I've had several people ask me if I thought that the current state of the job market would change Millennials attitude of entitlement and their mindset on job searching. Honestly, it doesn't look like it has, at least not yet. The reality is, most students aren't feeling the crunch of the economy yet. Many believe that they will have a job after they graduate and that job will pay them $80,000 with 3 weeks of vacation and great benefits. They haven't had to feel the frustration of the job search market yet so they don't really know what it's like out there. They don't believe it's that bad because they haven't sent out 200 resumes with only 1 interview and no job offers. Wait until they have been out of college for 6 months and still don't have a job. I think that's when we may see the changes to the entitlement attitude that everyone talks about.
The truth is, Millennials attitudes will have to change because there just aren't as many opportunities out there for them. They are competing against each other as well as displaced professionals with far more experience. Something tells me that a $25,000 a year job may not seem so bad after all. Here's the catch though... We have to stop letting Millennials believe that they are failures if they don't have the nice cushy job with the big office, giant salary and killer benefits. Our society has allowed these kids to believe that anything less than that is unacceptable. We are guilty of creating an entire generation who's expectations are so high that they can't possibly reach them right out of school and unfortunately up to this point we haven't really given them any other options. How about we start promoting regular people who make next to nothing and perform jobs that we can't live without. Stop promoting the jobs that most of these Millennials will never have in their lifetime.
It's time for a reality check for all of us. Parents, tell your kids its okay if they make $25,000 a year. Millennials, understand that you will not be able to make the same demands for salary and benefits that you could have 2 years ago, and for the rest of us...we need to stop complaining and start working towards understanding of ALL generations.
