If your sweet, loving parents keep giving you job searching advice that just doesn’t land with you, there’s a reason why. No matter how convicted they are, today’s job market is absolutely not the same. The job search itself is a completely different process. And you are not alone in thinking their advice isn’t relevant to today’s market. With awareness and understanding, you can implement a more potent job search strategy, and stop reaching for something that your parents were able to land.
3 main differences from your parents' job search to today:
#1. Employers don't offer the same benefits they used to.
Your parents and your parents’ parents used to land a job at the right company, save for retirement, and call it a day. However, today employers don’t offer great benefits. In fact, a lot of companies can stunt your professional and financial growth by capping salaries and offering poor promotional opportunities. That doesn’t mean there aren’t unicorn jobs out there that will take care of you until retirement, but it means they are few and far between. So if you’re looking for this unicorn, you need to give yourself ample time to search for it and do thorough research around their practices.
#2. The culture is just as important as the job itself.
It used to be fine to just put your head down and get to work. But today, we are stepping more and more outside of the hustle mentality and value well being over productivity. Yes, it’s happening slowly, but it is happening. Additionally, a company culture determines how we are spending our time at work. How it actually feels to us. So many of us have woken up and realized we are no longer willing to tolerate toxic workplaces and dictator supervisors. Which is a revolution, but also not something your parents were dealing with on that same level. It was about working up the ladder and doing what you needed to do. We are changing that. Do what you need to do, but do it in a way that feels better.
#3. Shifting jobs can often make you more money.
We’ve heard this all before. The new kid gets hired in with a better salary then you are currently making. Then, when you try to fight for a raise, it’s mysteriously “not in the budget” or there is some perceived difference in qualifications. And it’s not that your parents didn’t have to fight for more money, they likely did and have. But companies used to honor their retained employees more than any other, because they knew the cost of turnover. However, now high turnover has been normalized across industries, so new hires have better bargaining power than retained employees. All this to say, sometimes leaving your current job is the way to get more money and get back into your power.
In the end, these generational differences can be summed up with one word. Your parents’ word- STABILITY. Your word- BALANCE. Stability is still important. But we are no longer looking to sell our souls, put up and shut up, and just get it done. We want more. More money. More benefits. More well being. And it’s okay to want more and go get it.