What’s Next For Graduating Millennials?

Tru Pettigrew, Founder of Tru Access

The question in the title of this post is on the hearts and minds of thousands of millennials and their parents across the nation during this graduation season. What used to be a pretty standard process of graduate college – get a job in “your field” – get your own apartment – get married – and start a family, is not so standard anymore.

With an incredibly high unemployment rate for millennials and frustrations with acceptance and inclusion in various corporate environments, many millennials are opting to move back home while they look for a job or start their own business. Starting a family is being placed on the back burner for now; that’s another post for another time.

So what is next? Here are a few safe assumptions… A number of graduating millennials will go on to grad school and some will land jobs and thrive in their careers. And based on what I’m seeing and hearing, many will spend time navigating the waters of uncertainty as they realize there are things they still need to learn about how to make the right career choice, master the interview process and excel in the workforce. Many millennials will have the revelation that many of their older millennial peers and prospective employers have already realized. That revelation is that there seems to be a “preparation void” between the time graduation takes place and the time the first job begins.

I read a blog post yesterday by on of my Millennial All-Stars that spoke about how her parents charged her rent to move back home after graduating college.  (http://t.co/FFxNGxaeaO) This is great preparation to equip millennials and properly manage expectations to help them to thrive in the “real world”.

To my graduating millennials, below are seven critical lessons where I encourage you to proactively seek a deeper understanding. Engage parents, mentors, millennials coaches or whatever organization or resource is available to you.  Knowledge and insight on the below topics will significantly help prepare you for what’s next and lead you to success.

Proactively seek guidance and direction in the following areas…

1.    How to properly prepare for and perform during the interview process
2.    Developing good money management habits (Pay rent to your parents)
3.    Best practices for Social Media usage
4.    How to transfer valuable information into actionable knowledge
5.    How to recognize your gifts and choose the best career path
6.    Effective on and off line networking & relationship building
7.    Building Culturational Chemistry in the workplace (how to bridge cultural & generational gaps to increase your value)

Tru Pettigrew is the founder of Tru Access (www.tru-access.com), the nation’s fastest growing Inspiration and Empowerment resource for Multicultural Millennials and the brands looking to employ and connect with them. Pettigrew spent 20 years making it in Corporate America as a high level marketing executive at advertising and marketing agencies helping brands understand how to make money off of the millennial generation. He now helps brands understand how to make money with this generation. Tru Access bridges the cultural and generational gaps that exist between corporate America and the millennial generation through Culturational Chemistry – aka blending of multicultural and generational gaps in the workplace and in life.