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The Millenials
- future world’s leaders –
What the Millenial leaders have
in common and where they are
heading on their career paths.
By HO TRAN THANH THANH
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The Millenials: Who are they?
There is no universally classified information as since when the Millenials were born, but
the extensively studied cases in this paper belong to 4 Millenials under 25 years
old and they come from developing countries in the Asia Pacific region. They are not just
any Millenials – they are great leaders of their batch. These students from
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (in Oita, Japan) are constantly exposed to social
media and multicultural environment during their university life.
The Millenials are widely referred to as Generation Y. They now make up more than
25% of the world population 1, and have increasingly become the main force in the
workplace 2. They like to enjoy simple things in life (like spending time with
family and friends, going on holiday, having fun) despite being highly ambitious
and entrepreneurial, and put an emphasis on being independent thinkers 7
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Millenials, no matter if they are from America, Asia, Europe, Africa or the Middle East, they are referred to as
Facebookers and Youtubers because they are highly connected through social networks and
technology savvy 3. Another name is the Collaborators, since they grow up in the time of social media and
globalization and are exposed to images of diversity and cultural differences on a regular basis, which makes them
the best team players comparing to all their preceding generations 4.
The underlying reasons that are believed to shape optimism and the “live for
the moment” attitude of the Millenials is that they were born in economic
prosperity and pervading availability of the internet 5. However, they have
also witnessed the most dramatic events in this globalized world such as “wars, mass
shootings, terrorist attacks, the financial crisis, and the lean years” 6. Despite this fact,
Millenials in Asia are reported to be happy despite being stressful or dealing with
economic crisis 7.
This study explores what features have molded these students into great leaders of their
Millenial batch.
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A close-up shot of the Millenial leaders
First, let’s get yourself familiar with a typical week of the Millenials. Look through four
diaries below and see if you can tell which one belongs to:
1 – The over-achiever
2 – The tranquil leader
3 – The sociologist
4 – The life savorer
If you can’t make the guesses just by reading the diaries, refer to the comments on page 9
and see if you can take the hints! For the final answers, refer to Appendix 1 on page 21.
But we recommend you go with your first intuition – it’s scientifically proven to be the
most effective, and you have more fun doing so!
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Yuvi is the leader of the event Nepali week in the university – a
tremendous task, requiring strategic planning, perseverance and
good networking. In contrast to other multicultural weeks’
leaders, who are usually extroverts and diplomatic, Yuvi is a quiet
guy who treasures intimate relationships. This year, he
organized the event successfully mainly because he had a strong
team of core members who sticked with him through thick and
thin. He puts enormous efforts in building up trust. Another key
to his leadership is to work very hard, but never forgets
to spend time doing meaningful things to him as
planned.
Dea has been a reality-show MC and leader of group projects
for countless times. Her slogan is “I’m busy and I love it!”
because she wants to take the most out of life. She is the
teaching assistant of several classes, she sings on the stage and
dances near the fountain on campus (for several events), she
joins various multicultural weeks simultaneously, she writes her
thesis (preparing for graduate school) while doing job hunting at
the same time. She could be messy, but she always appears
elegant. Her way of inspiring people is to cheer them up and
make them see life in an optimistic way like she does. Personally
she believes things will always settle down themselves if she
pursues what she enjoys.
Faii is the leading actress in the drama of Thai week’s grand
show in the university. Faii has also been leaders of active
groups when she pursues extracurricular activities. She inspires
other people by sharing stories with them, not leaving them eat
alone, spending time creating connections. Among the four
cases, Faii seems to be the most spontaneous. Nevertheless,
she always tries to finishes what she has set out to do,
whether it’s just going to the gym or doing homework. In
addition to reflection, Faii also spends time on relishing happy
moments in life. She is giving her best to life, and in return,
savoring every moment of it.
Nam is the leader of Common Viet – the well-established
circle of Vietnamese Community in the university. He constantly
uses the word FRUITFUL when reflecting his life and work: he
wants to do fruitful jobs, learn fruitful lessons from life, and
“make the juice out of life” by the end of everyday. He tends to
see the big pictures in everything he does: when he observes
and talks to other people, when he reads a book, when he
works, etc. He sees how things are related and function as a
whole, not separately. Although this far-sighted vision helps
him make good plans, sometimes it spares him from eyeing
details.
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Background on Career Theories
One’s career path is like a trip one makes to reach the destination that (he thinks) will
bring about satisfaction. Ever since the word CAREER was invented, this path could be
metaphorically thought of as an aloft mountain, and career success happens when one
reaches the peak. This is named The Traditional or The Organizational
Career Path. Those who embark on this path follow a linear direction: they grow and
develop only through the act of climbing higher and
higher, aiming at higher levels of management and
higher salary 8, and they go through “a
predictable set of career stages” 9. If
they ever fall, or slip, these failures have lasting
effects on their road 10: they hinder them from
reaching the peak, because climbing straight is the
only way they can reach the peak.
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To follow a Boundaryless
Career path is like to jump from
mountains to mountains, which is risky,
but fun. In addition, by doing this, people
have more opportunities to discover
which mountain they like best. Thus they
actively seek opportunities
to grow and develop on the road they
design for themselves 11. Their success
does not only come from reaching the
peak (objective success), but there are
subjective measures of success such as
“day-to-day happiness, the
feelings of control and autonomy, the need to do good, the
value of relationships, work-life balance, etc” 12.
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When it comes to Protean Career path, passengers on this road are required to
have a clear understanding of their values and a sense of self-direction 13. Protean career’s
followers may climb or change any mountain when they feel that the act is compatible
with their personal values. Their goal is not just to reach the peak but to feel
fulfilled during the whole road; they focus on psychological career success
rather than the conventional set of extrinsic rewards 14. This is different from
Boundaryless career’s followers in that the latter always have a preference to move and
change, while the former only seeks roads that fit their values, movement or change is not
a must. These people
grow from
“exploration,
learning and
mastery” because
they develop their self-
knowledge 15.
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Assessment of the Millenials’ Career Orientation
The Career Orientation Index developed by Douglas T. Hall, Jon Briscoe, Mary Dean Lee,
and Ellen Ernst Kossek is used to assess the level of Protean and Organizational
orientation of the four Millenials. The results are as follows:
Dea < The Over-Achiever >
Career Orientation:
Moderately Organizational
Hierarchy of Values:
1. Values Expression
2. Whole-life Balance Focus
3. Self-direction
"I don't mind working overtime but I
want autonomy to do what I want with
my job" - Dea
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Nam < The Sociologist >
Career Orientation:
Highly Protean
Hierarchy of Values:
1. Values Expression
2. Community Involvement
3. Whole-life Balance Focus
"When I earned money from my part-
time job I didn't feel happy. But
working on building up the vision of
Common Viet makes me feel fulfilled.
Career success means I gain
spiritual pleasure from my job” –
Nam.
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Faii < The Life Savorer >
Career Orientation:
Moderately Protean
Hierarchy of Values:
1. Whole-life Balance Focus
2. Community Involvement
3. Values Expression
“I want to explore about myself. Maybe
there’s something I can do but I
don’t know I have the potential. I
don’t wanna stop at one place. I don’t
believe in life-long employment. I think
changes are better, to keep you active” –
Faii.
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Yuvi
< The Tranquil Leader >
Career Orientation:
Moderately Protean
Hierarchy of Values:
1. Whole-life Balance Focus
2. Family Focus
3. Community Involvement
“Suppose I teach you something and
you voluntarily teach it to someone
else, and they keep paying it
forward. THAT, is my career
success” – Yuvi.
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Emerging themes - what the Millenial leaders have in common
1. Self-direction in work and studies
All four students demonstrate self-direction in work and studies.
They take up tasks that provide skills they want to gain for
their future career goals (interpersonal skills). Yuvi works very
hard to earn money for graduate school, and Nam eats less so that
he could put more personal resources into building his project
Common Viet. Dea and Faii take part in multicultural weeks and
try to take various responsibilities so that they learn from various
experiences (dance, fashion show, drama, project-runner). They
take the initiative to create these opportunities (they did not
passively wait for anyone to ask them to take action). Especially Dea
who does not have a concrete career goals as the others, she takes
the initiative to call up companies to ask if they want her resume.
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2. Spend time on personal growth
All four students demonstrate the
significance of spending quality
time socializing. They all claim
they learn a great deal from
international friends, domestic friends,
professors, and talk-shows. Although
extremely busy, both girls show strong
efforts to spend time keeping fit like
jogging and going to the gym. The
guys spend more time on books; they
say they are inspired by reading good
books. Nam and Faii also emphasizes
on self-reflection as an activity to
push up personal growth.
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3. Define success differently
No participants respond that they think of money when they define career success. This is
significantly striking, since money and promotion were defined to be the most important
factors of career success of Baby Boomers and Generation X. Yuvi says for every one
person he helps that goes around and helps someone else, that is counted into his career
success. For Nam, the only participant that demonstrates Highly Protean Career
orientation, career success is when he gains “spiritual pleasure” from his job, and he
claims that when he puts his personal recourses into tasks that he enjoys doing, he feels
“fruitful.” Angela says she is successful when she gets to be good at doing the job she
loves; however, she does point out that she wants more money when she defines career
advancement. Considering that Angela demonstrates Moderately Organizational Career
orientation and her score is the lowest among four participants, it makes sense that other
participants do not regard money as a criterion for success.
No participants respond that they think of money when they define career success.
This is significantly striking, since money and promotion were defined to be the
most important factors of career success of Baby Boomers and Generation X.
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What is this all about: The Big Picture
The Millenial leaders today do not define career success in the same way as their
antecedents have perceived: money and promotion are not their ultimate goals. They are
clear of their own values and what they want to achieve in life, and are self-directed to
follow their dreams. They take the initiatives to create their own opportunities for
personal growth and pursue their own interests. Networking and building up
relationships is the key, and the Millenials today interact extensively with their
communities.
The Millenial leaders focus on meaningful things in life like spending time with friends,
exploring the world and exploring themselves, helping the world “pay it forward” and
heading to gain the “juice out of life.” Overall, they are highly conscious that they do not
just want a job for financial stability, they want a job that helps them live fulfilled lives.
This confirms the theories of Boundaryless Career and Protean Career where career
followers are free to design their own career paths in order to have them match their
intrinsic values.
Which is a good sign. The world will be full of busy but happy people, who believe
in what they are heading for.
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APPENDIX 1
Dairy 1: Yuvi – The Tranquil Leader
Dairy 2: Nam – The Sociologist
Dairy 3: Faii – The Life Savorer
Dairy 4: Dea – The Over-Achiever
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14 Heslin, 2005
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