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Many of us struggle to find the perfect career. We jump from job to job, getting frustrated at our inability to find a job to take care of us for the rest of our lives. It wasn’t like this for our parents, right?
You probably remember your mom and dad heading out to work every day, to the same company, year after year—and they seemed to like it! After all, they’ll likely push you toward finding similar stability. Well, here’s a newsflash: The world of work has changed. Your career will not look like your parents’ did. And it’s totally OK! Here’s why.
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Job Hopping Is The New Normal
Young professionals find themselves switching jobs on average every 4.5 years. For the younger side of young professionals, the time period is about half as long. In all honesty, how many people do you know who’ve had the same job since they graduated from college? Probably not very many.
The reality is that young professionals these days are more interested in getting a varied skillset and learning new things than climbing the career ladder with just one company. Furthermore, millennials like to be challenged. If we feel like our skills aren’t being used at our current job, we look for another one.
The upside of this is that millennials can avoid all the “dues-paying” that occurred in past generations.
Entrepreneurship Is On The Rise
Millennials have been dubbed the startup generation. Combine their technology skills with an unstable job market, and millennials are the perfect example of the old adage “necessity is the mother of invention.”
Here are some statistics to put it in perspective:
- One in three millennials launches side businesses. (Young Entrepreneur Council)
- In 2012, more than a quarter of millennials were already self-employed. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)
- 46% of millennials want to start their own business in the next 5 years. (Employers Insurance)
- 90% of millennials believe that being an entrepreneur is a mindset and not a role as a business owner. (Millennial Branding / ODesk)
These are record rates in comparison to previous generations. Why are millennials so into entrepreneurship? They tend to value their autonomy and are big proponents of social change.
Job Seeker Values Have Changed
Young professionals are more concerned with impact, creativity, technology, and independence than past generations.
In the past, people worked for the same company for 30 years to get a gold watch and spend their retirement years however they wished. With economic changes, millennials may not have the same future—and they know it. As a result, what they look for in a job is totally different than what their parents looked for.
Companies Are Going Through Changes Too
Job seekers aren’t the only ones experiencing changes. Companies are also just trying to survive. While the economy looks better than it did a few years ago, companies are still doing more with fewer people. Furthermore, they’ve had to keep up with technology—something our parents never went through. And lastly, we’ve got mergers happening left and right, which can seriously affect how a company operates.
Do you find yourself job-hopping in search of the perfect career? Let us know why in the comments!
I lead product content strategy for SaltMoney. Additionally, I’m helping our broader team of 4 evolve into a mature content strategy practice with the right documentation and processes to deliver quality work.
Prior to Instacart, I was a content strategy lead at Uber Eats and Facebook. Before that, I was a content strategist at SapientNitro, helping major Fortune 500 brands create better, more useful digital content.