Gen Y Skeptical of Working for Large Corporations

The Small Business Trends blog has a great post on Gen Y's interest in entrepreneurship and their views of working for corporations.  Key quote:

"Generation Y (25 and under) has grown up watching their parents go off to work every day, 40 - 60 hours per week, with fierce loyalty only to be downsized, outsourced, or laid off in their 40’s and 50’s."

This echos our research on Gen Y, which shows a great deal of skepticism about working for large corporations and a strong interest in controlling their own work destiny.  The post ends with this question for Gen Y:

"What are you doing to take hold of your financial future and safeguard yourself against the tumultuous corporate world?"

For large corporations the question is how do you attract and retain Gen Y workers??

Comments

[Elliott]

Gen Y approaches jobs with the expectation that they will not work their for the rest of their life. Those days may be gone for good. It's important for all corporations to show themselves as one of the stones on the path of their professional development. Lead with what skills they'll learn and what responsibilities they'll have.

Large corporations tend to create specialists, while small corporations tend to create generalists. Many Gen Yers have completely found their niche yet, which is why they tend to prefer smaller corporations where they will shoulder a more diverse array of responsibilities. Larger corporations should focus on young people who have very clearly defined career goals, and appeal to those.