Howdy, burned-out Millennials! Today's @bopinion post is about what Millennials need.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
This post was inspired by @annehelen's widely read piece on Millennial burnout: buzzfeednews.com/article/annehe…
Disappointment and frustrated opportunity are at the core of educated Millennial burnout.
One reason is that traditional career paths for educated people are disappearing.
For example, look at the state of academic faculty hiring:
One reason is that traditional career paths for educated people are disappearing.
For example, look at the state of academic faculty hiring:
Tons of educated Millennials are being funneled toward academia by our system. But that's just not working for them.
And at the same time, the other four traditional career paths for humanities graduates - law, journalism, education, and government - are all drying up at exactly the same time.
Educated Millennials all have jobs. Jobs are not what they need.
Career paths are what they need.
Career paths are what they need.
Today's career paths are just incredibly uncertain, random, and confusing.
No wonder Millennials aren't satisfied with their current jobs!
Now realize that Millennials are navigating these uncertain, random, confusing, lonely career paths all while under the looming Sword of Damocles of crushing student debt:
What do educated Millennials need?
They need CAREER PATHS. They need someone to show them the way to reliable, predictable upward mobility.
They need CAREER PATHS. They need someone to show them the way to reliable, predictable upward mobility.
In a world of rapidly changing technology, that's going to be harder than in years past. But it's still doable - IF we improve our institutions and orient them toward giving educated young people guidance.
Japan and Denmark offer two contrasting approaches to job security and upward mobility. There's no reason we can't adapt BOTH of those approaches for Millennials in America.
In addition, we need student loan forgiveness on a massive scale, and we need to stop pushing college kids to drown themselves in debt.
Because if we don't do things like this, we run the risk that educated Millennials will decide that the only solution is to burn the system to the ground.
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