Tag Archives: "Gen-Y"

The Student Career Development Study

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Dan Schawbel

Millennial Branding and StudentAdvisor.com Release New Study on Student Career Development 

Few have internships, are marketing themselves on LinkedIn and are engaging in professional development activities.

Boston, MA  –  November 12, 2012 – Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm and StudentAdvisor.com, a Washington Post Company and the leading free learning resource for students, today announced a new report on how students are developing their careers while in college. The report, The Student Career Development Study, shows that students are not aggressively preparing for their post-college careers, one of several reasons that many struggle to find jobs upon graduation.  In particular, although 85% of students surveyed consider internships important to their future career prospects, only a third have a presence on LinkedIn, a primary online mechanism for connecting to internship opportunities, and only 1 in 9 have a presence on WordPress, a major home for blogs.

In August of 2012, StudentAdvisor.com surveyed over 200 students from across America. Out of the respondents, 41 percent are interested in the employee career path, 34 percent are interested in going straight to graduate school, 15 percent want to be entrepreneurs, 8 percent want to be consultants and fewer than 2 percent want to remain dependent on their parents indefinitely.

Additional highlights from the report include:

1. College students value internship opportunities.  52 percent hope to have three or more internships before graduating, while only 40 percent have had at least one internship so far. For those students who have had at least two internships, 23 percent say that the internships lasted between 1 and 4 months on average. The majority of these students’ internships have been unpaid internships.  85 percent believe that having an internship is either important or very important for their future career

2. College students are not experts at branding themselves. Despite how savvy Millennials are with technology, most (93 percent) do not have an understanding of personal branding. Furthermore, many are not taking advantage of easy branding initiatives, such as LinkedIn profiles, business cards, personal domain names, or professional blogs.

3. College students are generally mentored by their parents and ignore online experts. 70 percent of students surveyed have at least one mentor. 37 percent say their parent is their mentor, 28 percent say their professor, 21 percent say their family or friend, 17 percent say their current or former employer and a mere 1 percent say someone they’ve found in an online networking group. Out of those mentored by their parents, 32 percent say that they provide good advice about job-seeking or career-advancement,  13 percent say that they know something about their field so they can give professional advice and 11 percent say that they went to college so that they can advise them on being a student. Only 10 percent have found a professional mentor through social networking.

4. College students are lacking in professional development. Only 29 percent have received career and job help from career services at their university.  Just 22 percent belong to professional development or industry-related groups, and only 20 percent have taken or would take courses that teach social media skills.

5. College students are active in social media, but not in a career-oriented way. Almost all (95%) have Facebook accounts, and nearly half have Twitter and/or Google+ accounts.  But only 34 percent have LinkedIn profiles. Other social media sites used include: Pinterest (30%), Instagram (28%), MySpace (26%)  Tumblr (17%), Foursquare (14%), and WordPress (11%). The low presence on WordPress indicates that few of these students have created their own blogs.

Quotes:

“Part of the reason why students are struggling to find jobs is because they fail to develop their careers while in college. Students should strive to market themselves online through social networks, and actively network offline, in order to secure internships and jobs.”

- Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, Gen Y expert and bestselling author of Me 2.0

“College students are missing out on a very valuable resource by not leveraging LinkedIn.  Internship opportunities, and the ability to network alumni or gain incredible insight into a company, are all there, waiting for students to take advantage.”

- Dean Tsouvalas, Editor-in-Chief, StudentAdvisor.com

Contacts:

Millennial Branding (Spokesperson): Dan Schawbel dan@millennialbranding.com
Student Advisor (Data): Dean Tsouvalas dtsouvalas@studentadvisor.com

About Millennial Branding:

Millennial Branding is a Gen Y research and management consulting firm based in Boston, Mass. Millennial Branding helps companies understand the emerging Gen Y employee by providing research, training, and advisory services. As representatives of Gen Y and advisers to management, our goal is to provide research and insights that will make you more profitable, grow your market share, help you understand your Gen Y employees, and turn you into an industry leader. As ambassadors to Gen Y, we want to give our generation a voice, support their careers, and connect them with brands that understand their needs.

About StudentAdvisor.com:

StudentAdvisor.com, a Washington Post Company, is the leading “all things college” resource for students of all ages to find the colleges that best fit their goals and needs. StudentAdvisor.com offers free access to trusted college conversations, college reviews, college comparison and match tools, planning guides, a social network of verified advisors and more. StudentAdvisor.com also publishes The Top 100 Social Media Colleges, a scientifically calculated list that highlights the colleges best using social media. StudentAdvisor.com is a proud member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts.

Avoiding the 2-Year Turnaround

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Dan Schawbel

“As Baby Boomers retire, this is the work force… It’s like consumer models; you have to be able to change with the tide of what’s in the marketplace today. You have to find ways to entice those individuals to come work for you and find ways to keep them happy and productive and wanting to stay and retain in your business,” Jeff Taylor of Esurance said.

It’s becoming more obvious that in order for corporations to keep the attention of millennial workers, they must work to understand that the requirements for this progressive-minded generation are simply changing and necessitate accommodation—or else, they’ll find somewhere that will.

As noted in my first post, “many of our studies show that millennials leave their corporations at the two year mark. In comparison, Gen X stays about five years and Baby Boomers stay about seven years at a company before leaving.”

So, how do employers avoid the two-year turnaround? How do we accommodate the millennials? According to Mr. Taylor, it seems as if the key to strengthening this generation’s loyalty is to entice and retain—to meet new and changing needs. So, what are some of the needs of Gen Y to consider when developing your corporate policies?

  • GenY workers need to feel relevant, important and accomplished.
  • Millennials thrive among adversity, acceptance and freedom to be who you are and be respected for it.
  • This group desires passion for their position and purpose for their work.
  • This generation grew up in the age of modernization and thrive with constant innovation and technology.
  • We like attention and require consistent shaping and guidance.
  • Pats on the back. Millennials value being recognized and appreciated.
  • GenY wants to feel excited and inspired, surrounded by flexibility and change.

An Entrepreneur.com blog also gives a good list on what motivates this generation in the workplace—like relationships, collaboration, engagement and communication—all very much emotion-based needs.

- This post written by Carrie Bowe, an Intern at Millennial Branding

The Gen Y Vote Study for the 2012 Presidential Elections

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Dan Schawbel

Millennial Branding and Internships.com Release Study on the Gen Y Vote 

15% more are voting in this election over 2008 and 58% will follow the election on social networks

Boston, MA – October 4, 2012 – Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm and Internships.com, the world’s largest internship marketplace, today announced a new study called “The Gen Y Vote.” The study shows how young people (age 18 to 29) will be voting in the 2012 presidential election, what issues they care most about, who influences their vote and more. This online survey of 2,236 Gen Y’s was conducted on September 14th.

More Gen Y will be coming out to vote in this year’s election compared to 2008. They will be voting for Obama, are more associated with the Democratic party and their parents have had the most influence on their vote. The issue that they care most about is the economy and after TV, social networks is where they will be following the election.

Additional highlights from the report include:

1. 75% will be voting in this election compared to only 60% that voted in 2008. Of those who will be voting this year, 64% intend to vote for Obama and only 22% for Romney. Out of those polled, 44% associated with the Democratic party, while 27% were Independents and only 17% associated with the Republican party. 54% are either considering or very interested in volunteering with a local campaign.

2. 48% believe that their parents most influence their vote (aside from themselves). After their parents, their friends were the next biggest influence, followed by their co-workers and then celebrities. When it comes to politics, celebrities don’t influence the youth vote.

3. 55% feel that the Economy is the most important issue in this election. After the economy, 14% said Education and 13% said Healthcare. Fewer than 5% said Foreign Policy, Immigration, Abortion, Same-sex Marriage and the Environment. They care most about the issues directly impacting their life situation at the moment and since many are without jobs, that’s the priority.

4. 58% will be following the election on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. TV is still the number one source of election coverage for Gen Y since 76% will be tuning in. The third most popular medium was newspapers and magazines at 55% and then radio at 23%. Only 36% are willing to share their political opinions online.

5. 61% feel that Obama will have a positive impact on the economy. Only 24% feel the same way about Romney. 63% said that the job situation  has affected their vote in this election. 50% feel that the unemployment rate is the fault of George W. Bush’s administration. 21% feel that neither Obama or Bush are at fault and 20% say they are both at fault. When asked if Romney’s business background would make him a better president, 71% said “no”.

Quotes:

“Gen Y has become a powerful force in politics with an army of 80 million strong and will have a major impact on who wins the 2012 presidential elections. Although they feel that Obama didn’t keep all the promises he made in 2008, they are willing to give him another four years to prove himself.”

- Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, Gen Y expert and bestselling author of Me 2.0

“Our ability to extract important, timely, and topical data from Gen Y members is unmatched. We’re constantly surprised by the fast pace of attitudinal change among this demographic. Volunteerism is up, campaigns posting internship openings on Internships.com has skyrocketed, and Gen Y interest and action for the 2012 election year surprisingly exceeds 2008 by a strong margin.”

- Robin D. Richards, CEO of Internships.com

Contacts:

Millennial Branding (Spokesperson): Dan Schawbel dan@millennialbranding.com

About Millennial Branding:

Millennial Branding is a Gen Y research and management consulting firm based in Boston, Mass. Millennial Branding helps companies understand the emerging Gen Y employee by providing research, training, and advisory services. As representatives of Gen Y and advisers to management, our goal is to provide research and insights that will make you more profitable, grow your market share, help you understand your Gen Y employees, and turn you into an industry leader. As ambassadors to Gen Y, we want to give our generation a voice, support their careers, and connect them with brands that understand their needs.

About Internships.com:

Internships.com – a CareerArc Group company — is the world’s largest internship marketplace bringing students, employers and higher education together in one centralized location. The innovative, Los Angeles based company, develops a wide variety of interactive, world-class tools and services to enable every student, employer and educator to better understand and optimize internship opportunities. For additional information, please visit www.internships.com. For tips on finding internships, hot internship listings and internship advice, follow Internships.com on Twitter (www.twitter.com/internships) orFacebook (www.facebook.com/internships.com).

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