These are what millennials look for in a job (and no, it’s not money)

Born between the 1980 and 1998, millennials have gained a reputation that includes adjectives like ‘overly ambitious’, ‘lazy’, ‘slavish’ and ‘unprofessional’. While some of these might be true, when it comes to their work lives, most millennials have been known to take a different approach. In a 2015 study conducted by IBM, it has been found that millennial career goals do not have a drastic difference with those of the previous generations, in the sense that both baby boomers and millennials want to make a positive impact on their organizations.

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For millennials, money no longer remains a great incentive, and one cannot simply retain great talent by throwing in some money. Here are some of the things that millennials look for in their careers.

Adieu to nine-to-fives

Millennials view their work not as something that can be measured by hours or locations but by the output of what they do. These days, high-performing companies place a premium on flexible work hours as long as they get their work done. According to PwC’s millennials at work study, many people would give up a promotion or even an entire job position to achieve the preferable working hours.

Growth opportunities

It’s not only about earning a paycheck anymore, it’s about investing time to acquire skills and knowledge needed for professional growth. This is a major shift from the traditional on-the-job training in the sense that the best training programmes today consist of valuable learning experiences that hone employees’ interests and skills. There is the aspect of employment mobility associated with learning. Most millennials expect to have multiple jobs throughout their career instead of committing to just one. Therefore, companies are now looking into providing greater opportunities to their employees that’ll help them to move both vertically and horizontally.

Sense of purpose

Call it an effect of greater exposure or increased integration, but the millennials are driven by a greater sense of purpose and social cause than the previous generations. They constantly ask questions of self-purpose such as how they fit inside the organisational puzzle or if anyone cares about their work or not. Over here, the company has to make sure that the goals and aspirations of the employee are aligned well enough with that of the company’s. In a Deloitte millennial survey, it was found that 60 percent of employees chose their current employer due to their “shared sense of purpose”.

Maximising performance

Although the stigma attached with the millennials is not very positive, yet, when it comes to their career, they all want to maximise their performance. Millennials are opting for job positions that help bring out the best in them rather than jobs that are stagnant and monotonous. This means they want to work in a positive environment that offers and replenishes their interest, knowledge, and resources for them to perform their best.

Priorities today are very different than what it used to be in the earlier days, people work to learn, to grow, and to get inspired. Of course, money remains an indispensable factor, but in the list of priorities, it has lost a few spots.