The Tide Pod comment is in very poor taste and grossly inaccurate. Research has shown having dogs in the office (as long as you aren’t allergic) helps folks relax and take needed breaks. Insurance must get away from treating junior employees as great cogs in the corporate machine in order to attract young people of integrity.
I have no less than 15 Millennials working in my organization of 25 people. The problems I see with that group is a sense of entitlement, without the discipline and hard work. They work in the organization for a week and wonder why they’re not the CEO. One ‘key’ for success that I’ve found is to explain the ‘why’ of what we’re doing instead of just giving orders. I agree with the tide pod and dog comment. I also find many good characteristics in them that my generation “X” doesn’t share, such as, honesty, transparency and a generally optimistic outlook.
I’m a millennial who has been working in insurance for the past 10 months and I agree with your comment about us generally being entitled.
One theory for why we are so entitled is that many of us were raised by optimistic parents who encouraged us to believe that we could “be whatever we wanted to be”. (waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html) When one internalizes that he/she tends to think that they are special and so becomes dejected when they’re in an entry level role. With these unrealistic expectations plus an industry that doesn’t have a glamorous reputation (see The Truman Show), it’s easy to see why the industry is struggling to recruit millennials. The term insurance salesman is basically synonymous to “mindless corporate drone” to us young folk. (please note that my job title is “Business Development Specialist” aka a sexier term for insurance salesman).
Despite this combination of unrealistic expectations among young grads and a bleak industry reputation, I think there is still hope. My experience with the industry has been positive. I’ve met many great people who are humble, passionate about their jobs, and friendly. As well, there seems to be much opportunity to move up and make a lot of money. Given my experience, I think the key to recruiting millennials would be to just get one person hired and get them to have a positive outlook on the industry. Then send that person back to their college as an industry cheerleader and watch that stack of resumes grow.
One free Tide Pod per day and the chance to bring your dogs into the office…
The Tide Pod comment is in very poor taste and grossly inaccurate. Research has shown having dogs in the office (as long as you aren’t allergic) helps folks relax and take needed breaks. Insurance must get away from treating junior employees as great cogs in the corporate machine in order to attract young people of integrity.
I have no less than 15 Millennials working in my organization of 25 people. The problems I see with that group is a sense of entitlement, without the discipline and hard work. They work in the organization for a week and wonder why they’re not the CEO. One ‘key’ for success that I’ve found is to explain the ‘why’ of what we’re doing instead of just giving orders. I agree with the tide pod and dog comment. I also find many good characteristics in them that my generation “X” doesn’t share, such as, honesty, transparency and a generally optimistic outlook.
I’m a millennial who has been working in insurance for the past 10 months and I agree with your comment about us generally being entitled.
One theory for why we are so entitled is that many of us were raised by optimistic parents who encouraged us to believe that we could “be whatever we wanted to be”. (waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html) When one internalizes that he/she tends to think that they are special and so becomes dejected when they’re in an entry level role. With these unrealistic expectations plus an industry that doesn’t have a glamorous reputation (see The Truman Show), it’s easy to see why the industry is struggling to recruit millennials. The term insurance salesman is basically synonymous to “mindless corporate drone” to us young folk. (please note that my job title is “Business Development Specialist” aka a sexier term for insurance salesman).
Despite this combination of unrealistic expectations among young grads and a bleak industry reputation, I think there is still hope. My experience with the industry has been positive. I’ve met many great people who are humble, passionate about their jobs, and friendly. As well, there seems to be much opportunity to move up and make a lot of money. Given my experience, I think the key to recruiting millennials would be to just get one person hired and get them to have a positive outlook on the industry. Then send that person back to their college as an industry cheerleader and watch that stack of resumes grow.
Thoughts?