Millennials are entitled. There, I said it. It pains me as a millennial who generally knows the value of hard work and determination. It's not the Millennials that you're probably thinking of. No, the majority of us are hard working Americans. Like most problems with entitled behavior, this one boils down to the wealthiest of us.
It's no secret that I was raised without all of the mansions, spring break trips, and fancy cars that some of my fellow students have been afforded. It's also no secret that my resume, while I think it's pretty impressive, doesn't boast "vice president" or "senior manager" of any company and for good reason; I'm only 21.
But in this culture of "personal branding," it's not hard to feel like you should be VP or even CEO of a company by the time you're 21. That's just not realistic.
What happened that made millennials like this? We were pushed to succeed, but somehow the expectations of what success is got warped. We feel so much pressure to have the resume of a forty-year-old in our early twenties and that's just not realistic.
It's also something that only wealthy kids will ever be able to do. When you have to work three minimum wage jobs, it's really hard to build a company. When your parents own multiple companies and give you the money to start one, or simply install you as head of one of their companies, it's a lot easier to be successful or so you'd think.
In all reality, these parents are setting their children up for failure. You see, millennials are lazy, but not the working class ones. Wealthy kids who have been handed their education, their jobs and their livelihoods by wealthy parents will never know what it feels like to build themselves from the ground up. My guess is that employers will begin to notice.
When you have "vice president" or "executive" on your resume there is a certain expectation that accompanies it. The expectation is that you'll have many years of experience (probably at least 10). If you've been VP of your parent's company for a year or so, you don't have the experience you need, and you probably haven't come across many people from different walks of life.
I've noticed that the wealthy kids clique together, and the poor and middle class kids are often cast out to make their own networks. We just can't relate to that high style life, but we work for everything we have and we're grateful. We aren't just doing what our parents want us to do and the rest of you are making us look bad.
Instead of "branding" yourself maybe you should exercise compassion, learn to read and write, and above all, go get some experience. Getting a regular working class job in college will give you experience that you never thought you needed. So many college graduates today don't know how to hold down a job, but it surely isn't the graduates who have been working their way on minimum wage jobs.
So before you judge poor, middle and working-class millennials, why don't you take a look at who's really entitled?
