The Wall Street Journal reports a surge of interest by Millennials in cause-related jobs. Teach for America and the Peace Corps are experiencing a surge in applicants in response to these frightening statistics: “Only 59% of employers surveyed expect to hire 2008 graduates by the end of the summer, down from 76% the year before … “
Historically, the public sector has seen a surge of job applicants in slow economic times, it will be interesting to see how the slowdown affects the nonprofit sector and its ability to continue to hire young people. Hopefully, the slowdown and the employment prospects for young people will all show signs of recovery soon.
There is a growing trend of having Millennials on nonprofit boards. In response to our Social Citizens paper, the Salvation Army has created a board seat specifically for a young person. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that business schools, like the one at Columbia University, are placing their students as nonvoting board members at nonprofits. The win/win is that students get to see how boards and decision making works (or doesn’t work!), and boards get the input and advice of young, tech-savvy budding entrepreneurs.
As the summer of 2008 is officially upon us, we see gas prices soaring to a whopping $4.00 a gallon, and an economy that is unpredictable at best. But even with all of the uncertainty in the world, one thing is for sure – very little seems to be stopping the new class of college graduates entering the workforce.
Millennials crave something different than their Boomer parents did when they entered the workforce some 30 years ago. In particular, a strong desire for a work life balance, increased financial stability (after all those student loans), and a longing to make a difference in the world.
And what’s more, companies are listening and adapting their recruitment practices accordingly. For example, at JPMorgan recruits are divided into teams and take part in what they call a Good Venture Competition, where the winning project team is awarded $25,000 for their cause. For executives at JPMorgan, this is a clever way to combine genuine philanthropy with a real-world test of leadership and teamwork for their potential recruits. For Millennials, it’s proof that the company is committed to giving back to the community.
In this weekend’s Washington Post magazine cover story, The Amazing Adventures of Supergrad,” Liza Mundy shows us how companies are falling over one another to vie for the talents of what some consider the most “sophisticated, accomplished, entitled graduates ever produced by American colleges.”
I am often asked by museums and traditional performing arts groups how to engage Millennials in their efforts. I respond with a long-winded answer about the need to listen to them, to use their language and tools to have real conversations with them, yada, yada. Today, I saw this video courtesy of Mitch Nauffts via The Very Short List — and it answers the question so much more elegantly than I’ve been doing! Hope you enjoy …
I’ve come up with one definition for my generation, the infamous Millennials: we don’t like being defined. We especially don’t like being defined by people who don’t have Facebook accounts, don’t know that RSS feeds are a legitimate way to get your news, have never used Twitter, don’t understand that we can text and listen and jokingly tell us that we must be “itching to go to the bar” after a well-delivered power point presentation at a conference at which I’m the youngest one, by years … so, please stop talking about me.
For me, Sunday morning isn’t complete without a bagel, nonfat latte and a copy of the Sunday NY Times. And lest you think I’m not a Social Citizen tried and true – every other day of the week I get my news online.
After a thorough skim of Section A, I skip directly to the Magazine to see the timely political, ethical, or philosophical themes the editors have chosen to highlight in the oversized glossy pages. But, this week is a little different as the Times Magazine cover story has been lighting up the blogosphere and my inbox a few days early.
The 8,000 word personal story by Emily Gould, appropriately entitled Exposed tells the intimate confessions of her life as a serial blogger / stereotypical Millennial. So, when does sharing become “TMI”? (or for our Boomer readers – Too Much Information) And, when and how can blogging serve a deeper purpose? Is there a place for both?
Helen calls for a digital-era Works Progress Administration (the old WPA from the New Deal started in the 1930s) so that, as she puts it, “Our next president can help reconstruct America’s fragmented and relatively weak public communications infrastructure by using the most effective tool our youth wield — the power and depth of their digital fluency.”
Thanks to columnist Nick Kristof who highlights the inspiring accomplishments of the cause-immersed, do-gooder Millennial Generation in his NY Times column this week.
Whether it’s starting a school in Cambodia while sick in bed, dancing the night away in Australia to help protect kids from malaria in Africa, or bringing attention to the genocide in Darfur through a friendly school competition — Millennials are finding ways to leverage their social networks.
And now the trend is taking shape well before they even reach college. As Kristof notes, “The spotlight may be on billionaire philanthropists like Bill Gates, but one of the country’s healthier trends has been the rise of piggy-bank philanthropists.”
I recently moved to San Francisco after seven wonderful years living and working in our nation’s capital. I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a bit of a culture shock — but I’m loving the Bay Area — especially all of the new and interesting people I’ve run into. One of the first such people was Ben Rigby.
Sure, I’ve had more jobs in the past 8 years since I graduated college than my parents have had throughout their entire professional careers — and the funny thing is, the majority of my friends are in the same boat. But that doesn’t mean we’re not dedicated and committed to the causes and organizations we work for, that we don’t respect our superiors or won’t roll up our sleeves and pay our dues.
