Ferratum ran a survey to better understand how Millenials differ from Gen X which it comes to their career. The results are really interesting, as they map out the concepts and ideas that people from two different generations have when it comes to their careers and entrepreneurship.

 

When I was asked to share my thoughts on the results of this research, I was extremely excited as, being a Millenial myself who has launched her own business instead of choosing to undertake a career working for someone else, I felt that this research was extremely relevant to my own personal development and career success.

 

Gen X tends to relate to the generation are Baby Boomers – people aged 35-54 – while Millenials refers to people born between 18-34. There is a common stereotype that Millenials are work-shy, self-entitled and overly concerned with political correctness. However, what this research does is look deeper than that.

 

As a Millenial who works tirelessly to build, run and grow a successful business, I find the stereotype that Millenials are work-shy, somewhat offensive. Compared to our parents – Gen X – as a generation I feel that we are far more proactive when it comes to our career success. I know very few Gen X people who have chosen to leave their job and launch a start-up business or would ever consider doing so.

 

Personally, what I would say is that Gen X like having a ‘safety net’, they are happy with where they are because they have stability, and as a generation that is important to them. However, for Millenials like myself, happiness and contentment is more important, which is why many of us choose to take risks and launch businesses of our own.

 

The study found that Millenials are more ambitious than Gen X. The study found that Millenials are actually twice as likely to have a second job compared to Gen X, and they are also more ambitious, with 64% of Millenials focusing on getting to the ‘very top of their game’, whereas 40% of Gen X say that they are ‘quite content’ with where they are. This proves the point I mentioned above – Millenials would rather take risks to achieve greater successes, whereas Gen X would rather stay in a ‘safe’ and ‘stable’ role.

 

Out of the Millenials surveyed, 34% said that they felt they have a poor work/life balance. What the study suggested was that this could be the reason why 3 out of every 5 Millenials have such a strong sense of desire when it comes to launching their own business.

 

This is something that I personally, can agree with. I chose to launch my own business straight out of university as I had spent time working in an office environment as an intern, and what that time taught me was that that kind of working environment would not give me the work/life balance that I would need to have the quality of life that I would want.

 

The study also showed that Millenials are very focused when it comes to their education and development, especially their workplace development, with 69% of the Millenials asked, wishing that they have better access to training at work.

 

While I work remotely from home, what I can say here is that as a Millenial I always want to learn. In fact, this year I’ve undertaken a master’s in marketing to help improve my knowledge and experience and to help give my business an even better chance of success.

 

According to this new research, 71% of Millenials would consider a career change to allow them to access better opportunities to develop themselves. Compared to just half of people from Gen X, who would be willing to leave their current careers and retrain in another industry.

 

Interestingly, the study showed that when Millenials are faced with ‘barriers’ to their career development, they tend to take up a course in addition to working their main job, with 55% of Millenials interviews planning on starting a new course in the next year, with the majority of those courses being in business and management.

 

I currently study full-time and work full-time, so this isn’t at all surprising to me. I personally feel that this is common, because as a generation, Millenials’ key focus is success, and if that means working extra hard, then so be it.