What’s the deal with Millennials? Can any of them really cut it?

By Andrew McGregor

Now before going into more detail I will make it clear that a few years back I fell into the category of Gen Y. However, more recently I have been led to believe Gen Y’s no longer exist and all of us in this age bracket are ‘Millenials’. As such this means I am thrown in with those born only a few years back. I write this with serious doubts about whether my generation and the one coming after (sorry forgot we were all the same now) can really cut it and carve out genuine careers with organisations or even one industry/path. I don’t know about you but it appears that as soon as things get tough Millennials really don’t get going, well they do, but they get going out the door! According to Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey, two in three Millenials expect to leave their current employer by 2020.

More specifically I look at the recruiting industry. I recall my first day in recruitment and one of the managers talking about how well he was doing (he did tend to do this a lot and was a bit of knob but I learnt some things from him). Anyhow, before he got too far ahead of himself he did refer to the fact he’d been on his desk for over four years and it didn’t happen overnight.

It didn’t happen for me overnight either, the first 6 – 8 months were hard! Yes, I got a few wins along the way, but it was patchy. However, I kept thinking to myself that first year is about establishing a presence, 2nd year is building that presence, 3rd year is honing that presence, and 4th year is when I will start to see the wins. And that’s pretty much how it ended up. Relocating to Australia and more specifically Sydney, was almost a carbon copy, if not worse. The first year in Sydney was a nightmare and I regularly thought to myself - is it all worth it? I kept focused and found that 2nd year was ok but not great, 3rd year we started to seeing the return for the hard work, and 4th year was exceptional. But we would have not got to that 4th year without experiencing and learning from the years before, of which I specifically thank Kelly and Alex in the team for their tenacity and bravery during this period.

On a more personal note, I took a lot of guidance in the early years from my Mum and Dad. My father spent 27 years in the army, originally as a Gunner (entry level) and over a period of those 27 years managed to successfully get himself commissioned (becoming an Officer) and retiring as Major, but it took 27 years! One experience will sit with me for my entire life and that is being on the school bus from the army camp when the window got smashed. Upon arrival back from school my father ordered the soldiers to arrest all the kids on the bus and return them along with their fathers or mothers to HQ for extra duties. They actually had to phone my Mum and try to explain that her husband, our father, had arrested us. Low and behold, all the fathers got extra duties and my father being the RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) with two children on board, took the Christmas Day gatepost duty along with the Colonel of the regiment. This was a 12-hour shift on Christmas Day! When I asked him the logic behind it his simple response was that in life you have to take accountability and make sacrifices others will likely not understand.

So in summary and without wishing to bore you, my message to all recruiters and everyone really is; don’t forget that it takes time, stay true to yourself and your word, listen to guidance and advice, be accountable, and under the right circumstances make sacrifices with your time to set examples and lead the way!

Update - 24/01/17

I have now decided to obsess less about one generation and just focus on being who I am rather than worrying about labelling others.