Today's College Students are the Next Great Generation and Here's Why You Should Hire Them

The following is excerpted from Jack Myers new best-selling book Hooked Up: A New Generation's Surprising Take on Sex, Politics and Saving the World. The book focuses on "Internet Pioneers" born 1991-1995. They are the first generation of college students to grow up with the Internet and the first to cross the chasm from the pre to the post-Internet Age. The following is excerpted from Chapter 20: Jobs & Careers. For more information visit www.hookedupgen.com and visit www.amazon.com for more excerpts and the full table of contents.

Lifestyles of the Non-Upwardly Mobile

The life model for Generation X and Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" was to commit totally to a job and job security. For the Greatest Generation, this meant mothers in unpaid work at home and fathers who were rarely home. For Generation X, it meant both parents working long hours outside the home with children in the care of daycare centers, nannies, babysitters, relatives and a string of after-school enrichment activities. More men in this generation have taken an active role in childrearing, and this pattern will accelerate among Internet Pioneers and Natives, who will be more likely to put families ahead of careers, even changing jobs and careers to adjust to changing family requirements.

According to the Bookends Generation study conducted by New York City's Center for Work Life Policy, 89 percent of current college students report valuing flexibility in their work life as among the most important aspects of a happy work environment. For Baby Boomers, flexibilitymeant leaving work early to catch their children's ball games or dance recitals. For Internet Pioneers, flexibility includes the ability to work from home -- or anywhere -- as an acceptable option. Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Work Weekeven suggests putting in a full week's worth of work from a tropical island. As long as the island has wireless connectivity, this scenario is entirely possible for the next wave of Internet-bred corporate managers (assuming they can pay off their student loans and afford to travel).

Their focus on outside-of-work success may lead to a very different work landscape than before, with greater flexibility in how jobs are performed so long as benchmarks are met, and with the need for corporations to demonstrate social responsibility far beyond the degree to which they contribute today. Internet Pioneers will be less tolerant of corporate malfeasance and will be aggressively intolerant of a Profit at Any Cost approach to corporate strategy.

Because the generation overall considers global impact as important as financial gain, today's college students may be able to alter the direction of businesses as a whole -first by altering employment policies and later through their influence within the management chain.

Again, the Internet Pioneer generation of college graduates doesn't feel bound to follow the implied contract of job loyalty that served their parents and grandparents. For earlier generations, a college diploma meant a middle-class job and upward mobility. However, a combination of economic recession and overabundance of college-educated candidates means this is no longer true.

The Next Great Generation

Red Tree Leadership, a management training consultancy, describes today's college students as potentially being the "next great generation." How big businesses choose to deal with this incoming cohort of new team membersover the next few years will have a powerful influence on the future of each company. Corporations that underestimate Internet Pioneers and Internet Natives do so at their own peril. Internet Pioneers have the potential to change, streamline and improve business ethics and communications from the ground up.

Internet Pioneers may need guidance from senior colleagues about the politics and social mores within corporations, but senior managers will, in many ways, have far more to learn from their younger colleagues. Internet Pioneers have grown up with the ability to multitask, to access information at any hour, and to conduct work from any place with an Internet connection. Many will be willing to work for less money, and even for more hours, if given the flexibility to work on their own schedules with liberal telecommuting opportunities. Even with the challenging reality of a tough job market for Internet Pioneers, they have the values, work ethic and self-esteem to face these challenges with determination and vision.

They may initially step back and wait for more appropriate timing — meanwhile accepting roles they perceive as jobs rather than careers. But they will inevitably gain a foothold in small businesses, large corporations, education, government, non-profits, the arts and organizations. Once they gain that foothold, their unique perspectives and skills will enable them to mature quickly in their roles, bring new insights, and move up the career ladder into positions of increased responsibility and authority.

Employers who recognize these individuals and seek their counsel, contributions and ideas will be well rewarded. On the other hand, employers who fail to empower Internet Pioneers will find themselves rapidly becoming irrelevant.

Finding Their Way

Internet Pioneers prefer to avoid conflict, are uncertain of how their opinions will be received and are, therefore, often reluctant to voice them forcefully. They may, however, begin to find that voice as they move through their college years, gain more confidence, emerge into graduate schools and the workforce, and realize how advantaged they are and how uniquely qualified they will be to manage organizations and direct strategies. Internet Pioneers are likely to achieve success following the volatile economic and social climate of the next two decades, more so than the X-Gens who are finding themselves less relevant in a business world that is increasingly digital.

As the nation and world emerge from the period of upheaval caused by the technological inventions of the past two decades, we will move faster and further into the application period of the Internet Transformation. As change accelerates, the need for economic, political, societal and organizational stability will increase.

From our current perspective of economic uncertainty and political dissension, the future may seem hazy. Internet Pioneers are just a few years away from imprinting their values on the nation and world. Their priorities and challenges will be many: to advance logic, honesty and human rights into the corporate mainstream, and to assure that we return to policies that are of, by and for the majority of the American people and the people of the world.

In the coming decades, Internet Pioneers and subsequent generations of Internet Natives will dominate the workforce. Those organizations that empower them will be best positioned for success.