It can be an awkward standoff.
After only a year on the job, more young employees are approaching their managers for a promotion, asking, “All right, I’m ready. What’s next?” says Christopher Kalloo of New York, who heads college relations for a big retailer. New hires have little patience with entry-level tasks, he says. “They want to help with strategy. They want to help drive the business.”
Some managers say they’re taken aback, wondering, “Who do these rookies think they are?”
More than 75% of Gen Z members believe they should be promoted in their first year on the job, according to a recent survey of 1,000 participants ages 18 to 23 by InsideOut Development, a workplace-coaching company. Employers see similar patterns among younger millennials in their late 20s and early 30s.
The trend has managers scrambling to manage young employees’ expectations without driving them out the door. Many are finding new ways to respond, by carving out step-by-step career paths for restless new hires, or handing out new titles or small bonuses. A few hold “workversary” celebrations for employees passing the one-year mark to recognize their accomplishments on the job.
Young employees who push too hard risk derailing their careers by projecting a sense of entitlement. Alex Klein, a vice president and recruiter at VaynerMedia, an 800-employee global agency based in New York, says new recruits are constantly questioning him about promotion opportunities. Many also ask to be considered for a raise earlier than the agency’s customary timetable.
“Those are great questions to ask. I want to hire people who want to grow,” Mr. Klein says. “But you also need to leave the employer with the impression that you want to earn it.”
Their impatience can frustrate employers. Joseph Cacciola was dismayed when a talented recent college grad he’d hired grew restless after six months.
“She was having these crises of confidence, saying, ‘Well, you haven’t offered me a promotion, so I interviewed someplace else,’ ” says Mr. Cacciola, a senior vice president for an entertainment company in New York. He arranged for her to take programming courses at the company’s expense, but she still left for a higher-paying job because he couldn’t offer her as big a raise as she wanted.
“If you try to do everything you can and it still doesn’t work, I’m kind of like, ‘Well, all right, so be it,’ ” he says.
Competing to advance comes naturally to many new hires. “This generation has been given permission by their parents and teachers and other authority figures to just go for it, go for the gold, ask for whatever you want,” says Julie Jansen, author of a career book, “I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This.”
Years spent in school, with its year-by-year advancement schedules and frequent feedback, leave them ill-prepared for a workforce in which promotion rates vary widely by employer and industry, says Jill Tipograph, the New York-based co-founder of Early Stage Careers, which helps prepare college grads for the workforce and mentors them on their first job. “Young employees just think, ‘Oh, I’ve been here a year, so that means I’m getting promoted, right?’ ” she says. “Promoted to what?”
Sue Shellenbarger, WSJ | Read more:
Image: James Steinberg
After only a year on the job, more young employees are approaching their managers for a promotion, asking, “All right, I’m ready. What’s next?” says Christopher Kalloo of New York, who heads college relations for a big retailer. New hires have little patience with entry-level tasks, he says. “They want to help with strategy. They want to help drive the business.”
Some managers say they’re taken aback, wondering, “Who do these rookies think they are?”
More than 75% of Gen Z members believe they should be promoted in their first year on the job, according to a recent survey of 1,000 participants ages 18 to 23 by InsideOut Development, a workplace-coaching company. Employers see similar patterns among younger millennials in their late 20s and early 30s.The trend has managers scrambling to manage young employees’ expectations without driving them out the door. Many are finding new ways to respond, by carving out step-by-step career paths for restless new hires, or handing out new titles or small bonuses. A few hold “workversary” celebrations for employees passing the one-year mark to recognize their accomplishments on the job.
Young employees who push too hard risk derailing their careers by projecting a sense of entitlement. Alex Klein, a vice president and recruiter at VaynerMedia, an 800-employee global agency based in New York, says new recruits are constantly questioning him about promotion opportunities. Many also ask to be considered for a raise earlier than the agency’s customary timetable.
“Those are great questions to ask. I want to hire people who want to grow,” Mr. Klein says. “But you also need to leave the employer with the impression that you want to earn it.”
Their impatience can frustrate employers. Joseph Cacciola was dismayed when a talented recent college grad he’d hired grew restless after six months.
“She was having these crises of confidence, saying, ‘Well, you haven’t offered me a promotion, so I interviewed someplace else,’ ” says Mr. Cacciola, a senior vice president for an entertainment company in New York. He arranged for her to take programming courses at the company’s expense, but she still left for a higher-paying job because he couldn’t offer her as big a raise as she wanted.
“If you try to do everything you can and it still doesn’t work, I’m kind of like, ‘Well, all right, so be it,’ ” he says.
Competing to advance comes naturally to many new hires. “This generation has been given permission by their parents and teachers and other authority figures to just go for it, go for the gold, ask for whatever you want,” says Julie Jansen, author of a career book, “I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This.”
Years spent in school, with its year-by-year advancement schedules and frequent feedback, leave them ill-prepared for a workforce in which promotion rates vary widely by employer and industry, says Jill Tipograph, the New York-based co-founder of Early Stage Careers, which helps prepare college grads for the workforce and mentors them on their first job. “Young employees just think, ‘Oh, I’ve been here a year, so that means I’m getting promoted, right?’ ” she says. “Promoted to what?”
Sue Shellenbarger, WSJ | Read more:
Image: James Steinberg
