It used to be that a young person would graciously accept an offer from a company, work his or her way up the corporate ladder and retire with a decent pension. That was then; this is now.
Millennials as a group have the reputation amongst many of the older set to be job hoppers and are often chastised for it, but that seems to be missing the point. The Atlantic notes that jumping “between jobs in your 20s, which strikes many people as wayward and noncommittal, improves the chance that you’ll find more satisfying – and higher paying – work in your 30s and 40s.” Job hoppers tend to have found their dream job, or close to it, after having tried different career paths. As a result, he or she is less likely to quit thereafter. Not surprisingly, 57 percent of people aged between 18 and 34 think changing jobs often is good for his or her career, reports KGNS-TV.
The Atlantic: “It shows young people treating the labor market appropriately – as a laboratory for trying a few jobs rather than chain themselves to the first company that returns their phone call.”
According to recent findings from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than half of workers aged 55 and higher had more than 10 years of tenure with current employers in 2012; meanwhile, fewer than one in 10 employees 25 to 34 years old could say the same. In fact, “the median tenure figures also reflect this pattern; the medians for workers age 55 to 64 (10.3 years) and 65 and over (10.3 years) in 2012 were more than three times the median tenure for workers age 25 to 34 years (3.2 years).” What’s more, median tenure has been little changed across all age groups since 1996.
It is not that young people today are more likely to quit their jobs than young people were in the 1970s and 1980s; it is that he or she is more likely to change careers entirely. “Separation rate” for young employees is not up; “occupational switching” is. “Young people aren’t quitting more. They’re experimenting more.”
Switching jobs and careers enhances Millennial’s skillsets while expanding their professional networks. As a result, the resume for today’s 20-something takes on different meaning than it did during the same stage of development during his or her parents’ careers. “A resume is more important now to show what you’ve learned and what you’ve accomplished rather than how much time you’ve been there.”