Follow a path or create your own.
Photo by Ruffa Jane Reyes on Unsplash
For older generations, a stable job was the big goal. That would make it possible to move up in an organization and make more money. The idea was to start working early, get promoted and save money. Common goals were to buy a car, travel during work vacations and, after a while, buy a house.
This was exactly what I did for the first 10 years of my career. I didn’t question the way I was doing things. Could I have done it differently?
I don’t remember questioning myself when I spent many hours and weekends working as an unpaid intern, doing tasks that wouldn’t help me become a better professional. I understood that starting a career is always hard. Is that true?
Stability has always been important to me. I’ve never left a job before finding the next one, even when I’d cry before work. Did I do what was right?
Maybe I took few risks, but, above all, I questioned myself less than I should have.
Millennials are making less traditional choices. Known as the “generation of renters,” they rarely buy a house and even more rarely buy a car. It’s not a priority for them to have a stable job in a big organization.
Challenging the status quo and avoiding the ordinary life script is not easy. There are many very successful young people running their own start-ups, but there are many others struggling to fit in a traditional organization.
Every now and then, we hear someone complaining about how difficult it is to manage millennials. Many of them don’t want to go through the difficulties of moving up the corporate ladder. Frankly speaking, they don’t care about the corporate ladder at all. They are not looking at the top. They are looking to the horizon and they are willing to build something that matches their expectations of what a good job looks like.
This new generation realized earlier that a successful career doesn’t have to do with major roles or big paychecks. It has to do with flexibility, freedom and creativity. Time and experiences are worth more than money.
Nowadays, there are so many other ways of working. Why pick the most traditional one? Can you imagine this generation making photocopies and grabbing coffees while they are interns? No! And they are so right!
There are success stories everywhere—young YouTubers making more money than corporate professionals, Instagrammers turning a passion into a business and new experts selling their knowledge on websites like Skillshare.
On the other hand, many companies have been changing to attract younger professionals. The work-from-home policy has been becoming the norm. Mailbird and Automattic are examples of 100% remote companies with teams spread across the globe. Automattic also gives a $250 stipend each month to its employees to spend at coworking spaces, or at Starbucks.
Some companies with a more traditional organization have also become open to employees working remotely—in some cases, from across the world. For example, the remoteyear.com program selects professionals to travel and work in different countries for one year while they continue receiving their regular salary.
For the millennial generation, the rule is simple: either the job changes or they change jobs.
I see it as a positive move. Maybe, in the future, we will have fewer professionals with a career plan B, dreaming about the right job, while the current one pays the bills.
Young people have been asking: Why work? How should we work? Where do we work? All of these are relevant questions to ask at the beginning of a professional life.
The answers probably won’t highlight the easiest or safest path, but they will certainly illuminate the most interesting one.
(this article was published in Portuguese here)