CNN Opinion: Stop hating on the millenials

[casechopper]

If you were in NJ I'd have work for you to do. I can't get anyone to do anything here without charging $1000's. I'm stuck doing all of my own renovation work in the few hours I have free each weekend.

The economy really does stink though. I have a degree in Chemical Engineering with a 3.83 (out of 4) GPA and it doesn't seem to count for much when applying for jobs. Everyone wants experience but there's no way to get experience if no one hires inexperienced new grads. I'm still working in computers the same as I was before getting my degree. The pay is fine but it's not at the same level as that of friends of mine who did manage to get work in our field. At this point I've changed focus back to computers and I'm letting my engineering degree rest because computer work is where I have experience.

I helped build my Old Man's man cave & it was up to code so I can build houses. I love wood working & I would love to do finish carpentry. But I have no "real world" experience in those fields. I can fix damn near anything mechanical.

 

[HudsonHawk]

If you were in NJ I'd have work for you to do. I can't get anyone to do anything here without charging $1000's. I'm stuck doing all of my own renovation work in the few hours I have free each weekend.

The economy really does stink though. I have a degree in Chemical Engineering with a 3.83 (out of 4) GPA and it doesn't seem to count for much when applying for jobs. Everyone wants experience but there's no way to get experience if no one hires inexperienced new grads. I'm still working in computers the same as I was before getting my degree. The pay is fine but it's not at the same level as that of friends of mine who did manage to get work in our field. At this point I've changed focus back to computers and I'm letting my engineering degree rest because computer work is where I have experience.

We're starting entry level chemical engineers at about $120,000 with no experience. Where are you looking?

 

[casechopper]

I'm located in Northern NJ but willing to relocate anywhere. I'm not particularly tied to this location.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I'm located in Northern NJ but willing to relocate anywhere. I'm not particularly tied to this location.

Texas...oil...look into it. We can get enough chemical and petroleum engineers.

 

[casechopper]

Maybe I need to get back into the search. I applied all over back when I graduated in '09 and got very little response. For the last year or two I haven't been actively looking.

 

[rjb1]

Agree with Hudsonhawk about the demand for engineers. (I think he meant "We *can't* get enough chemical and petroleum engineers.") Around here we can't graduate enough engineers to fill the available jobs. You might want to take another look.

 

[sheeplady]

As far as millenials go, there's nothing wrong with them that adjusting their expectations wouldn't cure. It's their parents who are the real screwups for giving them wrong expectations in the first place.

Their parents (and everybody older than them) are also the screwups that messed up the economy for the millenials. The generation raised by people who supposedly wanted to shield their kids from everything did a really good job of protecting them from things that could hurt them.... no wait.

No matter what you say about the millenials, they have yet to mess up everybody's lives as much as those that were involved in the housing crash. I'm sure they'll take their turn, but they inherited a horrific mess on several fronts at a very young age.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Agree with Hudsonhawk about the demand for engineers. (I think he meant "We *can't* get enough chemical and petroleum engineers.") Around here we can't graduate enough engineers to fill the available jobs. You might want to take another look.

D'oh! Yeah, I meant we CAN'T find enough of them. Thanks for the pick me up.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Their parents (and everybody older than them) are also the screwups that messed up the economy for the millenials. The generation raised by people who supposedly wanted to shield their kids from everything did a really good job of protecting them from things that could hurt them.... no wait.

No matter what you say about the millenials, they have yet to mess up everybody's lives as much as those that were involved in the housing crash. I'm sure they'll take their turn, but they inherited a horrific mess on several fronts at a very young age.

Again, I disagree that they inherited anything much worse than a lot of generations before them, and in fact, have a lot of advantages that many didn't. They just whine about it incessantly.

 

[Touchofevil]

I have never in my life known an auto mechanic with a college degree, and I've known a lot of auto mechanics in my life. I do, however, know a lot of people with college degrees who wish they had learned to be auto mechanics instead.

As far as millenials go, there's nothing wrong with them that adjusting their expectations wouldn't cure. It's their parents who are the real screwups for giving them wrong expectations in the first place.

That is how it was here, but now it is becoming more common to find mechanics who have graduated from a trade school.

 

[sheeplady]

Again, I disagree that they inherited anything much worse than a lot of generations before them, and in fact, have a lot of advantages that many didn't. They just whine about it incessantly.

Have we crumbled so low as a society that it's ok that we leave a mess for the next generation and it's totally OK as long as it's no worse than what was left for us? Is the bar so low? We just pass the buck onto the next generation... they'll fix it. We won't take any responsibility for the things our generation has done.

It's not the young's generation responsibility to fix our mess, it's ours.

 

[Touchofevil]

Have we crumbled so low as a society that it's ok that we leave a mess for the next generation and it's totally OK as long as it's no worse than what was left for us? Is the bar so low? We just pass the buck onto the next generation... they'll fix it. We won't take any responsibility for the things our generation has done.

It's not the young's generation responsibility to fix our mess, it's ours.

And teaching that it is always my responsibility to take care of my mess (on all levels) is such a difficult point to get across.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I'm not arguing that point, but it is lousy, regardless. Just because something isn't as lousy as it was at some other time doesn't make the situation at hand any better.

Actually, the hand you've been dealt in the job market isn't as bad as most millenials like to make out. You think 9-10% unemployment is bad, try the generation that had to deal with 40%. It was a lot worse...they just didn't whine about it nearly as much.

I've found that to be the truth. I work second shift at the factory where I work and most second shifters are right around my age. I found out today that I got a bid I signed on first shift. It's more pay, but more responsibility. In the end, the normalcy of working days was the big draw. All I've heard out of everybody is "Why would you want a job that's more work?" "You're not making enough more money to make it worth while." "I couldn't get up that early."

That mentality is going to get people nowhere fast.

2) they're really lazy. I don't know how many have said they expect to be CEO by the time they're 40, but their top priority is "work/life balance". They think they can simply think there way to the top. But we try to whip them into shape.

We're in a hiring frenzy at work. We can't get anybody that wants to do their job and we're expanding. I'd say 75% of the people we hire last less than a week and go "This is too much work."

 

[R.G. White]

I agree that our expectations are too high. We want more than we can have. That how a lot of us were raised, though. It's especially difficult when your parents go on and on about how in the seventies they could leave high school and get their own place with mediocre work, or quit one job and find another in the same day, while we have to apply endlessly to fast food places and undergo interviews that take themselves waaaay too seriously for what the job actually entails. And then not getting it, because you didn't meet their expectations to flip burgers. And it's not like you can afford any sort of home on a minimal wage job and attend college full time, so most of us do end up living with our parents into our twenties, and unless we've gotten a degree in either medical assistance or criminal justice (which, believe it or not, not all of us would like. But hey "high expectations." Why do something you like for the next fifty years?). I suppose you could go for something much more intense, but the majority of us aren't intelligent enough to become engineers. So then you end up living with your parents even longer because you can't find a job anywhere because you decided to "follow your dreams" (a sentiment that's been shoved down our throats since kindergarten).
But, from what I've seen, the majority of adults who whine about us whining take fragments of what they see and form quick opinions without analyzing the situation as much as they probably should. Sure, we aren't starving, but we feel perpetually stuck in a cycle that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. I think that out of all of my friends there's maybe one or two in the whole bunch who can be described as "lazy," but that's an inevitable part of life. You have people who are lazy and people who aren't. The biggest groups of lazy Millennials come from either the slums or very, very well off families. And guess what? Neither one of those cases are exactly breaking news.

As for the "whining," we were raised in lax environments and taught to express our opinions, and if we weren't happy to say so. We were taught that talking about our problems was the thing to do and would make us feel better. The opinions we voice are opinons felt through endless generations, it's only that it's finally all right to vocalize them.

One last comment. How about we let this generation have a chance to get it's feet wet before all this judgement is passed? See what sort of mark it leaves on the world!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I agree that our expectations are too high. We want more than we can have. That how a lot of us were raised, though. It's especially difficult when your parents go on and on about how in the seventies they could leave high school and get their own place with mediocre work, or quit one job and find another in the same day, while we have to apply endlessly to fast food places and undergo interviews that take themselves waaaay too seriously for what the job actually entails.

Actually, a lot of us had to do exactly that. I graduated right into the teeth of 25 percent unemployment in the county where I lived, and I ended up riding 3000 miles on a Greyhound bus to try and get away from it. Ended up working in a delicatessen run by two surly Czechoslovakian guys who had me cleaning the bone saw with a steam hose and scrubbing pans until the skin peeled off my hands. And I still ended up broke and had to go back home to try to figure out something else. I found a radio job when I got home, only to have the station go bankrupt. I then found two more radio jobs -- one on the early morning shift, and the other on the overnight, with the two jobs seventy miles apart. I had to get up at 4 am, drive thirty-five miles in a rusty Volkswagen with no heat, work a six-hour shift, drive thirty-five miles back home, sleep for a few hours and eat something, and then drive thirty-five miles in the opposite direction to the second job, work a four-hour shift, and at 1 am drive thirty-five miles back home. And as was the custom in radio, both of those jobs paid minimum wage, which barely covered the gas and upkeep on the car.

I'm not saying this to say "In my day we walked to school in the snow uphill both ways," although in fact we did that too, but rather to point out that a lot of us had it just as hard as the millenials have it now. And we didn't have the comfort of at least feeling like we were entitled to more than we were getting -- we were raised to understand that the world was a cruel and unfair place, and anything we wanted out of life we'd have to fight for every step of the way. The main thing The Millenials have to overcome is the crippling effect of Middle-Class Privilege.

 

[Edward]

The cartoon is cute... and pretty spot on. I could paraphrase what I hear people saying about kids today very easily...

"“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Except that's not paraphrasing.... it's quoting Socrates.

Celebrating any one generation over another as superior is a crazy level of over-generalisation.

Part of my current job duties includes recruiting. A couple of things I've noticed about millennials; 1) they're really smart, 2) they're really lazy. I don't know how many have said they expect to be CEO by the time they're 40, but their top priority is "work/life balance". They think they can simply think there way to the top. But we try to whip them into shape.

Assume you're using that as a euphemism? I'm firmly of the belief that one of the biggest problems the western world faces today is the ever-increasing emphasis on "live to work".

 

[HudsonHawk]

Have we crumbled so low as a society that it's ok that we leave a mess for the next generation and it's totally OK as long as it's no worse than what was left for us? Is the bar so low? We just pass the buck onto the next generation... they'll fix it. We won't take any responsibility for the things our generation has done.

It's not the young's generation responsibility to fix our mess, it's ours.

We crumbled so low that the next generation has no clue how to deal with adversity. The "mess" we have now is largely one of perception based on ridiculously unrealistic expectations.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I agree that our expectations are too high. We want more than we can have. That how a lot of us were raised, though.

More excuses.

It's especially difficult when your parents go on and on about how in the seventies they could leave high school and get their own place with mediocre work,

Looks like you're getting life lesson #1. In what fantasy world did you think a job was an entitlement and that you should be able to buy a house before you're 30?

But hey "high expectations." Why do something you like for the next fifty years?). I suppose you could go for something much more intense, but the majority of us aren't intelligent enough to become engineers. So then you end up living with your parents even longer because you can't find a job anywhere because you decided to "follow your dreams" (a sentiment that's been shoved down our throats since kindergarten).

By all means, follow your dream. Just quit complaining that your dream is to lay about and still make a million dollars and the big bad world wont let you. The world don't work that way.

Sure, we aren't starving, but we feel perpetually stuck in a cycle that doesn't seem to have an end in sight.

Part of the problem is your frame of reference. Which isn't unique to your generation, just a function of age. Five years isn't the eternity you think it is.

As for the "whining," we were raised in lax environments and taught to express our opinions, and if we weren't happy to say so. We were taught that talking about our problems was the thing to do and would make us feel better. The opinions we voice are opinons felt through endless generations, it's only that it's finally all right to vocalize them.

Yeah, so what? You still whine and make excuses.

One last comment. How about we let this generation have a chance to get it's feet wet before all this judgement is passed? See what sort of mark it leaves on the world!

Most people are perfectly content to do that, so long as you'll shut up about how terrible your life is.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I've found that to be the truth. I work second shift at the factory where I work and most second shifters are right around my age. I found out today that I got a bid I signed on first shift. It's more pay, but more responsibility. In the end, the normalcy of working days was the big draw. All I've heard out of everybody is "Why would you want a job that's more work?" "You're not making enough more money to make it worth while." "I couldn't get up that early."

The getting up early part kills me. I see this every day. I work in the oil business, and you need to be in the office when the field guys are out working. That means when the sun comes up, you need to be moving. When you tell the interns or recent grads that they're expected to be in the office working by 6 am, they are aghast. "Do you know what time I'll have to get up to get here by 6???" I'm guessing about 4:30. What's your point?

The other thing that boggles my mind is he number of these millennials who let their friends decide whether or not a particular job or industry meets some ethical criteria. I've had more than a handful of college grads turn down a starting salary of over $100,000 because their friends say they wouldn't respect someone who worked for an oil company. I suppose they all think the plastic for their iPhones and gas for their Prius just appears by magic.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Assume you're using that as a euphemism? I'm firmly of the belief that one of the biggest problems the western world faces today is the ever-increasing emphasis on "live to work".

I'm not sure what you mean. My company tries to make work life balance part of its culture, but sometimes you have to actually go out of your way to get the work done. When asked to work a weekend, or stay a few hours late, the kids often ask "what do I get out of it?" You get to keep your job. That reward enough for you?