Those Damn Millennials!
Author’s Note: This article can be enjoyed on a whole new level if you view it in Google Chrome with the Millennials to Snake People extension turned on! http://bit.ly/1FNL6Tl
Alex Liggins and I were recently at a presentation about workforce development in regards to technology when something interesting happened. The gentleman presenting put up a slide titled “How to Deal with Millennials”.
My first thought was, “This isn’t real.”
Then the guy continued to go on and pull up bullet point after bullet point with reasons why millennials are so difficult and hard to work with.
At this point I thought, “Okay, we are laying out the stereotypes before we jump into why millennials are not the bane of these people’s existence and surely this gentleman will have a slide about all of us getting along and working together.”
….and then the guy clicked to the next slide he had about some book he was reading on leadership. He never revisited the millennials part of the presentation.
I gotta admit, hearing this was disheartening. It didn’t bother me because I am a millennial or because I am looking for a job (I definitely wouldn’t be applying for a position with this dude). It bothered me because this guy is out there in a position where he makes hiring decisions and he most definitely has millennial candidates in his applicant stack.
I also thought about the millennials out there who are hungry for jobs. Not only jobs, but mentorship from someone in this guy’s high ranking position with a lot of experience in a particularly booming industry. And he just wrote all of them off.
This particular “slash and burn” approach to hiring confuses me in many ways. I would strongly advise against it. Also, if you are in a position to hire people, probably not a great idea to cut your candidate field by inconsequential circumstances that are irrelevant in a new hire’s ability to perform in the workplace.
If you have an interesting millennials story I would love to hear about it in the comments section!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this story please give it some love by clicking the applause button (Hint: you can click that button up to 50 times for a story).
Alex Sejdinaj is a cofounder of South Bend Code School, GiveGrove, and Code Works. He loves building cool stuff that helps people.
