We are not in a Steven Spielberg film but indeed in buildings in downtown Toronto and Montreal. These are “out of the ordinary” scenes of some professional “headhunters” in the executive recruitment firm for which I work. Today, there are thirty young students, in their final year of a Bachelor’s degree in administration, marketing or engineering, who are competing for access to the CEO for a Day program.
This is a program to recruit a student to be “matched” with a CEO who will spend a full day with him or her. Imagine yourself at 22 or 23 years old and having the opportunity to spend a whole day with the CEO of the company that you admine… They all arrived this morning, eyes sparkling, stomach a bit knotted and head full of dreams.
Close encounters of the third kind.
These representatives of the most recent version of the millennium generation are not extra-terrestrials. No hair in the air or tattoos or body piercing (finally… visible, at any rate). There are all very “corporate” in their style and determined to be selected. They have of course already passed the pre-selection stages (file, telephone interview and tests to assess their leadership). So we certainly have before us the cream of the crop.
They are immediately put in shape and thrown into the selection process. It’s a bit as if they were CEOs being assessed, going through the same or nearly the same steps with the exception of some teamwork and practical cases submitted to them. It’s at this point that I ask myself how would I get our candidates today for executive positions if they were put in this type of situation. Grouped by 5 candidates (all competing with each other), they had one hour to analyze a practical case and make a presentation to the other groups. This brought me back to my early years of recruiting in Europe when group selection interviews were in fashion. In short, imagine five CEOs or CFOs competing with each other for the same job. I would like to see the results… In this case, I was pleasantly surprised by their ability to not only quickly agree on each of their responsibilities but to see how they were organized and how they structured their work to analyze and prepare their presentation. You might say it’s easy, since this generation has been used to teamwork from a young age! However, it is often said that the young generation is egocentric and individualistic. I can tell you that this generation of the third kind had none of this, even with the pressure to perform to be a part of the “selected”. In these young people I saw a great generosity, a sense of sharing and respect, and a great attentiveness. Those that stood out by their leadership had an open attitude and a sense of positive feedback. I would have loved to film them and broadcast some extracts to certain experienced managers on management best practises. It was very far from the clichés generally conveyed on this generation segment.
One generation, two continents, a world of differences.
Once they reached the second part of the day for individual interviews, they had not lost their energy or determination. Their eyes were still sparkling and there might have been some butterflys in the stomach but they were in control, calm and didn’t even have sweaty hands! I found young people who were passionate, involved and engaged in their community, combining experience in work, training and social involvement. Several had participated in humanitarian trips abroad, all were involved in the associations at their universities and 50% had already been hired by large companies after their studies or were engaged in an intensive internship program. I could only think of their European colleagues, Spanish, Italian or French, who prefer to flee their country to pick the fruits of Australia or dream of the “wide open Canadian spaces”. There is already talk of a lost generation that won’t be coming back any time soon to their native lands. The difference with the preceding waves of Italian, Portuguese, Greek or Spanish emigration is the much higher level of education of these young people, mostly university graduates.
The young people we have before us have much more confidence in their future. They have as much confidence in their institutions as their ability. They are determined to get the best, including the best companies and the best jobs.
The quest for the best employers.
An interesting fact, which is also consistent with a recent study conducted by Harvard and professor Borys Groysberg, “Headhunters reveal what candidates want”, is that they are more interested in the track record of success of their future boss and the company they will join than the salary. Conversely, the less the company has a good reputation and track record of success, the higher is their expectation of pay, to compensate for their risk in joining it. It could be said that they have learnt from Warren Buffet, “I can understand if the company loses money, but if it loses its reputation I’ll be ruthless!”. Corporate reputation and ethics, social and environmental responsibility remain at the core of their selection criteria. That’s what I said: ”of-their-selection-criteria”, since they are the recruiters for their future employer as well… Regarding the famous issue of “work-family-reconciliation”, these young men and women are determined to have a balanced life and a healthy body with a healthy mind. For them, balance is essential but it doesn't necessarily mean reduced hours and extended vacations, because what counts is interest in the work, quality of staff and their superiors.
To sum up, it was an out-of-the-ordinary day for our team of executive recruiters. Refreshing, inspiring and especially leading me to believe that this future generation has everything needed to take over and bring in new leadership. I hope they don’t get lost along the way… Pay attention to these young people of the third kind who could well outrun their elders much faster than could be imagined…
Read:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/01/headhunters-reveal-what-candidates-want/