What did you want to be when you grew up? Was it traditional like a doctor, lawyer, firefighter, or police officer? Maybe, but the dreams of today have changed. Young people today crave jobs that didn’t even exist a few years ago.
A YouGov.com poll conducted in Dec. 2021 asked 3,670 teenagers (ages 13-17) to choose a “dream job.” The top ten most popular on the list were:
- Vlogger (Video Blogger/YouTuber/Professional streamer (9%),
- Doctor/Nurse (8%),
- Professional Athlete (7%)
- Musician (7%),
- Actor/Actress (7%),
- Artist (7%),
- Entrepreneur (4%),
- Lawyer (4%),
- Esports star/Professional gamer (3%) and
- Veterinarian (3%).
What is this saying? These aspirational jobs all hold a sort of specialness – high esteem, individualistic and creative elements. If this is a growing trend, here are ways you can consider adding these features to attract younger workers:
- Make jobs more flexible, WFH (work from home) options.
- Add creative elements to your business (updated branding, social media)
- Increase “specialness” by directly recruiting at job fairs or providing job shadows/internships
- Develop programs/processes that make honor employees unique talents
- Improve safety conditions and offer competitive pay and high-value benefits
- Provide high quality (fast) computers
- Seek opinions from younger workers.
