Attention: The Millennial Generation debate can be a heated topic to talk about. This steamy conversation is full of out-of-this-world viewpoints and full of fiery accusations. At this moment, I am taking a stand and ready to extinguish the flames igniting around this heated topic, once and for all!
My blog post confessional will help you cut through the clusters of negative misperceptions describing Millennials and will help you understand a couple of reasons why most Millennials behave the way we do! The statements that I make are from my personal experiences as a Millennial.
Throwing Down, The Lowdown – Background Information
My name is Nicole Ferreira and I am a Millennial. I am currently taking my first steps into the recruiting world as the Recruitment Coordinator at TalentQ. At the same time, I also wear the hats of being a full-time student studying Marketing Communications, being involved in academic clubs and taking part in extracurricular activities.
Renee Frey, the Founder and President of TalentQ, hires Millennials! Due to the open-mindset and confidence in others, exhibited by Renee, I was hired before I graduated from college. In our current day in age, being hired before graduation is a distant dream for many college students. I am extremely thankful that my dream became a reality!
The conversation regarding Millennials does not apply to every individual whom was born between the years 1980 to the year 2000. According to Dictionary.com, Millennials are “brought up using digital technology and mass media; the children of Baby Boomers; also called Generation Y.”
Diving Into The Depths of Millennial Misconceptions
Why do Millennials feel they are good at everything they do?
Why is it hard for Millennials to deal with criticism?
Let’s paint a picture, imagine you are growing up in a world where everyone you are surrounded with tells you, “you are great at everything you do.” In middle school, on Track and Field Day, imagine you are awarded a participation ribbon after winning the 400-meter race. You take a look around and absolutely everyone at the event has the same ribbon as you. How are you supposed to identify your strengths of speed and agility if you were never awarded the highest honor for working the hardest? All through grade school, every time you took a test, you were awarded a sticker; even if you did mediocre or poorly on the exam. Ultimately, a large number of Millennials struggle to identify their weaknesses due to the lack of transparency from adults growing up.
When we are told that we are good at everything we do, how are we able to identify and correct our actual weaknesses?
For the first time in some Millennials lives, they are finding out that they are not great at absolutely everything. Tell Millennials when our performance is not up to par; when there needs to be changes made to the way things are being done. We need to know when our performance is weak. No wonder it is hard for this generation to take criticism.
Why are we seeing a huge spike in the number of newly graduated Millennials moving back in with their parents after graduation?
“Stop living in your parent’s basement!” Really, do you honestly believe that an overcrowded room at my parents’ house is my ideal location of living? Millennials live with their parents to save money after they graduate college because they can’t afford otherwise. While I hold off on entering the home-ownership community, my bank is being sucked dry by student loan companies.
Millennials are jumping into a bottomless black hole of student loans after graduation. In the article, A Look At The Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics written by StudentLoanHero.com, “The average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year.” After paying the highest tuition rates for college in the history of our great nation, emerging into an absolutely astronomically high cost of living and trying to gain traction in a slippery slope of an economy are a couple of factors in which lead Millennials to move back into their parent’s households.
Why are Millennials clueless with student loans and debt?
The truth be told that not all college educations can guarantee a high-paying job after graduation; at least enough to pay off the enormous loads of student loans. J. Maureen Henderson, a contributing author for Forbes writes in her 2016 article, The Scary Truth About Millennials And Student Loan Debt, “New survey research from Citizens Bank shows that recent college grads either lack information or are choosing to remain willfully ignorant of the details surrounding their educational debt and how they’re repaying it.”
I agree that many Millennials have a lack of knowledge surrounding student loans and debt, but this is a product of never being taught this topic while in school. From personal experience, the only education I had on the foreign world of student loans was from my parents. Thankfully, they prepared me for the constant struggle through student loan debt.
Where do we go from here?
Like all generations before us, we are young professionals, young students, young people that are simply trying to grow up in a society that has made it complicated to succeed.
If you are a part of a generation before the year of 1980, then all I ask from you is to stop believing all you read about Millennials and all of the negative opinions you hear about this generation. I believe that success among people comes from making an effort to understand the battle we all fight to stay afloat, regardless of age. Keep an open mind. Gain understanding. Encourage success.
Thank you for reading my Millennial Confession blog post!
Signing off,
Nicole Ferreira