What You Should Know About the Newest Generation of IT Professionals

We’ve all seen the headlines: Millennials have been accused of ruining everything from personal relationships to Applebee’s.

While stereotypes about young people can be funny or offensive, depending on your point of view, they often aren’t helpful. However, it is helpful to realize that people from different generations are shaped by very different experiences. Baby Boomers didn’t grow up with a computer in every house, while the typical Gen Xers came home from school to an empty house, MTV and Atari video games.

Obviously, your personal qualities aren’t defined by your generation, but generations do have shared experiences that shaped their collective outlook. Company leaders would do well not to ignore the differences among the generations on their workplace, and great leaders should factor in these differences when making key decisions.

Below are some of the things you should know about the youngest IT professionals in your organization.

They are used to constant connectivity

If you grew up with the internet, you’d probably accept constant connectivity as a fact of life, like the sky being blue.

Most Millennials know the internet like the back of their hand. Connecting to social networks of friends, followers and colleagues, they are plugged into the latest IT knowledge and trends. Being well informed prepares them for a wide range of responsibilities and opportunities. This awareness is a good thing for your company as Millennials will keep you in-touch. They also have informed opinions about trends and can help your company adapt in an informed manner.

Your youngest employees are also technology gurus that can show less-savvy staff members how to navigate various social networks and the latest connectivity tools.

They tend to like collaboration

Millennials’ desire to connect allows them to thrive in workplaces depend on teamwork. Unlike past generations, who prized individualism, Millennials prefer to get involved and build consensus among their peers. Their tendency to maintain regular and open communication can be unusual to older generations, but these qualities can actually lead to deeper understanding among your staff.

With a high degree of tolerance towards different opinions, Millennials are also more prone to accept other’s viewpoints and try out new methods.

They tend to be idealistic

To be fair, people in their 20s and early 30s always tend to be idealistic, before the weight of the world crushed all of their dreams and aspirations.

For Millennials, youthful idealism tends to translate into the desire to discover meaning and take pleasure in what they do at work. They are not interested in work for the sake of work and they are less driven by a sense of duty than older generations, particularly Baby Boomers who had to dealt with the reality of being drafted into the military.

Rather than being duty-bound and goal-driven, Millennials are more likely to engage clients and customers on a personal level, rather than a transactional level.

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