4 Ways You can move fast in your Career as a Millennial

A lot of people believe that the millennials are a lucky and somewhat spoiled generation. A generation that tends to favour smart work over hard work and is more concerned about momentary happiness and satisfaction than future benefits in their careers.



Many believe that these group of 20- and 30-somethings born from the late ‘70s to the late ‘90s have been so helicopter-parented, trophy-saturated and abundantly friended to the point where they feel entitled. Not only in their personal lives but also in their careers.

But, if you belong to the millennial generation, this is how you can shatter such stereotypes and propel yourself faster in your career.

1. Show that you can be a boss

Being ambitious is not the only recipe to moving up the career ladder and you probably won’t get to where you intend to be by just education and good performance reviews. It is not enough that you want to be a boss, but you must strive to lead by example, communicate well, show passion, discipline, organization, creativity, and selflessness.

Be willing to listen to counsel especially those from Generation X who probably have more experience than you do. Also, do your best to function effectively with little or no supervision. Employers look at the big picture when they decide to promote an employee to a management position especially when it’s a young employee. Focus on the traits and accomplishments that you will need to get the level you desire and then try to acquire these traits.

2. Volunteer for leadership positions

One of the best and fastest ways to rise in an organization as a millennial is to volunteer to work on new tasks or projects. If you are young and fresh out of the university, it’s normal that your bosses may doubt and unfairly question your leadership abilities. That’s why as a greenhorn, volunteering for leadership roles is good for your career because it allows you to learn while enabling you showcase your abilities, giving your bosses the opportunity to see you in action. Keep doing this and it’s just a matter of time before they see in you, knowledge and traits that some senior employees don’t have, putting you in line for promotions sooner than you expect.

3. Improve at face-to-face relationships

Millennials are known as a twittering generation. They are the most social generation in history and are pros at anything that has a keypad and internet connection. Despite this, many still have poor people skills, low emotional intelligence and are unable to handle interpersonal challenges due to the fact that they are highly isolated because much of their relational contact is through technology.

While being tech-savvy is important in today’s digital world and is often a requirement for getting good jobs in the corporate ecosystem, but, being a boss requires you to have well-developed face-to-face interaction skills especially with older colleagues who don’t fancy technology but prefer the more traditional method of communication which is face-to-face interaction.

4. Be assertive about what you want

Because you are young, employers might think you are not ready to step into some leadership roles even when they know you have the skills to excel in such roles. They might assume that you are probably not thinking it, therefore they might hold off promotion to such roles.

That is why you have to express your interest in leadership, ask what needs to be done to get to the position you are targeting. Don’t sit on the sidelines and expect good luck to find you. Hard work alone doesn’t always work, but, you know this already.

If you want to play in the big leagues, be ready to grow some liver. Be smart, be confident, and be assertive.