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If the collective human resources nation could cook up the perfect 20-something employee, they might just come up with Christopher Clark. According to many experts in generational studies, Clark, 25, has many of the strengths typical of your average, well-adjusted millennial – those born roughly from 1980 to 1995. Clark is extremely tech-savvy. In fact, testing new software is his job. He relocated to be closer to his family, showing a wonderful relationship with his parents, which leads to a respect for elders.

On the other side, he lacks many of the weaknesses often associated with millennials. They are the product of an information-inundated environment, and can have short attention spans caused by the distraction of information pop-ups. However, Clark, a 2008 University of California Los Angeles graduate with a dual bachelors of science degree in computer science and engineering and applied math, is used to setting long-term goals and working on one project for months at a time. 

He also doesn’t consider himself a job-hopper – a trait many millennials have no problem with but is frowned upon by older generations. In fact, Clark turned down an initial job offer to leave Microsoft for Google. It would have put him closer to his family, but his team was in the middle of wrapping up a project. Instead of putting Microsoft in a bind, he stayed on for the more than two years, eventually accepting a second Google offer but feeling like he could now leave on good terms.

But, according to Chuck Underwood, founding principal of the Generational Imperative – a consulting firm on generational workforce – marketing and political strategies, Clark, like so many others classified in this up-and-coming generation, does carry the one flaw most lamented by managers. It just so happens to be a trait that is the polar opposite of the just preceding Generation X, also known as the latchkey kids. “The Gen-Xers entered adulthood skeptical, cynical, distrustful and self-focused – a very different set of values from the millennials,” Underwood explains. “But it made the Gen-Xer self-reliant, independent and emotionally tough. So if you talk to a Gen-Xer who is managing a millennial you frequently hear that self-reliant, army-of-one Gen-Xer … using the same complaint concerning millennials. That they are so needy.”

Underwood says that “needy” may be too strong a word. Instead he explains that millennials never tire of receiving feedback – in fact they crave it. “Millennials want guidance because they came of age so heavily supervised,” Underwood says. “They have always had a safe cocoon of adults wrapped around them, and they are constantly asking bosses, ‘How am I doing, how can I do it right and how can I do it better?’” According to a 2010 study conducted by Career Edge, 73 percent of millennials noted ongoing and informal feedback from their manager as a leading quality of great workplaces.

Clark admits he, like fellow millennials, loves feedback no matter on which side of neutral it may fall. In his current role at Google, it seems the company has turned what many see as a time-consuming quality into a positive. “I definitely like a lot of feedback,” Clark says. “And I like a lot of measurable feedback. Something I can look to day-in and day-out and in working toward my goal to make sure that my numbers are aligned with that. One thing I like about Google is that a lot of the things you work on are measurable things, so you can see how you’re doing. By the time you have a review or receive feedback from your boss, you know what to expect because you’ve been following along the entire time.”

Clark sets his own goals and discusses and refines them with his managers. He tracks those goals without daily consultation but knows his managers are available if he hits a roadblock. It’s a win-win, he says. Clark can track along pre-set goals to know how he is performing, and time-poor managers can tend to other tasks and step in when their guidance is absolutely needed. Clark says it feels like his manager is working for him. 

It’s an example of what Underwood says companies need to do if they want to attract the best and brightest of the millennial generation – be creative and learn how to adjust. “Millennials do want lots of guidance and structure, but at the same time they want the creative freedom to do new things, which can be a challenging balance to reach for mangers, but it’s important that they reach it.”

Why? Because as baby boomers begin to exit the workforce and the career-minded millennials wait at the doors, companies will want to capture the cream of the crop. According to the Pew Research Center, 37 percent of millennials were unemployed or out of the workforce in 2010, the highest share in this age group in more than three decades. Underwood explains the Great Recession has leveled the playing field for the “everybody gets a trophy” generation, but as unemployment declines, the degree-holding millennial will want to settle into a career but not settle for just anything.

Underwood says those who do settle for less than their dream job often will use it as a resume bullet point to project them into their next position. So if companies don’t want to be shunned or used as a revolving door by what Underwood describes as a compassionate and idealistic career-minded generation, they would be wise to look alive and implement some millennial-friendly practices into the company handbook.

Straight to the Source.

“I don’t know if it’s common for a lot of fields, but a lot of recruiting for science and engineering starts in the fall before you graduate,” Clark says.

“I began doing a lot of interning in the fall and ended up getting a job in December or January before I graduated.” Clark graduated in June 2008 and moved to Washington for his Microsoft job as a software development engineer that August. He says Microsoft and Google were in his top three picks.

According to AfterCollege Inc., an online career network that connects students and recent graduates with relevant jobs and internships, these two companies are among the top-25 requested companies by AfterCollege members. The network launched its Employer Popularity Index (EPI) in January, where it received 60,000 responses from 2,300 different university and college students who have requested to receive updates from companies. Google clocks in as the No. 1 request, and Microsoft follows at a close third. Roberto Angulo, founder and CEO of AfterCollege has a pretty good idea why. “We’re not 100 percent sure, but we are about 99 percent sure,” he says. “One of them is that these companies are actually putting a lot of effort to go onto campuses early. These companies have very organized recruiting teams going onto campuses each year and have built a very strong brand.”

For in-person campus recruiting, Underwood advises companies to compile a team that has a mix of high-level senior managers and employees in their same age group because while millennials like to learn from the most powerful and most knowledgeable, they also like group settings where they work alongside peers.

However, not every company has the budget for in-person nationwide campus recruiting. Those companies can benefit especially from a resource such as AfterCollege where they can network with individual institutions and market directly to a particular major at that school. Companies can also track at which schools they are the most popular and can even contact individual students and graduates who have requested to follow them.

“[The EPI] is not a predefined list,” Angulo explains. “Many are companies that are coming from the heads of individuals who say I want to work here, or I want to work there. That has built up the bulk of the popularity index. So for companies, it’s become a real time gauge of their employer brand on an individual campus.”

First Day on the Job

After recruitment comes retention and as the adage goes, first impressions are lasting impressions and millennials tend to be a generation of big dreamers. Instead of the run-of-the-mill office tour, Underwood asks his clients one question. “I tell them to ask themselves the question – How can we absolutely mesmerize them on the first day of the job, and then they have to answer that question,” he says. “Show them where the magic is. If you are an architectural firm, don’t spend the first day in the office – show them the skyscraper you designed. If you are a hospital, don’t bury them with initial patient work – take them to the patient rooms where the care is taking place.”

For Clark’s first day at Google, he met with other new hires at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., where he met several colleagues, his manager and went through company policies and orientation, but when it came to the tour Google shook things up a bit. “They split us into groups and had us do somewhat of a scavenger hunt across the entire Google site,” he says. 

“The two main purposes were one: to meet new people and interact with new people, and two: to get to know the main campus because even though I work in Santa Monica, my manager is in [Mountain View] so I will have to travel back and forth pretty frequently.”

All Aboard

After a memorable first day, it’s important that the feedback cravers don’t get lost in a shuffle. When Clark began at Google, he was introduced to his team that he would work with each day. However, many companies do not have group work settings. Underwood recommends an onboarding program, a practice that he says is in direct response to the unique needs of the millennial generation. 

“Onboarding is a new and key step that is especially important for the millennial generation and should even be included during the interim period between the time they accept the offer to the time they begin,” he says. “As soon as a millennial accepts an offer, assign a buddy to her or him – someone who is close to their age that has been there for awhile and whose assignment is simply to say in regular contact with that millennial … until they have been there a few months to the point where they feel independent.”

Those steps are important to getting and keeping the initial attention of a millennial, but beyond that, Underwood says that this generation tends to be very compassionate and wants to work for a company that has integrity, sustainability and charity in its core values. They also like new challenges and constantly seek new ways to learn and grow. Companies should review their missions, goals and values to genuinely attract the best and brightest, while improving the company’s practices, as well.

He also says that millennials, like the baby boomers, look for work that is personally fulfilling and contributes to the greater good. Clark echoes that sentiment. “What I’m working on has to be one: interesting; two: I need to see the benefit and use for it not just for the company but for society; and three: I want to feel like I have made a direct impact with something that I have worked on for years and years,” Clark says.