The Kids Are All Right: Why New Graduates Should Give You Hope
Harvard Business Review |
In Brief...
I just learned that two of the youngest people working at my company have bought houses. This is part of a trend I've noticed since starting my company in 2006. A significant number of our team members have been in their twenties, whether fresh out of college or grad school or two jobs into their careers. Managers and academics may soon observe more broadly some material differences between what we might call Generation Z (say, 26- to 30-year-olds) and their immediate successors, Generation After-Lehman (or Generation AL, from 20 to 25). Generation After-Lehman expects less day-to-day fun and short-term reward. They expect to work harder and to be paid less at first, and they are hungrier to develop marketable skills and a trajectory for their careers. This shows up in their personal habits, like how much they buy, how much debt they sign up for, how often they are living with their parents, how many part-time jobs they're willing to do, and how often they'll manage work and school at the same time. It also seems to me that they are more "responsible" earlier in their careers than the Zs were. Generation After-Lehman has even shorter attention spans than Generation Z.