Executive Summary:
Each generation has its quirks and behavioral trends. Our HR professionals pay close
attention to these. Combined with
economic influences, our Generation X is producing a whole new type of new employee;
the re-invented recruit.
The Rest of the
Story:
I’m not a recruiter, nor a Human Resources generalist, but
my business and my role grant me exposure to businesses, problems, and people
across a broad spectrum. It
appears to me that, more and more often, a whole new type of new recruit is
showing up at business doorsteps and our old hiring habits might be causing us
to pass some excellent opportunities by.
The new employee opportunity I’m seeing, specifically, is
what I will call the re-invented recruit.
They are individuals who have re-invented their career visions and are
looking to do something different.
Throughout time, there have always been those individuals
who have left their trades or career paths for periods of time, then tried to
return only to find themselves falling into the classification of
“unemployable.” They may have left
for any number of reasons: health,
to take care of family, sabbatical, missionary work, or even lay-off.
The problem has always been that when these individuals, who
have been out of the workplace for more than a year, find it difficult to break
back in. Potential employers will
look at that gap in the employment record and wonder if these individuals have
lost their work ethic, if they have behavioral or focus challenges that caused
the gap, or if they will be able to resurrect or learn the necessary skills.
There is also the doubt in the back of a potential
employer’s mind about the salary expectations and staying power of these
re-entering veterans. The concern
is that the candidate might be accustomed to more pay than the position offers,
but will take the position in order to re-enter the workplace. If so, will that new employee jump ship
as soon as they find another job closer to the one they left a few years ago?
In any case, trying to re-enter the workplace after an
absence of more than a year can be very difficult for someone more than 30
years old. However, our current
economy and Generations X and Y are creating a whole new group of re-entering
employee candidates and our old concerns should not be applied to them.
The Baby Boomer generation was famous, or notorious, for
ambition and chasing that next step on the corporate ladder. In fact, many U.S. corporate cultures
still harbor an expectation that up-and-coming leaders should move their
families to anywhere the corporation asks them to go in order to get the
exposure and experience the corporation values in its leaders.
Generation X, however, is not so inclined. Generation X is much more heavily
biased toward families with two working parents, many of whom possess equal
earning potential and career stability.
Try to get one of those parents to move his or her family because a corporation,
with little or no apparent commitment to its employees, expects them to move
for a new role and you will likely be disappointed.
Generation Y is motivated in different ways yet. Generation Y is more interested in the
community or global contribution of their roles than in titles or pay than any
generation prior. It is also the
most technologically enabled and comfortable and will look at moving as an
outdated idea of the workplace.
Naturally, I’m oversimplifying, but my point is that the
current generations in their 20’s through their 40’s have some behavioral
trends that, combined with current economic pressures, are driving them to
re-invent their careers rather than battle to get back into a role that either
no longer exists in their area, or that was never overly inspiring or
prosperous. They are re-invented
recruits.
I can identify of a hand-full of colleagues and friends
immediately, without thought, that fall into the re-invented group. In fact, the more that I think about
it, the more I realize that a great many of my colleagues fit this category,
including myself.
My neighbor has been a homemaker since her first son was
born and is just now re-entering the workplace as an employee of a local
charter school, something for which she has no prior experience other than the
volunteer work she did at the school.
Another friend of mine moved with her husband to be nearer to his family
and ended up becoming the Marketing VP of her father-in-law’s company.
I met a couple a while back, who turned out to be fellow
alumni from my engineering school, and who walked away from engineering to open
a coffee shop. They are now
successful restaurateurs and own several businesses. One of my high-school fellows got his degree in
high-altitude climatology and decided later to get into the role of software
and database developer. Now he has a leadership role in a small start-up
that has nothing to do with the weather.
My brother-in-law is another successful software developer with a
chemical engineering degree.
I’ll be willing to bet that my readers can also identify a
plethora of colleagues, friends, or coworkers who have re-invented themselves
too. It’s common, but the old
problems of getting started still exist.
Many who re-invent do so because an opportunity presents
itself and they jump at it, or they just go with the flow and find themselves
doing something they never anticipated.
That would be me. However,
some re-invented recruits made a conscious decision to do something different,
took the time to learn the skills, and now wish to begin their new careers. Unfortunately for these individuals,
old biases and concerns pose a huge problem.
I have a friend who is one of the deliberately
re-invented. He worked as a
construction and renovation laborer for many years. He now has a degree in software development, something that
was a hobby of his prior to the degree, and is now trying to get his first
official software-development position.
Unfortunately, he is losing the battle to other fresh college grads in
their early 20’s. He is in his
late 30’s.
He even shared with me one “bite-me” letter that blatantly
explained, in undisguised words, that the role is open for younger employees
and that his age was the reason he was not selected. This was from one of our bigger aerospace corporations by
the way. Certainly, he has an
obvious case of discrimination in this specific letter, but to what end?
He certainly won’t go to work for the company now that such
values have been demonstrated.
Neither will I, for that matter.
He could try and get a settlement or to paint a black mark for the
company by filing a formal complaint, but the business obviously has more money
to spare on legal actions than he does.
My point is that our concerns about hiring seasoned
individuals into entry-level positions clearly persist. However, I would caution us against
allowing these old habits to cause us to pass over potentially exceptional
employees, or worse yet, inviting discrimination cases against us.
I’ve already pointed out that many of our colleagues,
friends, and coworkers fall into the category of the re-invented. I expect that many of those that you
can think of are certainly worth their pay or are even exceptional. Let’s take a quick look at the common
concerns and see if it really makes any sense to choose a fresh graduate in his
twenties over a graduate from the same class in his thirties or forties.
Obviously, they all graduated in the same class, so one is
not going to have a skill set advantage; or is that true? Is it possible that the more seasoned
individual might have some skills from prior careers that would apply to the
new one? What about some
leadership potential, skills dealing with customers, or greater proficiency
with basic, fundamental work systems?
Supposing that skills are indeed equivalent, that leaves us
with selecting on personality and performance potential. Our natural tendency might be to choose
the younger candidate on the grounds of fresh ideas and more energy. Let’s look at that carefully.
Which candidate is more likely to roll with the punches,
know how to deal with daily frustrations, and have the stronger work ethic, the
one who might not have worked more that a summer internship, or the one who
already has 20-years of experience working hard in environments of diversified
personalities and difficult bosses?
Let’s also ask this. Why
would the individual who decided to walk away from one career and gamble on
another, probably a career about which they have discovered some passion that
drove the decision in the first place, have fewer new ideas than the younger
graduate? Might they have more
instead?
Last, lets look at the “energy” argument. That’s a hard one to pin down. We all know young sloths and old
fireballs. It’s not much of a
reason to begin with, but we can even play devil’s advocate with it too. The current generation exiting college,
nation-wide, is less healthy and more obese than the generation of executives
they would be working for. I know
it’s an equally weak argument.
It’s probably best for us to just not even bring up the “energy”
argument at all.
There’s concern for compensation expectations or staying
power. Let’s think about that
carefully too. If you have access
to the seasoned candidate’s prior employment list, it will tell you if they
stayed with an employer for several years, or if that candidate jumped
around. It they stayed, you have a
good indicator. What indicator do
you have with the younger candidate?
As for compensation, be assured that the seasoned candidate probably has
the more realistic expectations and knew what to expect when the decision to
change careers was made.
If you are facing the decision of re-inventing yourself, or
if you have just done so, then be forewarned. The old biases persist and you will need to battle against
them to get the attention of potential employers. If you get that attention and feel that they may be gauging
how you will stand up against the younger candidates, be ready to make your
case with some of the arguments I presented above.
If you are reviewing candidates for entry-level positions,
instead of passing up a candidate because of an old, irrelevant work history,
put that application in your pile deserving a second glance because it does
have the other work history.
Chances are that the re-invented recruit has more to offer for the same
salary than a younger recruit. At
least give yourself the opportunity of talking with the re-invented
candidate. You might be surprised
by their passion as well as other, bonus skills and work ethic they have to offer.
Stay wise, friends.
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