Be Different or be dead

April 25, 2016

The 6 easy things millennials must do to be successful

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The 6 easy things millennials must do to be successful.

I recently received this tweet:

“@JeanYanglistens: @RoyOsing , Thank you so much for the inspiring career articles!! could you advise the biggest challenges Millennials face in their careers?”

Great question.

Here are my top 6:

▪️Your life expectations may be unrealistic; re-examine them.

You are tagged as narcissistic and feeling you are entitled. “It’s all about you” doesn’t cut it in most organizations. Many are trying to change to get closer to recognizing your lifestyle wants but it won’t happen overnight. Others simply won’t go there.

Either way, for the short term at least, you either have to change your expectations or look to the unconventional niche business stream for a job.

▪️Be clear on the organizations you intend to target.

Identify those who you think have the potential of satisfying your wants and expectations. You don’t have enough cycles to splash and spray your resume over the environment and hope you will land a suitable job. It’s ineffective in any event. Do your research.

Study the leaders. Narrow your options down to 3 or 4 high potential organizations to begin with and expand from there once you have established yourself.

Develop a killer resume.

▪️Work on your answer to the question “Why should I hire you for this job and not one of the five hundred other Millennials who applied?”

The job hunting herd is huge and if you can’t differentiate yourself from others you will be invisible, ignored and unsuccessful.

▪️Fair or unfair, the business world perceives you as being here today; gone tomorrow; changing jobs frequently when the work environment and/or money is no longer acceptable to you.

A resume characterized by a mobile persona raises questions about desirability as it flies in the face of what most organizations want: an employee who is “committed” to what the company stands for and is prepared to stick around for a while.

“Why should I hire you when you have a proven track record of “disloyalty”?” is a question you will have to have a convincing answer to.

▪️If you’re not a marketer you’re at a disadvantage.

There is a good chance that you will exhaust all of your target employers and will have to step out on your own. Fortunately you have the on paper credentials necessary to build a business in the digital and social media world.
What is critical for your survival, however, is to be able to find a niche market opportunity where no one else is playing and where your skills can be applied.

Hone your marketing competencies. Look for small segments where no others play. Talk to people about what they crave. Build capabilities for other millennials to engage with and learn from each other. Create an innovative work environment for others in your tribe.

▪️Don’t look for the perfect job.

Get one and then work on your career. In fact I don’t think your objective should be to land a career; it’s not reasonable given your circumstances. Get a job - learn something - apply what you have learned productively - decide if it is what you want to do forever - take the next step.

Your career will evolve from this process. The truth is you don’t know what your career will be when you start. Too many variables. Go do stuff and see where it takes you.

Think about it.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.25.16 at 05:47 am by Roy Osing
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