Talking Millennials, with Millennials

Last night I had so much fun being part of Marketing and Sales Executives of Detroit's "The Mind, The Myth, the Millennial" Event. When they first approached me about this panel, I wasn’t sure what I could bring to the conversation. So I took this as an opportunity to dispel some of my least favorite stereotypes:

• We are not self-obsessed, we are just comfortable being vocal as our own professional advocates.

• We're not job hoppers, we want employers that allow us to grow as individuals and as professionals and help us to experience new things. We want to come to work passionate about the job we're doing and we can't when employers develop us individually.

• We not addicted to technology, we are using technological innovations to make our lives, and the lives of those around us, better. And we’re finding ways to use that technology in our daily lives to get work done better, faster, and smarter.

• We are not so different than other generations, we are all extrinsically and intrinsically motivated to build better lives for ourselves and for the world—now and in the future.

Millennials are now more than half of the US workforce so it is crazy to me that we are still having this conversation. But based on attendance last night and the engagement with the audience, it is still a struggle in which many employers are still trying to adapt.