New Kids On The Block

Key Words: Kenyan Way, Universum, Millinea
Word Count: 861
Likely Next Topic: Tax Free Weekend Shopping Report

First running. Wednesday, in reckless disregard for the fairly hard speed workout Tuesday, I decided to do a 4 mile tempo run; 1 easy, 2 hard, 1 easy. The first easy mile, 10:40, went swell. Then, my legs started hurting. My quads actually, they felt tired, they burned more than they should have. 9:05 to the mile marker, and at that point, I decided to listen to papa HoustonFIT, and just do the scheduled 30 minutes tempo run. After a short rest, I picked it back up to tempo speed, but then braked it back recovery speed for the final half mile; just over 30 minutes total. Kenyan Way was out at Memorial, jamming up part of the track ... not sure what they were doing ... many cones setup along the trail ... speed work I suppose.

Now, for some thought provocation. Wednesday was the kick off for ExxonMobil's US recruiting (USR) efforts. Over lunch, the USR folks brought in a rep from Universum, the supposed leader in knowing what young'ins think of your company. They showed data from Engineering (a main focus on XOM) and business (another focus). Differences between the two were as expected, and really, the groups were fairly identical (notable exception, the business folks reeealy wanted to work in New York; Wall Street I suppose).

The interesting part, and I admit I kind of geek out on this stuff, is the effect of "the Millineas", as the Italian lady from Universum called them. In her nomenclature, Gen X'ers are people born between 1968 and 1977 (which would include the author and probably the two or three people who read this blog!). Millineas are people born from 1978 onward; they were, I suppose in high school or college at the turn of the millinea (Universum only interviews near term or recent grads). These are the kids who had the soccer parents, who always received a trophy for participation, and are the future leaders of tomorrow. She showed a slide that compared the differences between the responses of the two groups. Most telling were (X followed by M): We seek jobs with work life balance, while we don't since we assume it is a given; we think the American Dream is dead, while we believe you can still make it happen; and a job is simply for money, while we believe it has to be a blend of money and social consequence. What's interesting is that the effect of the Millineas caused The Peace Corps and Teach American to vault from unlisted amongst the 250 ranked companies to the top ten on this years list! Also, Google, the company that would at least appear set to appeal to the Millineas, has, over the last four years, went from unranked, to 150, to 2, to a resounding #1 on this years list.

Another telling aspect of this was general categorizations of the two groups. In a nutshell, she said the Millineas demanded structure, group work, and would most likely not risk the status quo for financial wealth. Put another way, and she did put it this way, employers will be disappointed with their ingenuity, their resiliency, and their ability to work outside a group setting. I'm starting to believe that I can tell a difference in the kids that work for us now, and those that I see on campus. I thought it was just me getting older (that option is still a horse in this race), but perhaps it is that they really are changing. I think this change away from solo ability and ingenuity, if it's true, will probably be the most impactful thing to happen to our society in a long time.

One final nugget: Millineas are now expected to have 11 jobs in their careers, and more importantly, any stigma attached to that is gone. Many companies have accepted this change, and those above, and modified their work environment and expectations to maximize this new breed of worker. They understand that the Millinea will only be there for a while, but they try to make the relationship mutually beneficial, and there's certainly the chance to come back at a later date. 11 jobs; the chance to come back?!? ExxonMobil is certainly not like that, and ultimately, I think we will suffer for it. We still preach that we hire for a career, but do we and should we? More importantly, on a personal note, is what it will be like for me if the day comes when I quit the XOM. When I changed majors in college for the first time, I would do so again a mere four weeks late! It was like a burden had been released once I washed the stigma away from the change. I wonder if I get away from the stigma of quitting the XOM if that would lead to a Millinea like career path?

13 miles this weekend. I suppose I'll have time to consider the answer to that self directed question.