This podcast was recorded on July 26, 2016.
Alison Southwick: The next commonly held belief about millennials is that they are more purpose-driven and want to make a difference in the world. See, this isn't a bad one. This is a good one. They want to go change the world, and make it a better place, and they want their work to matter.
Robert Brokamp: That's very admirable.
Southwick: It is admirable. It's not a bad thing.
Brokamp: Is it true?
Southwick: Well, it's not necessarily wrong, but the fact is that everybody is purpose-driven and wants to make a difference in the world. It's not uniquely millennial. IBM's Institute for Business Value released a report. They found, after surveying a ton of employees across 12 countries and six industries, that the same percentage of millennials, 25%, want to make a positive impact on their organization as Gen Xers and baby boomers.
Brokamp: My favorite millennial, by the way, is my 24-year-old daughter, and I have certainly seen her have this ... I don't know if you'd call it growth ... of I'm going to go out and save the world. Then you go out and get a job, and then you just have to become more practically minded. I would think this is also an age-related thing to a certain degree. Once you get into the workforce and have a family, you just have to become more practical.
Southwick: Right. And how many of us -- be honest -- when we were in our 20s, thought for five seconds that we were going to go join the Peace Corps, and go to another country, and make a difference in the world?
Brokamp: I joined the Teachers' Service Corps.
Southwick: Really?
Brokamp: Yes, absolutely. And I have plans to one day do it again. But not at this point in my life.
Southwick: And you're not a millennial.
Brokamp: And I am not a millennial that I know of.
