No More Pavement Pounding

Forget pounding the pavement and the dark suit. Millennials looking for work will increasingly turn to a new batch of virtual recruiting methods. Students at Carnegie Mellon can participate in a Digital Career Fair in which companies post open positions and are matched with students meeting the positions’ criteria. If the student seems like a good fit, the company makes contact. This way, firms not attending a physical career fair see students’ résumés they would otherwise miss.

Another new digital job recruiting tool is being used at California Polytechnic State University. It works much like Netflix’s recommended viewing algorithm by suggesting potential employers to students based on the student’s interests and experience.

Millennials Job Hop

As a group, millennials care more about pursuing their passions than high salaries. They realize that job security is not a given and have no desire for a long-term career with one employer. Consequently, if they don’t feel a company’s culture meshes with their values or they don’t find meaning in their work, they leave. Payscale.com’s annual Generations at Work survey reported that on average, millennials stay in one job for two years. Gen X workers stay an average of five years, and baby boomers hang on an average of seven years.

Freelance Numbers Climbing

Between online marketplaces such as Task Rabbit and employers cutting payrolls, the number of people working freelance has grown from 31 percent in 2006 to 34 percent in 2014. According to a survey by the Freelancers Union, fully one-third of the population is working freelance. Over 14 million moonlight after hours to help make ends meet; more than 21 million do temporary work on a per-project basis.