Purpose is their currency. “To be paid to do something I enjoy so much that I’d keep doing it even if I had a billion in the bank.”
They find passion in changing the world. “I want to be able to give back to my community and incite change, all the while doing work that I’m passionate about.”
They want to fly high. “I want to contribute to society and my company, and be justly compensated for it.”
Just as important is the feeling of freedom. Hire a millennial and chain them to a desk? They will bolt. They don’t want a conventional career. They want work that changes them and impacts the world. They want flexible schedules, creative freedom, and the right to decide what their future holds, not let their path be decided for them.
They’re not fans of authority. “The freedom to trust my own creativity and not have ideas quashed by sr. authority…I guess that’s why I’m a freelance writer.”
There is no point clocking 9-5?s without influence
They want to career hop. “I’m not even sure I want a career. The thought of staying in one field or industry sounds incredibly dull. But can I swing it?”
They want to play. “Freedom to create, learn + explore. Flexibility.To be able to think + play like a child, w/ trust that I won’t behave like one.”
They want to be awesome. “I want to do awesome things with awesome people in awesome places and on my own terms.”
They want to work first-rate web site to study from home, at least some of the time. “I want to sit in my undies on the couch, drinking a smoothie, tapping out brilliant words on my Mac AND getting paid for it.”
IIMs vs. Ivy League MBA programs
Following up on my earlier posts about my MBA experience… I have often been asked about what the distinction is between the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and Ivy League business schools here in the U.S.
Before you get into the differences, it is important to understand that IIMs and Ivy Leagues are great schools in their own respect. I have definitely gained from both these schools, and perhaps would have not been where I am today if I hadn’t been to either of these schools. That being said, these schools serve different set of objectives which results in significant differences, some of which are outlined below (again my IIM experience is from more than 5 years ago so might not reflect current circumstances):
1. Student academic profile: IIM is designed to educate students coming with minimal work experiences, often right out of their undergrad schools. An Ivy League school (will use Columbia just for contextual relevance) typically attracts students who have on average 5 years of experience after undergrad.
2. Student professional profile: IIM tends to be filled with engineers and commerce grads (not by design but by expected standards) while Columbia has huge diversity in terms of student professional backgrounds, from the standard bankers, consultants to writers, musicians, teachers, social workers… in great numbers.
3. Curriculum: By virtue of the above two points, IIMs tend to focus on providing a good breadth of management skills to students thereby focusing on basic fundamentals across several areas of business operations. This means there is minimal coursework focused on specific industries. At Columbia, knowing that students come with significant background in specific industries and might want to build advanced skills to go back to the same industry, the curriculum is super-diverse in terms of offering a good depth and breadth across all areas of business. What would be discussed as a session in an IIM elective (e.g., options pricing) would be a full-term elective at Columbia.