The Working World

Gen Next Will Rock the New Normal?

Millennials were born with the internet. They’ve probably never used card catalogs, Walkmans or typewriters. And unlike older workers, they don’t believe in job security.

In a nice counterpoint to a recent Atlantic Monthly story that argued GenY will be permanently handicapped by the recession, Nancy Cook, writing for Newsweek, wonders whether younger people are actually very nicely suited to the New Normal of jobs.

In the New Normal, we see workers having to be more self-reliant, responsible for their own brands, and able to handle more instability. There will be ever more “slash careers.” And Generation Next may be totally cool with that kind of world.

Cook describes a young man named Andrew Benton, who since leaving school has dropped out of a Princeton PhD program, started a software company, and is now a freelance tech worker:

The 26-year-old does not expect to hold a traditional 9-to-5 job unless he starts his own business again, and he is not overly concerned about the recession’s long-term effect on his career.

After all, the New Normal isn’t all about uncertainty. There may be more opportunities to be creative and entrepreneurial. If you want to try a number of different careers rather than fold yourself into middle management, the marketplace won’t hold it against you.

Then again, what happens when 20-somethings become middle-aged? Maybe they will be wishing for the Old Normal.

Tags: careers, Millennials, The Working World