Millennial? Ouch! If I am not wrong we are often called with the terms such as self obsessed, overconfident, narcissist, lazy, entitled and even “The me me me generation”. But hold on let me look at the other side of the same coin where we are called broad minded self expressive, upbeat, liberal and overtly passionate about quality. This side obviously sounds a lot better but wait let me explain a number of other characteristics that‘ll make you feel proud falling right between this cohorts.
It’s the most ethnically diverse generation born and rose in an era of electronic, technology and social media revolution. Millennial, being the last generation born in the 20th century tend to be more optimistic, broadminded, friendly, sociable, confident, multitasking and purpose driven as compared to the previous generations. Though, they are often called narcissist due to being a bit self centered and less interested in politics and religion and more active towards their individual goals.
Millennial as Students
The youngsters in this generation, despite being more confident and focused towards their dreams tend to grow up to be less realistic which might result in disillusionment. Most of them seem to go through post secondary education just to end up in wrong and irrelevant professions. This being a major reason today we see an increased number of individuals being unemployed, underemployed and job hoping as compared to previous generations. According to present views this may be a result of what is called “Helicopter Parents” who are more encouraging, more involved and more present than ever.
Millennial at workplace
Conduct a quick internet research and you might fight hundreds or articles accusing and blaming millennial however, according to a research conducted by Deloitte consulting to hire millennial as their employees they found amazing traits a lot better than the previous generations.
This cohort can be classified as different from their predecessors as more inclined towards a flat corporate structure, work-life balance, social awareness and increased reliance on networking. This group tends to associate job satisfaction with attributes like more empowered working environment, direct flow of communication, good relations with supervisors, more freedom and quick feedback rather than only monetary terms. Millennial group seem prone towards public sector and more reliable sources of employment such as references, networking and social media awareness. This generation is most intolerant of uncomfortable working conditions and is smart enough to raise their concerns via social mediums.
If you look back to 1940’s you will find the origin of the demarcation made on basis of each generation depending on their various characteristics and time period of their existence. Here is an approximate overview of the overall classification and eminent time slabs and characteristics.
GREATEST GENERATION (until 1946)
These are the people who fought and died during World War II. This generation was named by Tom Brokaw and ended with the World War II.
The BABY BOOMERS (1946-1964)
This generation being within DiPrete’s timeframe began as the World War II came to an end and their was a boom in the child birth due to Greatest Generations advent to home and increased sexual activities.
GENERATION X (1965-1984)
This demographic cohort, put forward by George Masnick of the Harward Center is a comparatively short timeframe dominated by youngsters and children and a lot of chaos due to lack of adult supervision.
GENERATION Y (1970-2000)
This is a relatively less authentic demarcation by Harvard center, also called made-up generation when it became obvious that they didn’t fit in with Gen X at least.
The MILLENNIALS (1982-2004)
Demarcated by Strauss and Howe mark, those reaching their adulthood around the turn of 21st century are the millennial. Though the time frame and characteristics vary from one source to another but some of which however are coherent making them sounder.
