By Sarah Buckner, Staff Writer
After talking to many older people and reading many articles on our generation, it seems that the public views us negatively, and we are not cut for this job market.
Before I start defending my generation and explain ourselves let us clarify what our generation is. Our generation is called the Millennials, or Generation Y, and it ranges from people who were born from 1981 to 2000. Some argue that Millenials have been raised in a time where exceptional was lost because everyone was given some sort of award for anything, and since we’ve all been told we’re “special,” we aren’t ready for the real world. People who argue this also feel that Millenials are self-righteous and refuse to settle for doing blue collar work, such as working in retail or any kind of food or restaurant business.
My rebuttal to all of this complaining about this generation is “too bad”! The people who are making these accusations about our generation seem to forget that they are the ones that raised us. Yes, I do believe that they have a valid point that not all of us have suffered failure throughout our childhoods, but you were the ones who coddled us and wanted us to succeed. Another argument that people make against our generation is that despite the high unemployment rate, there are jobs in the blue collar sector since the government is focused in reviving that sector. So why don’t we take those jobs? Compared to the other generations we are the most educated. We don’t want to take the blue collar jobs, because most of the Millenials that are entering the job market have a bachelor’s degree on their resume. Why would we want to enter that field unless our degree is in architecture or engineering? It’s hard work and little pay let alone takes a toll on your body.
When we refuse this kind of work we are being righteous and arrogant thinking we deserve better. One of the biggest reasons why we have this thinking is because you sent us to college. Let’s look at the past two generations: the Baby Boomers and Generation X. The Baby Boomers and Generation X didn’t even have to go to college to acquire a good job: either they could have worked for a Fortune 500 company and move up the ranks,or go to school and receive a high paying job. Around the time our generation was starting, the global market started to become competitive and our economy was thriving. So as we grew up our parents told us to go to college because that’s how we would get hired by obtaining higher degrees.
Unfortunately by the time we all went to college the economy we into a downward spiral and the job market went down with the economy.I will be the first admit to admit that there are many flaws within our generation, such as poor writing skills, declining social skills, a lack of privacy and and a pronounced problem with keeping things to ourselves. But I do believe we don’t get enough credit: we’re weathering this storm with our bachelors degree and our student loan debt and we will come out alright. When our generation is in running the workforce, I truly believe the country will be in a better place because of us. Don’t give up hope and stay strong fellow Millennias.
