The Interview: Mom and the Millennial

BLOGGER'S NOTE:  This is a true story, however, "Dan" isn't the candidate's actual name, and the circumstances have been altered to  protect a well intentioned interviewer who made a mistake he'll never forget.   

At my last post's conclusion, I promised Dan's, the candidate who ate M&Ms during an interview, response to my call letting him know he didn't get the job.  The conversation went something like this:  

ME:  "Hi, Dan.  I thought I should follow up regarding the marketing role.  I heard back from the manager earlier today and she, unfortunately, isn't interested in moving forward with you as a candidate."
DAN: "Oh man...  I thought I have that one!  I really did!  Wow!" Pause, "Did she say why?"
ME:  "Actually she did."  Deep breath... "She mentioned that during the interview you started eating a bag of M&Ms."
DAN:  So what's the big deal and confident, "Ahhh yeah, I did..."
ME:  Silence
DAN:  Still confident, "I mean, the interview was at noon and I was hungry.  She didn't act like it was a big deal…  It wasn't even a full size bag.  It was one of those mini Halloween ones my mom keeps in the house for snacks. 
ME:  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  M&Ms?  "Well, it kinda is a big deal, Dan.  She didn't think it was appropriate and neither do I."
DAN:  Shocked, "Seriously?  Just because I ate something?"
ME:  YOU STILL DON'T GET IT??
DAN:  "I told her I had to eat every few hours cuz I'm lifting weights.  I told her my trainer said, I had to do it."  You can call my mom and ask her!"
ME:  Your Mom?  "I don't think I need to call your mom..."
DAN:  This isn't fair, "...but I already told like all my friends that I was getting this job!  What will my mom say?"
ME:  Deep and silent zen induced sigh, "Why don't you ask her if she thinks it's appropriate to eat during an interview.  I'm thinking she'll probably say that it's not."
DAN:  Reality setting in "Just because I ate something...  I can't believe it!"

Having a difficult time processing Dan's interview behavior and subsequent response to not getting the job?  Same here until I did some, actually a lot of, research on Dan's generation, the millennial. Often referred to as Generation Y, millennials are the children of Gen Xers (Baby Boomers) and were born approximately between 1980 and the early 2000s.  According to generational experts, what uniquely distinguishes millennials from preceding generations are their values, attitudes, and behaviors, as a result of being raised in the internet age.

Another key trait of the millennial, and one that helps further explain Dan's frequent deference to his mother, is their strong bond with parents, or media coined "helicopter" parents; parents that take excessive interest in their child's life.  Author Shaputis Kathleen shares that millennials also are referred to as the Peter Pan generation, based on their perceived tendency to delay rites of passage, mainly living at home, for longer periods then prior generations.

While I'm not insinuating that all Gen Yers are disavowing traditional interview etiquette, I am saying that they certainly have a different perspective on what's acceptable in the workplace.

Photo Credit:  itsjosipnotjoseph.com

Through countless conversations with hiring managers, professional colleagues, and first hand accounts, I've found that relative to their professional Gen X peers, millennials have a much different perspective on work and how it should get done.  

On the whole, millennials prefer and often expect meaningful work with flexible schedules (out of the office); quick responses to questions incorporating lots of feedback; taking on big tasks without paying professional dues; rewards of experience not things; heavy coaching and mentoring; transparency in the workplace; high levels of collaboration and teamwork; experience over education; and motivation by purpose not finances.

Demonstrating the significance of millennials in the workplace, Jamie Getfreund, Chief Strategy Officer for the Intelligence Group, confirms that "86 million millennials will be in the workplace by 2020 - representing a full 40 percent of the total work population."  This number certainly is one that employers are not ignoring.  In our country's cutthroat corporate landscape, employer's must hire top talent to remain competitive.  If these top talent happen to be millennials, employers must learn how to engage them.  Many organizations have already figured this out and are actively planning for the rising millennial workplace population by providing current employees with training on how to successfully work with and retain millennials.  Below are a few companies leading the millennial charge:

• Last May, over 2,000 parents attended Google's second annual "Take Your Parents to Work Day" - Wall Street Journal
• Companies such a Merrill Lynch and other large corporations are now including parents in the recruiting process - Forbes
• Office Depot hosts a page on it's website that directs parents of millennial candidates to read a book on how to support their millennial without being too interfering - Forbes
• Linkedin hosted its first annual "Bring Your Parents to Work Day" last November in 14 of its offices internationally, and plans to develop a template for business looking to sponsor similar events - Wall Street Journal 

Am I advocating that employers provide protein bars and other healthy interview snacks for their millennials job candidates?  Find out in my next post, "The Interview:  Recruiter and the Millennial."