This chart perfectly illustrates how clueless managers are about millennial employees
Millennials may have just surpassed Gen Xers to become the largest segment of the American workforce - more than one in three workers are between ages 18 and 34, according to Pew - but that doesn't mean hiring managers understand what they want from their jobs.
On Wednesday at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, venture capitalist and former Wall Street analyst Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers presented her annual report on the state of the web.
It highlighted data on the relationship between millennials and hiring managers that suggests, despite the near-endless quest to understand What Millennials Really Want, hiring managers are still clueless.
Mary MeekerAccording to stats from a 2011 survey, almost half of hiring managers believe "high pay" is most important to millennials, compared to only 27% of actual millennials.
Meanwhile, managers significantly underestimate how much millennials prioritize "meaningful work" and the importance they place on feeling a "sense of accomplishment."
While these stats are few years old now, they're consistent with everything else we know about the "Full House" generation: They want jobs with a sense of purpose. They want steady feedback. They care about having a sense of accomplishment. And yes, they also want to be paid (and not just in free snacks).
And given that millennials are both the present and future of the workforce, it's essential for managers to wise up.
Not that everyone's confused, of course. According to a study from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, it seems like Google's got it mostly figured out.