Who are the Millennials? Most of us may know the answer to this question but they are people who have reached adulthood in the early 21st century. I myself, born in 1995, am a millennial and being a millennial definitely has its pros and cons, especially when it comes to the workplace. Some might say the pros are: being tech savy, they are young and energetic, they are efficient, a lot of them aren’t tied down to a certain area so they tend to be mobile/flexible, they are ready to learn and they are optimistic. Some might say the cons of a millennial would be: they are entitled, they are lazy, they are attention seekers, they are overly sensitive and they need validation.
Many people might say that a lot of millennials want everything handed to them and they don’t want to work hard for the things that they want. They may seem overly sensitive and may need more validation than someone who is not a millennial. Here are some things for all the millennials out there to keep in mind.
- Get an early start! 70% of wage growth occurs in the first ten years of being employed.
- Be patient! Mastering a job can take up to five years!
- Don’t take criticism personally! Learn from it.
Invision put out a great film called Design Disruptors and a great point they made is that you can not fall in love with what you create, you have to be able to take criticism well and not take it personally. If you are in love with your design, you will take the criticism personally and it will only make it that much harder to change direction if need be.
That puts us into the skills most sought after in employees. Most millennials, or any generation really, may think that your design skills are 100% of why you are being hired, but that’s not the case. Some of the most sought after skills are:
- Communication Skills. Can you listen, speak, write?
- Analysis Research Skills. Are you able to show your process?
- Computer Technical Literacy
- Flexibility
- Managing Multiple Priorities
- Leadership Skills
- Multicultural Sensitivity and Awareness
- Planning and Organizing
- Problem Solving and Creativity
- Teamwork
- Interpersonal Skills
These are all incredible skills to have but the most important one would have to be interpersonal skills. If you are easy to talk to, easy to get along with and seem like you have good character, you are much more likely to get the job. When I was interviewing for the graphic design internship that I currently have I asked my boss who was interviewing me, “What qualities do you look for in an intern.” Her response was, “I don’t need someone who necessarily is the best at designing, I want someone who has good character. You can teach someone how to design, but you can’t teach them how to be a good person.”
In the first chapter of the book Burn Your Portfolio by Michael Janda he talks about how he was never the best designer, his exact quote was, “When it comes to design, I’m all right. I am definitely above average, but I know many designers who can design circles around me” (Janda 2). He goes into talking about how there’s something much more important to an employer than your design skills and that is, you guessed it, your interpersonal skills.
When reading this it brought me back to what my boss said on my initial interview and it really made sense. If you can’t get along with your employer and coworkers they are not going to give you the job because character is not something that is easily learned. Janda says, “…your finely tuned graphic design skills will get you only 15 percent of the way to success in your career, rather than the 90 percent of the way that the design schools lead you to believe. Begin working on your people skills today to ensure that you achieve your full measure of success” (4).
So there you have it my fellow millennials. Don’t want for things to get handed to you and if you are a designer like me, don’t think that your “finely tuned graphic design skills” alone are going to carry you through life. It is extremely important to develop those interpersonal skills to carry with you because that is where the success comes from.
Ever Upward 