The start of the year can bring a higher level of recruitment activity to either fill newly created or turn over positions at the professional level. After the job ad is posted, pretty soon our inboxes are filled with hopeful applicant emails with their resumes attached and the conversation can turn to what to expect when reviewing the resume of a Millennial.
According to a report published in October of 2014 by The Council of Economic Advisors, Millenials now represent the largest demographic group of employees in the workplace today. In spite of the perception that they tend to job-jump too much, one of the study’s conclusions is that they actually tend to stay with their employer longer than the two previous generations at the start of their careers. Translation: don’t discount a Millenial who has little to no on the job experience simply because of their age – on average, they stay with their first company 4-6 years; plenty of tenure for them to learn your operation, grow with the company and contribute through their performance.
Millenials also tend to focus on completing their higher education degrees and then job search, as opposed to previous generations who would both work and go to school. Alternatively, they’ll work for a few years and then return to school full time to earn a Masters and/or PhD. Historically, gaps between jobs used to mean the resume was automatically placed in the “No-Thank You” pile. Not so much in today’s world. If you see resumes from this generation with gaps in their employment, it’s likely they took time off to be a full time student and are ready to re enter the workforce.
For this generation who do have a number of positions listed within a seven to ten year time frame, look carefully at the actual jobs held to see if there’s a progression within their career path. While the study showed Millenials do stay with their first employer for a few years, as mentioned above, they also tend to move to new opportunities if they desire more responsibility and/or a higher salary than what their current employer can offer. This isn’t necessarily a negative; it actually can demonstrate drive and desire to continue to develop skills and institutional knowledge on the part of the Millennial.
Are you interested in more information about recruitment? uDrive subscribers have access to tools and templates that can help. These can be found in the Recruitment and HR Tools sections of the site.
