New
Generation Y’ers change outlook
for CSULB graduates
By Rachel Furlong
Online Forty-Niner
Copy Editor
Students graduating from Cal State Long Beach this spring are members of Generation
Y, a generation which is different from any generations that have come before
it, according to a USA Today article titled “Generation Y: They’ve
arrived at work with a new attitude.”
This generation includes young adults born between 1978 and 1989. These young
adults, who range in age from 17 to 28 years old, currently make up nearly 22
percent of the workforce. They are the fastest growing segment of the work force
and will continue for the next five years, according to Carolyn Martin, a founder
of the New Haven, Conn.-based Rainmaker
Thinking Inc., which studies the lives of young people.
So, what makes this generation of college graduates different from previous generations?
“ Generation Y’ers have grown up in a scary world,” Martin
said. “The oldest of this generation entered the work force at the outer
edge of the boom years and expected to meet ambitious goals: find meaningful
jobs within their professions of choice, work side by side with knowledgeable,
dedicated coworkers and earn very high salaries by the time they were 30. However,
then came the whole Enron thing and 9/11 and a lot of these dreams were dampened
by economic and global realities.”
Indeed, economic realities in particular seem to be a huge influence in shaping
this generation of graduates. According to an article by Sue Shellenbarger, “Soon-to-be
grads seek job security,” published in February in College Journal, a special
section of the Wall Street Journal, job recruiters beginning their next round
of campus visits to recruit the undergraduate class of 2006 said it is clear
the bad news of the past few years —from — 9/11 and the tech crash
to Enron’s layoffs and worries about Social Security’s demise —has
taken a huge toll on this new crop of grads.
“ More than any recruits in memory, they’re asking employers for
assurances of security so they don’t wind up at the next Enron,” Shellenbarger
wrote.
Betty Schmicker-Black, who has been a career counselor at Cal State Long Beach’s
Career Development Center for several years, said she has always seen students
who are concerned about making a good living, but job stability is more of an
issue today.
Schmicker-Black said, on a more local scale, the aerospace industry has had a
huge effect on students who grew up in and around Long Beach.
“ Companies like McDonald Douglass for example, which is now Boeing and
other mergers in aerospace, caused a lot of layoffs around here,” Schmicker-Black
said. “Many students from around here where a good portion of adults were
employed in aerospace, grew up seeing their parents and their friends’ parents
getting laid off or falling victim to downsizing in some way.”
In addition to having more financial concerns than previous generations, members
of Generation Y who have entered the work force are changing careers faster than
college students change their majors, which is making it difficult for employers
to recruit and retain talented high-performers, according to the USA Today article.
“ They know jobs come and go and developing their career is their responsibility;
they believe in job security, but not in its traditional definition,” Martin
said. “According to this generation, job security means I’ll learn
here as long as I can and, as soon as opportunities to keep on learning disappear,
I’ll look for a better position with another organization.”
Black said although she has seen the importance of job security gaining more
ground, she has noticed another trend — students are increasingly interested
in working for a company that will be supportive if they choose to further their
education while remaining with the company.
“ It’s important to periodically update your skills,” said
Erin Wheatley, a senior graphic design major.
She said because technology is always growing and improving, for many fields,
what someone knows right out of college may be dated just five or 10 years later.
“ As a graphic designer, a lot of the work I do will be with computers,
and it seems that once I have one program mastered, they come out with a newer,
better version,” Wheatley said. “In order to keep up and stay on
the cutting edge in my field, I need to be able to further my education once
I get a job after graduation.”
Jack Blue, a junior history major, said he is less interested in job security
and more interested in getting something out of a job that will be useful whether
he stays with the company or not.
“ I am more interested in skill stability. I want to have skills that I
will be able to use and take with me wherever I go,” Blue said. “If
I lose my job, I can just go get another one. No one works somewhere forever
anymore.”
Chuck Landon, human resources director for California-based American Racing,
and who has been a recruiter in and around
Long Beach for the past 25 years, said he has seen the situation where someone
will start with one company right out of college and retire with them become
less and less common.
“ Business continues to evolve and grow, most of the [job] candidates I
see are more interested in enhancing their career by taking a job here, rather
than finding the job they will stay in for the rest of their career,” Landon
said.
According to Martin, the current generation of college graduates are searching
for organizations that focus on training and development and that will offer
opportunities to amass all kinds of experiences to make them more valuable in
the future.
“ They know jobs come and go and developing their career is their responsibility,” Martin
said.
Jessica Wenz, a senior double-majoring in dance and business management, said
she is thinking of things like a balance between work and life and how she’ll
be treated as she begins her job search.
“ But so much is unsure right now, it seems. My ultimate goal is to be
my own boss, own my own business,” Wenz said.
“ After all, if I go work for someone else’s business, who’s
to say how long that business will be around?”
|
