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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
A couple of days ago I took a trip up to my University’s career fair to do some recruiting for my company. First off, let me say that being on the other side of the table for one of those things is probably just as unnatural as being in the students shoes. A whole bunch of college students on their best behavior and corporate newbies pretending they really love their companies is just not my cup of tea. And before you start calling me a hypocrite for trying to sell my company (as my brother so kindly did) take two things into consideration;
1.) I don’t hate my job. In fact, its not bad at all, I typically get to work from home on Friday’s and it leaves me with plenty of time to write on this site.
2.) How can I turn down an all expenses paid trip to my old school? Do you think I’m crazy?
Anyways, back to the point. I received an email from a student whom I had a rather lengthy discussion with about my job. We talked about everything from my roles and responsibilities to my weekly hours and everything else involved in the typical career speech. After I finished laughing hysterically when he referred to me as Mr. Healy, I noticed something very interesting. The note said, “You’re group sounded excellent as it consisted of a collegial, team oriented atmosphere.” I thought this was very interesting. Of all the things we discussed, he was most sold on the job because of its TEAM ORIENTED atmosphere.
This should have come as no surprise to me, because all of the research indicates we are the most team oriented generation in history, but the fact that this kid cared so much about this trait that he mentioned it in a thank you letter really did catch me off guard. However, I thought back to one other talk I had with a student, who for one reason or another tried to interview me. (This is another surprise companies may be in for as they continue to recruit college students. Students know you need them, and they aren’t afraid to turn an interview back onto you)
This guy asked me what I like best about my job. Guess What I told him. I said, “I like the team oriented atmosphere in my office.” Without even realizing it, I helped to confirm this undeniable fact. Generation Y does not just like working as a team, we need to work like this to feel comfortable. Like it or not that’s just the way it is.
Chalk one up to the “experts” on this one. We really are team oriented and just might care about this more than any other factor when looking for a job.
My advice to companies based on these observations is, send your new hires to recruit for you! We will not only relate more to the students, but we will subconsciously highlight the aspects of our job that are important to our generation. If this isn’t possible and you must send older employees, have a quick meeting with your newest hires and pick their brains. Not only will you gain valuable insight into areas you should focus on when talking to candidates, but you will make your employees feel important and yes they will probably feel “special” as well.
Now retaining the students that you do hire is a whole different conversation……
As a college student in a top rated business school I am surrounded by the corporate structure. My school has implemented a class aimed to get students comfortable with the interview process, and make sure that their resumes are “appropriate”. I tend to stray from career fairs, as I do not plan on entering the corporate world, but one thing that is emphasized is that we as recruitees should ask questions to the interviewers. I think this is a good thing, but the problem is that we are taught to ask these questions, we are not pushed to ask what we are really interested in. The class that teaches this tells us that companies want us to ask about stuff like ethics, teamwork, and creativity, my feeling is that it is not going to matter because even within the business school we are held back all the time from truly expressing our creativity. I started a business 2 years ago, and I can say that with little or no help from the school of business our website has grown drastically, if anything it is thanks to the phsycology, and liberal arts teachers that allow us to speak in front of their 750 person classes (something my MARKETING professor will not allow me to do). You are correct with your view of our generation, and the problem is leaking down to the schools, that is why so many college students are starting their own businesses today. The dream is shifting from the “ideal corporate job with room to grow”, to “I want to do it myself, my way, because I know I can do it better”.
Is it any wonder that people that grow up being taught to work in teams would want to carry that into their working lives? We (Gen Y) know that collaboration is much more effective and efficient than working individually. Also a team environment promotes idea sharing and growth in ways that a traditional workplace does.
Great post.