Kathryn Minshew CEO of the Daily Muse and Mentor here on Aspire-Canada appeared on FOX television on January 15, 2015 to discuss how Millennials can avoid blunders with the job search process. According to FOX news there are 15million millenials in the workforce in the US today – fully a quarter of the US population. In Canada, there are 8.9 million millennials (Canadians born between 1981 and 2000). According to Strategyonline.ca millennials in Canada earned a whopping $225 billion, this is roughly 20% of all income earned in Canada. Boomers make 30%, while Gen Xers bring in 46%. 1 in 3 millennials in Canada consider themselves entrepreneurs and have some sort of side business while a whopping 700,000 are unemployed. 4.5 million (about half) currently live with their parents (up from 1/3 in 1998). Despite the joblessness, there was an 89% increase in travel and a 13% increase in luxury fashion purchases between 2011 and 2012 (compared to 6% and 24% among boomers).
Here are some of Kathryn Minshew’s tips for Millennial job-seekers:
Online all the time but not Offline – Not Networking
According to Minshew, millennials do a great job of connecting online on social media but are forgetting the all-important offline channels like networking. This seems to corroborate Canadian data about Millenials. According strategyonline.ca Millenials are the “always on generation”: 59% own a smartphone (as of 2011), 50 text messages is the daily average, and 14% own a tablet (compared to 7% of non-millennial generation). 46% made a mobile purchase in the past month. However when it comes to offline channels millennials still need to network more.
Forgetting the all important Thank you Note
Forgetting to send the all-important thank you note is a no-no. Especially if the interviewer is traditional you may want to do a hand-written one. Otherwise email is fine to send it. USA Today dubbed millennials as having “awful manners.” Many millennials see nothing wrong with texting or emailing around sensitive issues and thank-you notes rank low. A 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll this year found that only 23 percent of millennials surveyed consider such notes important.
Tip: Make sure to send one after every interview and a key Aspire-Canada tip is to always follow to up to see why why you didn’t get the job and what tips the interviewer would give for your job search in general. I cant tell how many people ended up doing this and eventually ended up working at the same company. This shows employers that you are truly interested in improving yourself.
Chasing the name – The Perfect Job
Research, research research. Talk to people in the company to see if its a good fit for you. Too often millennials conjure up their dream job at a specific company and overlook other potential jobs that may be better.In the Sixth Annual Review of High School and College Students’ Attitudes About The Workplace and Employers, millennials’ career goals, reflect the economy and digital age they live in. They’re intrigued by the so-called STEM fields that includes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, according to a survey by the National Society of High School Scholars. Millennials also wouldn’t mind job security by working for the U.S. State Department. According to the survey they want to innovate at Starbucks, Abercrombie & Fitch and Apple. They want to “catch bad guys through FBI and CIA careers”. Its no surprise that millennials are drawn to these innovative companies – and who wouldn’t! At the end of the day its about fit with company culture which cannot be taken for granted – we all have our personality types and other goals which may or may not fit with company culture.
Watch the Language!
Millennials are so used to texting, so they forget to write in complete sentences and articulate their written skills professionally and this extends to performance on the job. About half of HR executives say most recent grads are not professional their first year on the job, up from 40% of executives who had that view in 2012, according to a recent survey by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania.
TIP: Never use texting language to communicate with potential employers or even on the job. Use “adult language” and communicate appropriately and in full sentences.
The Copy Cat Cover Letter
Don’t send the same cover letter to 100 people. Make it really tailored to the job in question. In fact every job. See this article here that was published on Aspire-Canada about tailoring your resume/cover letter to fit the specific job requirements. In the Canadian job market, it is almost necessary to use the same words in the job ad to fully demonstrate how you meet the job requirements. If you are a millennial and new to Canada see this article on job search tips.
(See Kathryn’s full interview here: http://video.foxnews.com/v/3990735600001/millennials-top-5-career-mistakes/?playlist_id=930909787001#sp=show-clips)
