What Today’s Young People Are Like

Today, my Chicago Roundtable Group (most of the largest local firms in Chicago) hosted a panel discussion on what today’s young people are like.  The panel consisted of the head of a university accounting department, a university recruiting director and the HR director of a regional CPA firm.

 What is your firm doing to address the data below?

1.      Students today are supremely self-confident and are used to being stroked a lot.

2.      Students are used to being constantly engaged: classroom, Facebook, Twitter, constantly connected to someone or something, very fast pace, and all with ear bugs in their ears.

3.      Young staff are skeptical about loyalty due to the recession; most have seen family members lose jobs.  Partners will have to work harder to gain the staff’s trust.

4.      “It’s time to declare victory in retreat with social media.  We’ve got to accommodate their schedule.  Give them a deadline, a time budget and expectations for work and they will do it – but on their schedule (accounting dept. head).

5.      This is a mobile generation:  Starting with the interview and through the first weeks with the firm, if you don’t keep the young staff engaged and challenged, you’ll soon lose them.

6.      In a Facebook and Twitter world, they are used to instant information.  This carries over to feedback on their work and their status in the firm.  They crave feedback.

7.      #1 priority for a job today is the firm’s professional development program.

8.      Professor shortage continues:  In the U.S., 500 accounting PhDs retiring every year and only 100 are replacing them.

9.      %  males vs. females for accounting graduates:  In 2010, it was 52%-48%, a huge shift from 43% – 57% in 2002.  Shift is caused by switches by finance majors to accounting due to the recession.

Have you found these traits at your firm?   Did I miss anything?  Let’s here from you!!