A recent article on MSNBC showed that the group getting hit the hardest in this economic downturn is the demographic under 30. The jobless rate for the 20-29 year old age group is 9.8%--over 2.5 points higher than the total U.S. rate of 7.2%. This is primarily due to fewer companies hiring, so 20-somethings are being forced to compete against more experienced workers. What these statistics demonstrate are that U.S. companies are now hiring experience over youth. As a 20-something myself (okay, maybe a year or two over, but who’s counting), I understand that this news can shake one’s confidence.
The fact is when there is less opportunity to go around and more experienced people competing for less, good is no longer acceptable. Great is the new good. 20-somethings’ competitive advantage is that we already live by this motto. Those who are under 30 are culturally programmed to have high expectations of themselves. We’ve learned this from our parents who continually reinforced to us that we could be the best and achieve anything we set our minds to. We are forward thinkers who are fiercely competitive and focus on continuously learning, advancing in the global workplace, and enjoying ourselves in the process. As a group, we tend to be high energy, optimistic, confident, motivated and resilient. Oh, and did I mention that we’re the most techno-sophisticated generation yet?
However, taking into account that many of the decision makers at the executive levels are of an older generation, there are a few areas 20-somethings need to be cognizant of to maintain their competitive advantage:
Older works may be dismissive about younger workers’ abilities. We might feel compelled to try and change age bias verbally, but the best way to win is through results and through building trust and rapport over time. Age discrimination is real, and the best way to fight it is with success. There are always going to be people who underestimate our talent or overlook us. I recently spoke with a young female Accenture consultant who told me that one executive client referred to her as the “little girl with a lot of ideas.” Thankfully, her ideas improved this client’s bottom line, and once she had earned his respect, she was viewed as a peer.
Older workers may judge us by how we dress. The people in the corner offices are often our parents’ age, so we may remind them of their children. These older workers place a high standard on dress and grooming—more specifically dressing up for work. I know this varies by company and geography, but let me share a recent example to drive my point home. I coach the president of a large private company, which just completed a study on its younger workforce by benchmarking to predict who might be the future VP’s in the company. I called the president to let him know that his top VP candidate was an employee named Eric. The president was quiet for a second and then said that he always felt that Eric was talented, but his dress, tattoos and constant smoking outside made some of the current leadership overlook Eric’s talent.
Older workers like face-to-face communication. I know it is sometimes easier to write a quick email, but if you need to communicate with a manager from an older generation, try to get face time with them to share your ideas and insights or ask questions. They tend to more often appreciate this personal interaction.
As a 20-something, ask for their advice and show appreciation and respect for their experience and wisdom. Older workers love to share what they know, so take advantage of this for your career development. This works especially well with difficult people. I tried this once with a person who was blocking me on a project, and he ended up being a champion for me after a few weeks of asking for his opinion and advice. For extra credit, ask in person versus email.
As a 20-something, get good at public speaking. If you are not already comfortable in front of an audience, get the skills to do so. Hire a public speaking coach, join Toastmasters, or take a public speaking course. Many younger executives that move up quickly share the ability of being very comfortable in front of an audience and selling their ideas and thoughts in a compelling way. This is true even in the most technical fields. Last year I had a young client at a biotech company who, although his technical skills were equal to his peers, got promoted to a C-level primarily due to his ability to communicate well with investors and analysts.
One final thought to keep in mind as you’re doing your long-term career planning is this: if you don’t like where you are in our career, ask yourself who you are. Last week I was at a client’s office with a young manager who was complaining to me that she has been continuously overlooked for promotions. I listened to her talk and realized right away that the issue was not her company overlooking her potential, but her overlooking her potential. Because she views herself as a middle manager, she projects herself as a middle manager. One of her behaviors includes waiting for projects to be given to her rather than proactively finding projects and driving them to successful results. Also, she does not dress like the higher level executives at the company and takes liberal advantage of the casual dress policy. I bring this up because in the world we live in today, we need to dress and act like the person we want to be. When we do, we will be able to view our youth as an asset instead of a liability.
Amy Hedin is a slightly over 30 executive coach that specializes in working with primarily 50 something senior execs. Her firm, HumanPoint, specializes in leadership, strategic planning, communications and presentations coaching for the top levels in organizations. She is frequently asked to travel to speak at conferences and retreats on topics related to developing a high performance workforce. Her work with senior executives gives her great insight into this generation and the expectations they have for younger workers. Her unique position of being slightly over 30 working with top thinkers makes her firm and approach unique in her industry.
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