Advice for Employers and Recruiters
State of Gen Y: Careers and Social Networks
A new study by Millennial Branding, of over 50 million Facebook data points from Identified.com, uncovers that Gen-Y (ages 18 to 29) is inadvertently using their profiles as an extension of their professional personality, even though they are socializing with family and friends. 64% of Gen-Y fails to list their employer on their profiles, yet they add an average of 16 co-workers each to their ‘friend’ group. Other major findings in this study include:
- 80% of Gen-Y list at least one school entry on their Facebook profiles, while only 36% list a job entry. They define themselves by their colleges instead of their workplaces.
- They spend an average of just over 2 years at their first job. They are job hopping multiple times in their careers.
- Only 7% of Gen-Y works for a Fortune 500 company because startups are dominating the workforce for this demographic in today’s economy. If large corporations want to remain competitive, they need to aggressively recruit Gen-Y workers. Gen-Y will form 75% of the workforce by 2025 and are actively shaping corporate culture and expectations. Big corporations can’t afford to be left behind.
- “Owner” is the fifth most popular job title for Gen-Y because they are an entrepreneurial generation. Even though most of their companies won’t succeed, they are demonstrating an unprecedented entrepreneurial spirit. Companies need to allow Gen-Yers to operate entrepreneurially within the corporation by giving them control over their time, activities and budgets as much as possible.
- The travel and hospitality industry hires the most Gen-Y candidates now because young people are having trouble getting internships and jobs so they turn to bartending and waitressing jobs.
- The US Military is the largest Gen-Y employer overall and Deloitte is the largest corporate employer. Companies such as Walmart and Starbucks ranked high and should focus on training their in-store workers to become corporate employees when they graduate.
Alexandra Levit is a globally recognized workplace author and speaker. A nationally syndicated columnist, Alexandra has published several books, including They Don’t Teach Corporate in College, How’d You Score That Gig?, Success for Hire, MillennialTweet, New Job, New You, and Blind Spots. Levit has advised the Obama administration, regularly speaks nationwide at conferences, universities, and corporations on workforce issues, and was recently named Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year. Learn more about Alexandra’s work at AlexandraLevit.com.