates some negative stereotypes about the newest generation of young professionals.
According to many hiring experts, the benefits of taking on a member of the so-called “Generation Y” or “Millennial” age group — loosely defined as someone born in the 1980s or 1990s — can be great for growing your business, especially in the IT industry! And so, in the interest of balancing out some of the stereotypes, Market Street Talent brings you these reasons why you might want to seriously consider taking a chance on a younger employee for your IT business.
Let’s start by revisiting the stereotypes. The current conventional wisdom is that 20-somethings are more likely to be narcissists, immature and underprepared to enter the workforce. That said, it could be a major mistake to discount the advantages to hiring a young worker who is excited to enter his or her career field of choice due to an unfair characterization.
In fact, small business owners have already recognized the value of hiring members of the newest generation of young professionals. The Hartford, a business magazine, recently characterized young workers as mostly “tech savvy, eager, collaborative and resourceful” in this article.
“In my experience working with and study Millennials for the past eight years, I’ve found a large majority of them to be amazingly optimistic, innovative and courageous,” says Lindsey Pollak, a nationally recognized expert on Millennials who partnered with The Hartford to share workplace trends. “There are lots of things about them that are significant to the business world.”
The newest generation of professionals is more likely to be entrepreneurial, self-starters and bring fresh perspectives to old ways of doing things. They are also more willing to learn on the job, and will respond well to mentoring and positive reinforcement.
According to another recently article published on Internships.com, here are plenty more good reasons to hire someone under 30 years old: “Don’t be fooled by the bad press. True, Generation Y may be a little different. (Weren’t you when you entered the workforce?) But with the right attitude and appropriate management, welcoming Gen Y into you internship program just might make the difference between whether your company soars or stagnates.”
There is no doubt about the fact that young workers bring a wealth of technology skills that came with the experience of being the first generation to be brought up with computers. This is a tremendous benefit for a business searching for talented IT staff. The generation of IT professionals under 30 years old often are early adopters, who find it second nature to seek out the most advanced tools and technologies.
It’s also very cost effective for your business to hire a professional at the beginning of his or her career. Millennials often seem to be more motivated by achievement and a balance between work and life, rather than simply searching for a higher salary. A younger hire brings fresh talent at a lower price, and can be cultivated to become an expert on your staff.
Millennials are known to often be team players, with the heightened sense of community that comes from growing up in an environment of social networking. This increased ability to collaborate in the workplace can translate into more creativity, better project execution, fresh perspectives that unleash new solutions, and even company loyalty.
According to this list of generational traits, Millennials are also likely to be acceptance-seeking, which drives motivation; they are also self expressive and conscious of the competition, which makes for workers that are willing to work for their shot and make the extra effort to keep a job in their chosen field.
Need more reasons to hire 20-somethings for your team? Check out this Time magazine article written by Josh Sanburn (@joshsanburn), which argues that Millennial workers just might “save us all.”
So what’s the answer here? While there might be potential drawbacks to hiring inexperienced workers, you can be encouraged by the new generation of talent as they have a lot to offer. We invite our Market Street Talent audience to take a look at all of the jobs – including jobs for Millennials – posted on our website!