Someone told me recently that Millennials approach finding a job in the same way they search for a date on Tinder. As my social media expertise only extends as far as Instagram, I asked him to explain.
“It’s like this,” he said, flicking through the pages of an imaginary app. “You find someone on Tinder you like the look of, go on a date and, the next day, go back on Tinder and look again. You can always find someone who looks more exciting than the person you just dated.”
It made sense. I don’t do much recruiting but it’s a hassle - especially with Millennials. In the old days, you were competing for a promising recruit with a printer on the same industrial estate, or a large local employer. Now you’re competing against their fantasy employer -probably Google, Apple or Tesla. At Mole Graphics, we don’t have an equivalent of the Apple genius bar. Our job titles are terribly ordinary - executive, assistant manager, manager, director - and our shop floor isn’t as shiny as an Apple store’s.
To be fair to Millennials, they have problems we never had. Many are encumbered with £50,000 of debt from university, can’t contemplate how they will get on property ladder without having a panic attack, and have been indoctrinated in the glories the gig economy. The gig economy is great if you’re the Rolling Stones - who make $10m a gig - but not so attractive if you’re on a zero hours contract in a high street sports store.
Like Queen - and, by the way, if you haven’t seen Bohemian Rhapsody yet you really should - Millennials want it all and they want it now. And who can blame them? That’s how they’ve been sold to. Nobody’s told them, “Oh, by the way, even though you’re a graduate, it’ll take you two years to really master your first job”, because we don’t want to lose them.
The other day, when I finally found someone I thought could, with a few rough edges honed off, manage our social media marketing, I was appalled (but not surprised) when, a week before she started, she tried to renegotiate her deal.
I met her halfway, reluctantly, because I couldn’t face the whole rigmarole again. Will it work out? Your guess is as good as mine.
Comments please to industrymole@imagereportsmag.co.uk