We’ve insisted before that Gen Y wants to work for more than money. Now it is time to give you some backing to our claims.
While interviewing over 100 young people in five countries (USA, Spain, France, Sweden and Russia), we have found that many Gen Yers who are in the professional world staring at excel spreadsheets are actually longing for creative jobs or careers for the common good. José, a 29 year-old Madrileño who works for a large European telecom company, begins by telling us he is reasonably happy in his position. The work environment is friendly. He can’t complain about the pay. But as José becomes increasingly comfortable with us and our prodding questions, his true sentiments come out: “really, to be honest with myself, I'm not passionate about it…I would prefer of course to negotiate peace in the Middle East than a contract for my company.” This may sound like youthful blasé, but when we ask him what his dream job is, he blushes and says, “something that has some social impact.” Maybe it doesn’t have to be bringing peace to the Middle East, as long as it is, “something that helps people, which is not what I am doing now.”  Jack, a 23 year-old from Cambridge, MA, has a father who “never did anything that he was really passionate about…he's planning to when he retires.” Jack himself seems to dread a similar fate. While he works as a research analyst in New York to pay off his college loans, he intends on staying there for max three years. What he really wants to do is be a journalist and get into the independent music scene. Katie, a fiercely sharp 25-year old from Manhattan, realized her prestigious investment-banking job was a “huge mistake” after the first day: “I just didn’t want to stare at a computer all day.” She quit and took an enormous pay cut to work on documentary films because it allows her creative freedom and the ability to “have control of my time.”
Many students expressed a similar desire to find work after university that gives them more than a good paycheck. Frederic, who studies public policy at the prestigious Sciences Politiques in Paris, wants, “an employer who could bring some sense into my life. I want to feel as though I am serving the common good, or being useful in some way.” He adds that he doesn’t think he is alone in feeling like this. According to Frederic, there is a “big trend in the workplace” of employers finding ways to encourage public service. “That can mean allowing them (employees) to take some days off to work in charity, to go on some humanitarian mission. I know that for now it is pretty uncommon, but I think it is growing and hopefully it will become bigger. That should be encouraged.” Reimer, a 21-year old college senior from Brooklyn, NY, echoes his French peer’s sentiment, “My dream job would be something centered around the new idea of social entrepreneurship. If I could get a job with a business where I could make money as well as help people.”
"they were willing to create a policy, up front, that encouraged that kind of behavior"Wanting their work to have a larger social impact seems to be one big Gen Y desire. Another is to free themselves from what they see as the shackles of the office. “It would be even better if I could somehow not go into work, physically, every day. If I could work from home for a day or two during the week,” Reimer says. Bill, a 24 year-old Amherst graduate working as an analyst at a small economic consultant firm in New York City, agrees. The number one benefit that would make an employer attractive to him is, “significant allowances for work/life balance: significant vacation time, leniency towards working from home. I would be willing to compromise that for a short period of time for money, but it would have to be a lot of money.” In fact, time and freedom is so important to him that he chose his first job based on it. The principals of his firm broke out from larger firms to create a new culture that would encourage “a significant amount of free time to be outside of the office not doing work-related things.” Among the benefits employees at Bill’s firm enjoy are lengthy vacation, the ability to work from home and a general atmosphere of acceptance when it comes to personal issues that may arise. “That is one of the things, truthfully, that attracted me to this job; the fact that they were willing to create a policy, up front, that encouraged that kind of behavior.”
 Sverker, a 25 year-old soon-to-be graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics, has accepted a job at consulting firm that has made an explicit effort to profile itself as “human.” Sverker was lured by the promise of a good work environment, fewer hours and less travel than at traditional consulting companies. He says that, “more or less everyone at the firm has families with children. They’re able to attract the best people from the good firms because of that. Because you’re able to prioritize your family without having to go down in competence, clients or programs.” Sverker is not looking to have a family any time soon, but he says “it’s better to start at a consulting firm where you feel like you can stay at for a long time…with other places I didn’t feel like that.”
Sandra, a 23 year-old a college senior from New Jersey, believes there is a huge shift going on in the “system.” She claims that “we’re all becoming a little more creative” and “we’re not all getting corporate jobs.” Instead, Sandra thinks that Gen Yers are “all kind of working for ourselves a bit more.” Why? “I think we’re increasingly being encouraged to go for our dreams and not go for 100,000 dollars a year.” Creativity is big according to Sandra, but so is having a flexible schedule. “I just don’t know a lot of people who are really into the 9 to 5 thing,” Sandra says and suggests that companies would do well to offer their employees more flexible hours. Others, like Greg, a 29 year-old computer programmer from Moscow, didn’t wait to get an offer; he straight out demanded it: “When I started working, I asked for specific things. I work from 8 to 4, without lunch. So I have an eight hour day, after which I leave and engage in my other interests.” "So you never wonder: What do I want? You always wonder: What can I get?”
We have found that, in general, young Europeans seem to have thought more carefully about what they are looking for in a job, and they also make more demands, than their American peers. As Sheryl, a 20 year-old college junior from Queens, NY, told us, “I have never actually thought about what I wanted from my employer because it is always so assumed that it is in their hands. So you never wonder: What do I want? You always wonder: What can I get?”
If American Gen Yers want as much from their jobs as they appear to, maybe it is time they started asking for it. One major lesson that we have learned by speaking to budding as well as seasoned professionals over the past year is that it’s your own responsibility to ask yourself what you want out of your professional life— in the short-term and in the long-term. Only when you ask yourself the right questions will you find the answer for how to get there.
Wherever “there” is to you, if you belong to Generation Y, our research indicates that it is likely to be a place that offers fulfilling work, social responsibility, creativity, flexibility and independence. We have found that all of those things top Gen Y’s professional wish-list. Maybe it’s not always all about the money after all. - Astri Whiteboard photo by programwitch on Flickr under Creative Commons License. Money photo by TW Collins on Flickr under Creative Commons License.
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