According to Chris Resto, Ian Ybarra, and Ramit Sethi, authors of the definitive book on recruiting Millennials, Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat The Big Guys In the War For Young Talent, the three essential facts to know about young talent are Career, Glamour and Gossip.

What does this mean?

Career: Millennials want options. Resto, et al., use Teach for America to illustrate this point. Working at Teach for America satisfies so many of the desires of young people. The work is philanthropic: its aim is nothing less than changing what they define as our nation’s greatest injustice- educational inequality. The corps is close-ended: it requires a 2 year commitment so applicants know they won’t get pigeon-holed. It is very competitive- in 2007 18000 individuals applied and less than 3000 were hired. Finally, Teach for America proudly declares what their employees do AFTER the job has ended in the form of graduate school and corporate partnerships, like the Top 10 law schools and Google, McKinsey and GE, and alum discussion portals.

Glamour: Remember, the generation we’re discussing has been marketed to since long before they were allowed to swim in the pool unsupervised. This is the generation for which the term “tween” was coined. If it isn’t rewarding, they ain’t comin’. But it isn’t just about the money. Sure, that’s great, but glamour encompasses a whole host of benes you can offer to make them feel special- the key is to make them feel MORE special than anyone else. That might include cool or critical work assignments, personal relationship opportunities with a big cheese, or perks like concert tickets and travel.

Gossip: If you know any young people, you know they are mixers and connectors- they love to talk and have about 10 different ways to do so. And they are totally into information. Remember, we’re talking about the generation raised on 24 hour-a-day news and instant internet updates. Everything an employer does, say the authors, GOOD or BAD, is amplified.

Tags: career, Chris Resto, GE, glamour, Google, gossip, Ian Ybarra, McKinsey, Millenials, Ramit Sethi, Recruit Or Die, Teach for America

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under College Recruiting, Competitive, Pipeline, Sourcing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.