The perfect job
Why venture capital is the perfect career for millennials
Why venture capital is the perfect career for millennials
Empowerment
Openness
Transparency
Creativity
Responsibility
These are the values which make millennials a unique and successful generation. These are the values that today’s technology world is based on and caters to. Empowerment is synonymous with platform; openness with APIs; transparency with beta versions, trials and reviews; creativity with infinite number of apps allowing you to do everything from your phone; responsibility as scores of young founders starting to take their destiny in their own hands.
Millennials today make up more than half the workforce. They are taking centre stage. Their expectations are vastly different from those of previous generations. They want to build and create. They want to share their experience with others to shape better collective products. They want to feel part of something by being part of the process, no matter how big or small. They understand that professional relationships are two-way streets at every junction. They are simply not content with just blindly being part of a bigger system by sitting behind a desk. They want to co-produce as part of teams and take ownership, about their cause and their mission. They expect accelerated responsibility and paths to leadership. They seek greater purpose in their work. And they want greater flexibility in how that work is done.
Technology has changed the pace of work. It has enabled a 24/7 work culture where you don’t need to be at your desk to get things done. Customers have become less patient and the barrier to making most things has been lowered to a dramatic extent.
This change means that new products come to the market at a dizzying speed. Many may call it information overload, barrage of choice or data overflow which take our attention away from the main thing. Some might take this for ADHD or a lack of general interest, they get annoyed when we are constantly connected and are absorbing real (or fictional) information through our mobile devices but we, millennials, make the most of it and know how to surf the digital waters. Without it, life would be unimaginable. Finally, for the first time in history, we have a real-time communication means to connect with almost 4b other people on the planet. Constant connection sparks something in our brains that no other generation of human beings has experienced. This makes us feel powerful, useful and inspired. This makes us want to do things more quickly and efficiently. This makes us impatient but also creative.
These factors all lead to finding a job where variety, creativity, information overload and richness of choice are all of high value and make for a deep market with plenty of opportunities.
In Venture Capital and technology, we keep talking about the “ecosystem”. It is this ecosystem which offers the richness, market depth and constantly emerging sources of growth that our generation looks for. It is this richness of choice which creates jobs and builds the future. The VCs make it their business to be constantly connected (through real, proprietary or social networks) with the community, be creative and engaged by being surrounded with creative founders and by finding strategies to build and grow these ventures and be responsible by identifying the best and the most ambitious from the rich soils of the ecosystem, those ventures that will impact billions due to the ubiquitous use of smartphones as the hub of our lives (let’s call it “smart connected humans”).
Therefore, VC is the perfect job for the super active, constantly connected, responsible, engaged and creative millennials who want to share the collective success and help shape the future.