Post college jobs for the Millennial Generation

imgresI have been meeting with a variety of people who are starting to plot their next move out of college.  The majority of them are not sure where to go and how to exactly begin.  It appears from talking to most of them that their parents don’t either.  As much as parents feel connected to their kid, the millennial generation is a very different breed.

People born between 1980-1999 are millennials.  Many of the technology companies that we read about today are being built by this generation of kids.  They grew up wired and they were also a product of helicopter parents with tight schedules of playdates.

This generation has witnessed instability in the workplace from the banking world to companies downsizing and perhaps because of that so many are pursing entrepreneurship and jobs in start-up companies.

The opportunities to enter a space that is of interest to an upcoming college graduate is pretty broad.  Culture fit is so important.  It is about figuring out the two year plan vs the ten year plan.  If you want to be in the food industry then figure out which end of that industry and all the possible companies to work for.  Keep at it until you break in.  If it isn’t for you, try again.

I invested in Lynxsy to help students find jobs in the start-up companies that they are looking for.  Lynxsy is geared towards the non-tech jobs and there are plenty of them.  Every time I sit down with the entrepreneurs behind this company I get excited about what they are building and the kids that they are providing these opportunities for.  They get this generation because not surprising, they are millennials themselves.

Comments (Archived):

  1. Pranay Srinivasan

    I love this. We could use a LOT of this at Sourceeasy!

  2. pointsnfigures

    I see the same phenomena among a certain group of millennials. In other groups, they either have a lot of debt and have to get a consulting/investmentbanking/accounting/corporatesales gig OR their parents refuse to think out of the box and want the safe secure ho hum corporate type job. For the record, both my kids will be working for startups. OneDesignCompany.com and hopefully Dough.com. But, at one time in my life I broke convention and made $150/wk gross too….

    1. LE

      I always have wondered what happens to those who work at these happy atypical startups when and if that party ends? How do they transition to the real world where grownups typically work and there are actual rules and literally “no free lunch”. And no coddling and compassion typically.OR their parents refuse to think out of the box and want the safe secure ho hum corporate type job.Sounds like you are claiming that most of the startups actually work. And that working for one is always the preferred route? Btw, traditional jobs don’t necessarily mean “ho hum”.I think this all depends on the person and their safety net. (Which is separate from the amount of debt which they have.)There was a WSJ article where the example they gave was a person who had a typical “creative” major in college and now has 190,000 in debt.Ok here it is:Amira Nader graduated from Columbia University in 2010 with a master’s degree in acting and nearly $190,000 in debt. She now works for a public radio station in New York City and waits tables on the side.http://www.wsj.com/articles…Almost always the same theme. Person has a major which has no job prospects or is highly competitive and that’s obvious when they choose the major. However they ignore all of that and just go for it anyway. They they whine that they have student debt or are waiting tables like an actor in Hollywood. News flash: It’s not all about your passion or what you want to do. It’s about being able to earn a living.

      1. pointsnfigures

        Article was interesting. 190k in debt for that? Wow. I am lumping in startups and independent agencies and small companies. Many parents get nervous about them. I also maintain that social media is contributing to making kids more risk averse in general.I never said working at a startup was easy or not work. But it’s different than working for a large corporate.

        1. LE

          Well I mean Columbia is Columbia. Probably 50 to 55k year with living expenses.That said I always find it interesting how people make those choices given that if in fact she has 190k debt it means that her parents paid $0. Which is strange because if she really had poor parents she would have gotten scholarships, right?Newspapers of course didn’t verify that $190k. I know that because anytime I was quoted they printed exactly what I told them and never vetted it at all (I’m talking about WSJ and NYT not the local shit paper). So who knows if that figure is even correct.I’ve never worked for a large corporation and thank my lucky stars that I never did. Can’t even imagine what that is like.

  3. LE

    I have been meeting with a variety of people who are starting to plot their next move out of college.The time to start working on your move out of college is when you are in your 3rd year of college not in your last year or after you graduate. Forget about all of that fun “only get this one chance” stuff. You can have fun later. Besides memories don’t pay for health care or shoes for the kids you will have.And I do mean seriously. In other words doing what you need to do to have an edge when you graduate and/or something already lined up. Do the legwork when there is less pressure.The good news about being a millenial is this. First you are younger than I am and that’s great! Second all of your “competition” is millennial so it’s possible to stand out if you have different work values.Millennial story: My wife told me a story about a Doctor (a man) who wanted to change his overnight call schedule at the hospital (he was a millennial) because “my kid is sick”. She said “simply not done. You don’t try to get someone else to take your call because your child is sick.” So you see what happens with all that coddling. Someone who feels it’s somebody else’s issue to figure out a solution to their problem. It’s not. So stop thinking that way that there is some safety net in life.That said lynxsy is a great idea.

  4. JLM

    .The first issue with determining how you are going to get a job is the college major you select.The market for poets still continues to be a bit thin but who knows — maybe as the economy rebounds the market for poets will flourish.College are where the battle should begin — in their education of their students, not just in the classsroom, to become productive members of society, often called “taxpayers” for short because you have to have an income to be a taxpayerIncomes are rationed amongst workers primarily so the job angle fits nicely.My alma mater, VMI, often leads the nation amongst schools whose graduates are fully employed (or in grad school) 90 days after graduation. Many years it is 100%.Before you let me get too full of myself, let me note that the “M” in military stands for military and the world has provided a wealth of wars for the VMI grads to go fight in so a little of the gilding on the rose is just that.Still, there is probably no more entrepreneurial endeavors than going to your basic course, Airborne School, Ranger School and getting a platoon of 48 men all of whom know more about and have been in the Army longer than you. It is more than a little humbling but you will live through the experience if you have enough wisdom to let your sergeants teach you your job.Everything I ever needed to know to found or run a company, I learned as a platoon leader or a company commander. At age 26, I had a hugely overstrength combat engineer (riflemen who know how to blow things up) company with 450 soldiers.I had to train, promote, reward, discipline, feed, clothe and wet nurse them. I had to supervise four lieutenants and a wealth of NCOs (sergeants). I had several million dollars worth of equipment when a million dollars was real money. Every man had a weapon and had to be proficient using it. We had a wartime mission of going overseas and blowing an enormous crater to forestall Russian tanks from vacationing on the Riviera.I was 26 and here’s the real punchline — I was very damn good at it. Still, I was 26 but I had four years of training for that job under my belt and I wanted the job very much. It was like being a Chinese feudal war lord and my battalion commander was over 500 miles away.The formative years right after college are not years to be squandered. They are very important to develop character, unearth work ethic and to drink from the firehose.This is important work.Normally, I would rant a bit that the economy is the big handful of sand in the gears but that is obvious. I tell my children this is the worst job market I have ever seen in my adult life. They are both gainfully employed doing what they love and financially independent. I count my blessing.Every young person in America deserves a shot at the kind of growth experience I personally experienced. You can imagine how damn confident I was when I went to work for a Fortune 5 company.This is very important work.We are defined by our work.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…