sticking with one employer for the duration of your
career doesn’t make you loyal. It makes you a human. A human with common sense.
Fast forward to today. Things move a lot faster
now than they ever have before. New companies
are created every second. New fields and skill sets
emerge constantly. If you’re not keeping up with
trends in your field and evolving your skill set, your
opportunities for professional growth are limited.
The continual pursuit of knowledge is the new
career path, and if your current employer doesn’t
support that path, you move on. That doesn’t make
you disloyal. It makes you smart, and it makes you
agile.
How to prove it wrong
It’s a shame that we have to, really. But for every
nine of us who are overachievers, there’s one of us
who perpetuates this stereotype. Who lays around
day after day, living off of mom and dad, probably
slaying Pokemon Go with the rest of America’s
teenagers. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything
about that one. We can, however, keep busting our
asses until the professional world has no choice but
to recognize our capabilities and strengths.
About the Author
How to prove it wrong
I guess the only way you can really prove this
stereotype wrong is by sticking with your current
position for 5+ years. Only do that if your current
organization supports your continual pursuit of
knowledge.
Instead of proving it wrong, prove that any time
you spend working at organization X is worth their
investment in you. Whatever your job entails, bring
your A game and make yourself completely indispensable. When the opportunity to discuss your
value arises -- annual performance reviews, anyone? -- be armed with an inventory of the projects
you’ve completed while in your role, and do your
best to quantify the impact and value resulting
from those projects.
Millennials are lazy sacks.
Why it’s ridiculous
Wa wa wait, what?! Show me a middle-aged person who had to work half as hard as I did to get
accepted to the college of my choice, and to graduate in four years once I got there. Show me a
Baby Boomer who couldn’t land an entry-level job
without a resume stacked with internship on top
of internship. Show me a member of Generation
X who is constantly connected to work, and also
manages to fit in side-income opportunities, exercise, and spend time with friends and family. I’m
not saying those people don’t exist, but I am saying
I work just as hard as them.
By day, Kayla is a motivated, career-oriented twenty-something with a lot of goals
and to-dos, and not nearly enough hours in
the day to conquer them all. By night and
weekend, she’s an adventure-seeking, knowledge-hungry homebody turned blogger. Her
specialty is writing content that resonates
with ambitious, entrepreneurial 20-somethings who want to seriously crush their
career, and who aren’t afraid to dabble in
side gigs.
kaylaleverton.com