7/06/2010
Study: Millennials jump from job to job seeking change
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Study: Millennials jump from job to job seeking change
BY HILLARY HAENES, Californian staff writer
hhaenes@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Jul 03 2010 12:00 PMLast Updated Saturday, Jul 03 2010 12:00 PM
Reasons why millennials sought out their last job
Just needed a change: 37 percent
Better salary: 27 percent
Appeal of industry/position: 16 percent
More senior position: 9 percent
Benefits/perks: 12 percent
Source: Mr Youth and Intrepid. See the study at www.millennialinc.com
Interesting information about millennials
There's been a lot of change in the field of career education in the 20 years Jane Evarian has been in it.
What used to be about placing students in jobs is now about teaching a lifelong career education, the director of Cal State Bakersfield's Center for Community Engagement & Career Education said.
A college degree no longer means career success; students need experience, too. The new strategy is to network students, improve their skills and communication and encourage critical thinking.
During the dot-com phase, Evarian worked with college seniors and found them jobs they would start after graduation. A lot of students had work months before graduation and didn't have to worry about sending resumes and applying to multiple places.
"They didn't write strong resumes. They never learned to promote themselves professionally," Evarian said.
After the dot-com phase died out, she received call after call and e-mail after e-mail from students who were clueless about how to find work.
"I lost my job. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to write a resume," were messages from panicked students now out of a job.
Evarian said the millennial generation is so different because people watched both parents work hard and not relax. This is also the generation of people who have been given awards for a multitude of reasons, and millennials have the idea they are special. Another major difference is millennials do not like to be told what to do; instead, they prefer guidance and look to their boss as a mentor.
"Baby boomers need to recognize that and not feel threatened. ... Managers should provide consistent feedback to new hires," Evarian said.
The Career Services Center provides free services for job seekers. The center offers applicant recruiting and screening, on-the-job training incentives, testing and interviewing facilities and layoff aversion as well as guidance on how to craft a resume and select professional attire. For information, call 325-HIRE.
Ulises Sandoval started working right after high school. His first job was landscaping, which lasted two years.
Sandoval is now 30 and has already worked nine jobs.
"I wanted to do something different and get more experience," Sandoval said.
Like Sandoval, others who are part of the millennial generation have held several jobs in a short time.
In a recent study conducted to show what future businesses will look like when millennials take over, Intrepid, a market research consultancy, and Mr Youth, a New York-based social marketing agency, discovered the No. 1 reason this generation switches jobs often is their need for continual change. Over a six-month period that ended in April, more than 800 millennials from the United States and United Kingdom were surveyed.
"We really wanted to do the study because so many changes have been made in our world of business," said Brandon Evans, Mr Youth managing partner and chief strategy officer.
Millennials are people born from 1977 to 1996. They seek work they consider stimulating and interesting.
"It's taking longer to figure out what that is," Evans said.
He found the main reason for frequent job moves a little surprising -- he expected it to be the quest for a better salary.
Sandoval hopped jobs because he needed a change, more money and better hours.
He can now list getting laid off as a reason, too. Last week Sandoval was let go from a temporary construction job.
"I'm tired of jumping from here to there. I just want to find a job forever," Sandoval said Thursday morning after the weekly announcement of job openings at the Career Services Center, which offers free job-search services.
Even though his resume lists jobs he worked for two years and others for four months, he sees positive aspects of working various jobs.
"I've learned a lot of skills from different jobs and from different people," said Sandoval, who wants to prove to himself and family that he is a hard worker.
Career Services Center marketing supervisor Danette Scarry said the younger generation has been pampered and is not always reliable, responsible or loyal.
"When we train, we try to emphasize employers already have that stigma in their mind," Scarry said.
The market is flooded with job seekers and it's more difficult for recent college graduates to find work. Scarry gave the scenario of two people applying for the same position -- a mature 55-year-old man with experience who will stick around or a new college grad with fresh ideas.
It's become tough competition for millennials because they are known to job hop if something better comes along.
"It was a lot easier to get a job back then. I kind of jumped from job to job," said Chris Melbihess, 31, about getting a job several years ago. He has been unemployed for a year and a half.
He worked two jobs after high school and during college. After he got out of the Army, it took six months to find work. Melbihess landed a job as a host at Mimi's Café where he stayed a year and four months before leaving for a better paying job that only lasted six months.
"I needed to change. I needed to move on," Melbihess said of leaving the cafe.
Change is key for millennials, and this generation is used to being a part of a variety of activities, said Jane Evarian, director of Cal State Bakersfield's Center for Community Engagement & Career Education.
Millennials like Ashley Baxter are familiar with working two or more jobs at once.
Her first job was a two-year stint as a nanny in high school and during each holiday season, she worked a three-month part-time job.
Baxter, 21, celebrated her third year working at Starbucks in March and has been employed at a supportive living services facility since December.
"It's difficult to balance a relationship, school and finding the time to do homework. I'm also the type of person who likes to keep busy," Baxter said.
The millennial generation strives for a balanced work life and personal life. They enjoy leisure time, but they also like to work hard, Evarian said.
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What millennials want
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I love it that Millennials are the hero generation that will finally humanize the ocrporate world.
BABY BOOMERS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS « Asyah13's Blog
Asyah13's Blog
June 21, 2010
TrackBack URIBABY BOOMERS AND SOCIAL NETWORKS
Filed under: Research Word — asyah13 @ 9:36 amContrary to popular wisdom, Baby Boomers are participating in social networks – closing the generation gap on these sites.
Not so long ago, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace were the digital playgrounds of the young-specifically, Millennials (born between 1980-2000) and Generation X (born between 1965-1980). Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) were virtually non-existent on these sites. When the Pew Internet & American Life study looked at social networking behaviour in 2005, they found iess than 10% of US adults of 18 years and older had created a profile on a social network. By 2008, that number had increased to 35%. Yet, despite the increase , Boomers were still under-represented on the sites and those that had joined were infrequent visitors. Some analysts even suggested that Boomers were not interested in social networks and that any increase in visitation was merely a blip, a passing curiosity.
But now in 2010, several studies suggest otherwise. Boomers are in fact joining and participating in social networks, closing the generation gap on these sites. Deloitte late last year found that 46% of Boomers maintained at least one social networking profile – up significantly from 2007 (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Us Internet Users Who Currently Maintain a Social Networking Profile
2007 2008 2009 Millennials 71% 76% 77% Generation X 51% 57% 61% Baby Boomers 30% 31% 46% World War II Gen 10% 14% 36% Total 45% 48% 57% By generation, 2007-2009 (% of respondents)
Source : Deloitte, State of Media Democracy, fouth edition, 2009
FREQUENT VISITS
The Boomers were not only creating profiles, but they were also visiting and interacting on these networks with regularity. According to Pew’s more recent study, 85% of younger Boomers and 73% of Older Boomers checked into social networking sites at least once a week or more – a rate comparable to their younger cohorts.
And the social networks Boomers are most likely to frequent is Facebook. According to digital market research firm comScore, roughly 60% of social networking Boomers – 22.6 million – used Facebook in October 2009; no other social network came close.
It’s not entirely surprising that Facebook is their social network of choice since Boomers view social networks as a way to stay in touch with family and friends. According to Anderson Analytics, 58% of Boomers state that this is the reason they use social networks. This may also explain why Boomer-specific social networks-like Boomer Towne and Eons-never took off. Boomers want a multi-generational networks, and thus far only Facebook fits the bill: it offers Boomers access to old friends as well as to their children and grandchildren, and, yes, even younger friends. In comparison, younger generations are more likely to participate in both MySpace and Facebook (See Figure 2).
Figure 2 : Us Social Networks Users and Sites
MySpace Millennials 65% 75% 14% 9% Generation X 76% 57% 18% 13% Baby Boomers 73% 40% 13% 13% World War II Gen 90% 23% 17% 4% By generation (% of respondents in each group)
Source : Anderson Analytics, Social Network Service (SNS) A&U Profiler Note : n = 1,000; read chart horizontally – eg, 65% of Millennial social network users use Facebook.
If you’re thinking, “well, so what does this have to do with selling a products ?” you should know that Boomers who use social networks are twice as likely, according to Anderson Analytics, to purchase products online than those who don’t participate.
IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS
- Include social media in plans to reach Boomers. It is clear that social networks are not a passing phase for Boomers. Like others, they are finding that online social networks enhance their existing relationships.
- Join them at the networks they already frequent; don’t create a separate unique network for them based on their age. Boomers want to connect with their friends and family – across generations. They don’t want to be segregated by age.
- Create ‘share-worthy’ content. Boomers aren’t just lurking on social networks, they are sharing and recruiting. Give them content they deem worthy of sharing or a reason to ‘recruit’ others. For instance, a Facebook bra meme, launched in January 2010, drew significant numbers of Boomer women into the meme; it was not a meme of just younger women. News and humanitarian organisations are successfully engaging Boomers on social networking sites, sharing their organisations’ content throughout their networks.
- Don’t be afraid to incorporate media – video, pictures, etc. – for Boomers to share. Half of Boomers on social networks have watched videos, uploaded pictures or read someone’s blog.
- Social media shouldn’t replace traditional media yet for this age cohort. While Boomers are embracing social networks, they still spend significant amounts of time with traditional media – television, newspapers and radio – more so than younger generations (see Figure 3).
Figure 3 : Media Usage By Age Group
Millennials Gen X Boomers TV – Hours: Minutes per month* 130 : 50 151 : 52 185 : 20 % Read newspapers almost every day** 23% 36% 54% Internet – Hours: Minutes per month* 31 : 37 42 : 35 39 : 27 Daily use of radio (minutes)*** 82 86 85 Source :*TV and Internet Use: Nielsen A2/M2 Three Screen Report, 2009 ; **Newspapers: Harris Interactive, January 2010 ; ***Radio: Radio Advertising Bureau
Finally, the goal for all these channels for marketers is to win over the Boomers; their loyalty is up for grabs. Refuting a popular marketing truism that older consumers become more brand loyal, a 2008 AARP/Focalyst study found that 61% of Boomers felt “it didn’t pay to be brand loyal”. In March 2009, Nielsen corroborated that finding in their own study which found only a fifth of Boomers were more brand loyal than their younger cohorts
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Great article describing the social network trends of baby boomers generation x and millennials. If you are a marketer is great info.
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