There’s no question millennials are the hot target market these days — and many companies have decided that designing for millennials is a ticket to success. Take the recent Whole Foods announcement about its new store concept, aimed at millennials with “modern, streamlined design, innovative technology, and a curated selection” of lower-priced organic and natural foods.Like many others, I read about the new store concept a...
Pennsylvania-based Power Home Remodeling Group recently earned the top spot on Fortune’s inaugural list of 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials.A home remodeling company? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That doesn’t strike me as a super-hot place for millennials to work.But it beat out popular employers like Google — by a lot (Google only ranked 25th) — even though Google has been No. 1 on Fortune’s annual list of the 10...
If there’s one issue on which all generations agree, it’s that millennials are masters of technology. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on millennials helping “befuddled” older employees with their tech troubles. Although I don’t love the thought of myself as “befuddled,” I did recently share in my newsletter how I enlisted a willing Millennial (my “Snapchat mentor”) to help me master the app’s quirks.I...
Ripped jeans. Tank tops. Flip flops. Visible bra straps. Wrinkled shirts. Shorts. Micro-mini skirts. Bare midriffs. Five o’clock shadows. Many managers complain that millennials think the same clothes you’d wear to the beach or a nightclub are also appropriate work attire.This is, of course, not a new workplace issue. Complaining about younger generations dressing inappropriately has been taking place forever. But people re...
“You’ve got mail!” Ah, the days when the ding of a new message was exciting rather than annoying. With all the apps and productivity tools designed to help us manage our email and all the effort many devote to achieving “Inbox Zero,” it’s hard for millennials — and many others — to believe that Gen Xers used to adore email. And our dirty little secret is that many of us still do. Of course, not every Gen Xer feels this way...
Last week I had the amazing experience of serving as a keynote speaker at the annual National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) conference in Anaheim, Calif. The enthusiasm of the crowd was infectious, and I had the opportunity to connect with so many career services professionals and campus recruiters who are on the front lines of creating tomorrow’s leaders. (NACE, for those who are unfamiliar, is the go-to ass...
Remember being stuck at the kids’ table at family gatherings? In some ways, it was fun to be able to kick back with the cousins and avoid probing questions from relatives you barely knew about whether you had a boyfriend or what “hooking up” meant. (Or maybe that was just my family…) But, in a way, you also felt as though you were being segregated just for being a kid. Like you didn’t have anything to add to the grownup con...
Remember that old song we learned as kids, "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold?" It's a good reminder for the workplace. As individuals, we benefit from having a professional network comprised of both longtime connections and new workplace relationships. If you primarily hang out with the "old guard" in your organization or industry, you risk missing out on fresh perspectives. If you only...
My first job out of college was in the business development group of WorkingWoman.com at the height of dot-com mania. Early on, I was tasked with negotiating a contract with a new client, something I’d never done before. But I was on it – referring to my notes and busily cutting and pasting verbiage. When I was finished, the contract reflected everything we had discussed – I had nailed it! But as I like to say, you don’t kn...
In a test designed by Princeton’s Educational Testing Service (ETS), American Millennials scored far below people of other nations in the areas of literacy, math, and technology. The study caused many to question if Millennials in the U.S. have the skills necessary to thrive in the workplace. Lindsey Pollak joins LJNRadio to discuss these findings, and to shed some light on what may have caused the results that some conside...