| Frequently Asked Questions |
| Q: Why does Gen Y or the Millennials need special attention? |
| A: We can think of five good reasons: |
| 1. This generation is huge! There are over 75 million of them in total—the largest generation since the baby boomers. To put it into perspective, they are 3 times the size of Generation X and will have 3 times the impact. Like the Baby Boomers—this generation will have enormous impact on business and social organizations due to their size and value systems. This is not a generation that can or will be ignored.
2. The world needs them! They are the most highly educated and technology savvy generation ever—and with some coaching, they will add value to any organization.
3. Organizational sustainability requires smart recruiting and retention strategies. Recruiting and retaining the best and brightest of this generation is difficult. The New York Times reports that there will be an estimated six million person labor shortage by 2008 and a 40-million shortage by 2015. Finding, hiring and keeping these smart young people will be critical to an organization’s success.
4. This generation has higher expectations! Their employment and career expectations are much higher than previous generations. You can whine and complain about this if you’d like, but it won’t change the fact that this group has always felt sought after and indispensable (they were raised in a kid-centric world), they will and do expect attention from their employers.
5. Young people today are extremely well connected! The experience of one member of this group is quickly transmitted through technology and social networks to thousands of others—if organizations treat them well, everyone will know about it and if they don’t—well, everyone will know that too.
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| Q: What is Generation Y's reputation in the workplace? |
| A: Sadly, Gen Y is developing a negative image in the workplace. |
Many employers are frustrated that this generation doesn’t seem to “get it.” Common complaints that we hear from employers include:
“They are pampered and spoiled”
“They expect too much too early in their careers”
“They are smart, but lack common sense”
“They don’t respect authority”
“They think entry level work is beneath them”
“They don’t know how to dress or behave in a professional setting”
Unfortunately, this list could go on and on. Careerstone Group can help bridge this “gap of expectations” and align the skills and expectations of your youngest workers to the realities of organizational life.
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| Q.: Why is your training different? |
| A: Our training is specifically designed to appeal to young adults. |
| It is highly interactive, fast paced, high energy and experiential. This audience won’t be receptive to traditional methods of training—you’re not going to get your message across with the talking head approach. Our programs are designed to jump start these young adults into success by addressing potential success derailers before they occur. |
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| Q: Has our society "ruined" our young adults for the workplace? |
| A. No, we don’t believe so. |
| As a society, we’ve just postponed adulthood to the mid-twenties and beyond. This means that organizations are much more likely to experience the challenges created by the transition from youth to adult. This can be very frustrating for employers without the resources (or temperament) to support this transition. |
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| Q: My 20-something seems lost, how do I help? |
| A: We must stop hovering over these kids. |
| Launching young adults from the nest can be stressful for you and them. Hovering parents are called "Helicopter Parents" for good reason! But don’t worry. LaunchBox and LaunchLive! can help both you and your son/daughter come to terms with where he/she is in life. Our programs will help them identify where he or she wants to go and develop the skills required to enter the workforce with purpose and power. |
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| Q: How do I prevent my 20-something from simply drifting into a job? |
| A. Invest in LaunchBox for your child. |
| We all want more for our kid's than we had, even if we drifted into a job, a career. By investing in LaunchBox (about the price of a decent laptop) we provide one-on-one coaching designed to support your child in developing goals and action plans in order to make their goals a reality. |
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| Q: Why can’t we just let them drift into a career the way we did? |
| A: This generation is blessed with high ideals and big ambitious goals. |
| These kids need and want to launch their own lives and careers—in a way that is meaningful for them. We also can’t let them drift because the world needs them. The modern world is a mess, with some real challenges—global warming, the war on terror, pandemics such as AIDS, and more. We need this generation to hit the ground running so they can start making a difference today. We can’t afford to wait. |
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| Q: Are career paths relevant anymore? |
| A: Not in the same way we (Baby Boomers and older) think of careers. |
| In our parents’ day and maybe when we started out, you got on that first rung of the ladder and if you kept your nose clean you could expect to climb upward within your organization. Those days are gone, this generation can expect to have between 10 and 15 different jobs and including several career changes. |
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| Q: Is the Career Ladder gone? |
| A: Yes now we have the career trellis. |
| Visualize the difference, instead of being one way up or down, the trellis encourages hops across and down and across and up, all to gain a variety of experience. |
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| Q: Is anything the same? |
| A: Absolutely! |
Careerstone believes that in the midst of all of this societal change and shifting organizational norms, there are certain skills that will continue to be foundations for career success. These are the same skills that make all leaders successful:
Good communication
Listening skills
"Followership" as well as leadership
Goal setting
Workplace professionalism and etiquette
Feedback: the ability to give and receive it effectively
Adaptability & resilience
Hard work
Networking
Navigating organizational politics
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| Q: Why will coaching work? |
| A: Coaching is all about holding clients accountable. |
| Studies (and our experience) have shown that the chance of keeping a goal goes up dramatically if you have someone to hold you accountable. Think about yourself, if you promise you’ll go to an exercise class with a friend it’s much harder to back out than if you were planning to go alone. |
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| Q: What’s a "Helicopter Parent?" |
| A: A well meaning "dis"abler. |
| Think about a helicopter and what it does—it has the ability to hover in the sky over one spot and it’s very noisy. This generation’s parents have tended to hover over their young. The hovering can take the form of being protective, of controlling the child’s free time, of taking a hands-on role in school work, of picking a child’s college and filling out applications and some of these parents can be very noisy in their advocacy. |
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| Q: What is an Adultolescent? |
| A: Adolescence to adulthood has been extended and blurred. |
| This is a term that is becoming more and more common and refers to the 20-25 year old stage in life. As we have lengthened our society’s definition of childhood from 14 (100 years ago) to 16 (50 years ago) to 18 and beyond, it has meant that period from adolescence to adulthood has been extended and blurred. Studies show that as many as 60% of college graduates plan to live at home with their parents after graduation—postponing full fledged adulthood longer than any generation before them. Consequently, many of the anxieties the last generation’s adolescence produced are now delayed and appear in later in what social researchers have termed adultolesence. |
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Call or email us today to get started:
info@careerstonegroup.com
202-595-1328 |
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All Rights Reserved. |
