Accenture's millennial job survey: Obsolete?

These findings are irritating in a way. In this economy no one should be worried about what technology a potential employer has. Just DEAL with it.

I suspect that, in the current climate, "hiring now" trumps "state-of-the-art" technology.

I am 24, and I think any college kid who thinks this way is absolutely naive. You don't need a gaming quality computer to use Microsoft Office...

I think that many people miss the point of the survey. Millennials do not want to use the latest technology because they are out to get their employer, but rather to improve their companies. These young professionals are best able to prescribe exactly which technologies a company should be leveraging because they have had the experience with the various services and platforms. To deny technology to this group is limiting their greatest asset of connectedness and flexibility, and most importantly is short sided.

Many articles describe how Gen Yers flaunt corporate IT departments and download their own renegade technology, and IT directors lament at how these services expose corporate secrets. In reality this type of argument has been heard during every revolution in technology. As Mr. David Scott correctly points out in his book The New Rules of Marketing And PR, in the 80s IT worried about personal computers leaking information, and in the 90s they fretted about email. These ‘problems’ manifest themselves every ten years, and the smartest, most profitable companies will embrace the new technology and for a change listen to their young professionals.

Brett, I agree that smart companies will learn from their tech-savvy employees, and that many of those will be young. The point of the blog post was, as Wally notes, that job-seekers in this economy are unlikely to turn down offers from companies with less than stellar tech. Now, if they have gumption, they'll take those jobs and help inform the companies from the inside. This will be helpful, not least because lots of the tools and services they use free.

Brett is on the right track as the real issue here is that for the first time ever consumer technology has actually eclipsed enterprise technology due to web2.0 and the advertising-based business model. Millenials are accustomed to using these powerful online tools to do their schoolwork and they're not going to change their habits just because of your corporate IT policy whether that means they have to use their home PC or bring their Mac to the office...

The Accenture article was never intended to say "no one will work for you if you have old technology" since jobseekers aren't going to be able to assess your IT systems until they work for you anyway. The point is using the latest technology can help you ATTRACT talent and more importantly will improve job satisfaction so you RETAIN it.

In the current job market people are going to take any job they can obviously, but if you attempt to block all the tools that they think make them most productive good luck keeping them in a couple years when there are more opportunities.

It is not an Employee's decision on what type of equipment is used to perform the task that has been given. Employee's should be thankful to be Employed!!!