As a career-launch coach, I
work to stay on top of workplace and employer hiring trends and research
conducted about Millennials, particularly those in college and recently
graduated. My current knowledge obsession:
Research shows that life
outside of work is important, but Millennials also care about what they do at
work. Millennials will trade off a high salary for a more fulfilling career.
Nice data point. How does this help me help them? How do I help Millennials
find work with meaning and purpose? What does that actually mean anyway? I know
from clients that not every Millennial is driven to make the world more
compassionate, innovative, and sustainable, which is the more typical way we
seem to define meaning and purpose. Moreover, unlike me, many are not willing
to wait until they have a third career epiphany. They’re asking what their
purpose is now, and they’re determined to find the opportunities,
organizations, and companies that share their purpose.
As luck would have it, last
weekend I was at a wonderful joyous event with family and 100+ Millennials.
(Yes, friends who are reading this, I figured out a way to slip in that one of
my nephews got married.) I’ve know many of them since their kindergarten years,
others since their first year in college and still others are cousins. I had three
days to listen to their stories, and a long plane ride home to figure out
insights from what I learned. Here are their stories.
Jonathan – That Which You Can Get Paid For
Jonathan told me about his
three years after college. Skiing, camping, an odd job, skiing, camping, work
in a bike store— supporting himself yet at a loss to what was next for him. Preparing
for the upcoming ski season, Jonathan bought new skis and liked them that much
he started following the brand on Twitter and posting his experience with the
brand. It caught the attention of the founders who offered him an internship at
the company. That internship turned into a full-time position and Jonathan is
now the customer service manager for Icelantic. Check them out. A brilliant
marriage of design and function.
Carey –That Which You Are Good At
Preparing for a life as an
opera singer is arduous. First an undergraduate degree, then a masters and for
most, off to Europe for 5-7 years. (Europe has more opera companies and
therefore more opportunities to hone your craft.) Then with some luck, you can come
back to the States and sing with an opera company. Not for Carey. After graduation, Carey started to teach
singing in two after school programs, with a music program utilized by the
school system, and in a Sunday school program while she sang with several
well-regarded choral groups. At last count, Carey had five paying part-time jobs.
Carey knew her gift for singing and discovered her gift for teaching young
kids. She’s starting her masters in music education this fall at Northwestern
University.
Asia- That Which You Love
Accepted into Bates College,
Asia has decided, and with the full support of her parents, is taking a year
off before she starts college. She felt too uncertain about what she wanted to
use college for and what that would then mean for a career. Asia is seeking
opportunities that excite her and inspire her to wake up in the morning. She’s
building a purposeful college experience and thereafter a career by
experimenting with opportunities she actually cares about. Asia’s plans so far
include travel and study in India and volunteer work in Africa and South
America. She’ll be home Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to hear about her
experience and what she’s learned.
Steven -That Which The Word Needs
Cleveland, despite what most think,
is a great place to live. But like many aging urban areas, empty, decaying
houses have dotted its landscape. Last year, 14,800 foreclosure cases hit
Cuyahoga County's courthouse, about the same as the year before and the year
before that so, the city sent in the bulldozers. However, not every vacant
house should disappear and that’s where Steven’s story begins. No longer
fulfilled at his job with the Cleveland Clinic, he went back to school for an
MBA and with a vision that Cleveland can become a city in which viable homes
have large lots and more green space, started a company to rebuild neighborhoods by
buying, restoring and selling homes.
I saved this next story for
last because I think it shows how powerful it can be when you put these four
factors together.
Esu (GenX not a Millennial)
left his lucrative career in video editing, television production and digital
media because he was tired of the corporate world and no longer believed the
work he was doing served a greater purpose. He went on a journey to find more
meaning in his work and in doing so found purpose and Ina. Together they
founded the Barka Foundation a community-based grassroots organization dedicated
to creating a more just, peaceful and sustainable world. The Foundation’s first
initiative is creating greater accessibility to clean water because that is
what the village determined they needed. Esu and Ina are bridge builders,
peacekeepers, and documentarians of the world’s endangered indigenous
civilization. Esu is paid to do what he loves, what the world needs, and what he
is good at.
From listening to my nephew’s
friends and our cousins, hearing about their work and work stories, I think I
have a better understanding of how Millennials define purposeful work and with
that, a way to continue to help them find careers and jobs they will find
fulfilling.
I’d love to hear your
stories.
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