A Gift for Grads...Start-Ups?

Thomas Friedman's June 9th opinion piece says that the best thing we can do to arrest the high unemployment rate among new college grads is dramatically improve tax and employment policies for start-ups. Vital, new companies will spring forth and employ our newest workforce entrants.

A Gift for Grads: Start-Ups

I say "YAHOO!" for improving the atmosphere for start-ups, but I'm not sure our new grads are up to the task of working for them.

You can't go two days without reading a blog, tweet, post or article about the difficulty employers are having finding qualified Gen Y employees. During interviews, job candidate questions focus on work-life balance and career advancement. To wit,

1. "Can I work 4 days a week?"
2. "Would you mind if I took off a couple of months to travel?"
3. "When can I expect my first raise?"
4. "When will you make me a manager?"

Hardly, the start-up mentality! And here are some snarky start-up rejoinders to the above questions...

1. "I'm working 7 days a week. For your position, 6 should be enough."
2. "Sure. After we go public. That should be in about 5 years."
3. "I'm not taking any salary myself right now."
4. "Six industry veterans, with money invested in the company, are ahead of you."

(Feel free to add your own snarky answers in the Comments section.)

Based on what I'm hearing, the long hours plus weekends, financial insecurity and hard work without promotion will not be seen as a "gift" by this generation of grads. They crave all the benefits that a well-established, financially sound, on-going concern offers. They want to reap the harvest that start-up founders sowed.

And that's too bad because starting up a business (or any enterprise for that matter) is one of the most rewarding experiences you can ever have. Hardships shared create strong bonds of friendship. Obstacles overcome makes success sweet. And you'll learn more in a year at a startup than 10 years in a well-established company.

We definitely need more startups to grow our economy and take us in new directions. And, sadly, we may need more H1-B visas to accomplish all the work they require.

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