How Zillennials approach the workforce.
We come from a generation where we can easily switch our careers frequently or have multiple careers throughout our life. The generations that came before us felt the need to stick to a career and usually based their persona around it. We, as in Gen Z and Millennials, have the freedom to constantly evolve and be okay with not sticking to one job our whole life unless that’s what we actually want to do.
In recent years, especially following the pandemic, the world has truly seen the creativity of this generation and witnessed people becoming their own bosses or following their dreams more than ever before. Although this can be frowned upon by older generations for lack of stability, Gen Z and Millennials, or what I will continue to call us for the sake of this article, “Zillennials,” have proved this to be a completely normal lifestyle and proved that this will not deter us from being successful.
Unlike previous generations, we grew up in the world of digital and social media. This has had a huge effect on our approach to work. Zillennials, unlike their parents and grandparents, grew up at a time when the internet became extremely popular and began to be an integral part of our daily lives. For this reason, we are surrounded by marketing and numerous new opportunities to make money. As a generation and even more as a community of creative and strong minded people, Zillennials think about the best ways to leverage one job to get another and have no problem leaving for a higher-paying one.
We see through the superficial camaraderie that many businesses try to sell to force loyalty. Zillennials are completely different from our parents or grandparents in the way that we are described as confident and optimistic people. We have a different view of the world from older people who are used to treating work as a duty they must perform. When choosing a job, we are guided by the development opportunities, the attractiveness of the job, and whether it suits our present interest. Zillennials also tend to pay close attention to what the company stands for, what it values, and what it represents. If these attributes are not suitable for Zillennials, we have no problem going somewhere new or taking an entrepreneurial route to meet our needs.
When it comes to our needs, Zillennials look to follow their passion. In doing so, we tend to gravitate towards jobs that allow us to be partially or fully remote to pursue these side hustles or things that bring us joy in today’s world. For many of us, work and passion should go hand in hand. Zillennials work perfectly in small companies but many of us avoid corporate jobs because we associate them with many limitations to our growth and necessities. Independence in the work environment allows us to develop in a creative way. When we find a job that meets our needs, we can devote ourselves to it completely and work hard for success.
We live in an era where people from all over the world are connected to each other via social media. This plays a huge role in work life since it allows us to adapt to different cultures and personalities. Social media also allows us to see different perspectives and get advice from like-minded people. With the rise of TikTok especially, we see how people choose to go about their lives and the opportunities that are brought to the table by doing what they actually want to do. It is highly normalized to follow your dreams, create your own business, or even do content creation. All of these tools allow Zillennials to live out their best life and not stick to one career that might not satisfy them just to be able to afford the price of life which we all know is stressful enough.