The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace - Hardcover

"The Trophy Kids Grow Up by Ron Alsop will give you a sense of the average millennial--a worldly, technologically savvy, confident and driven individual--and tell you how to adapt to this rogue workforce. The author also highlight the stark differences between the millennials and the baby-boomers that shaped the current workplace. Millenials are changing the nature of the workplace: Alsop will tell you how to get ready." --ManageSmarter.com, October 10, 2008

"In his book The Trophy Kids Grow Up, Ron Alsop explores the helicopter parents phenomenon. He realizes that parents do--and always have--been their children's career advisers."--Careerbuilder.com, August 13, 2008

"Alsop, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, explores the emergence of the 80 million strong millennial generation into the workplace and the resulting ramifications in this insightful and in-depth look at Generation Y. Born between 1980 and 2001, "millennials" are a new breed of student, worker and global citizen, with distinctly different--often paradoxical--values and motivations. Millennials have a high sense of entitlement but are also philanthropic and community-minded; they set a high premium on career success but are incorrigible job-hoppers and rarely exhibit loyalty to any particular place of employment; their commitment is to self-determination and to garnering as many skills as possible before moving on in pursuit of their "dream job." Based on data collected from interviews with student recruiters, particularly in management consulting, and at accounting and investment banking firms, Alsop explains how companies can take the lead in understanding and reaching out to Generation Y and what organizations can expect in their new hires. This well-crafted book will help companies adapt to meet the desires and demands of the millennial generation and retain the best talent." (Oct.)--Publishers Weekly, August 11, 2008

THE TROPHY KIDS GROW UP

THE FIRST WAVE OF THE MILLENNIAL GENERATION--those born between 1980 and 2001--is entering the work force, and employers are facing some of the biggest management challenges they've ever encountered. They are trying to integrate the most demanding and most coddled generation in history into a workplace shaped by the driven baby-boom generation. Like them or not, the millennials are the world's future work force.

In The Trophy Kids Grow Up, author Ron Alsop provides a rich portrait of this complex and intriguing generation, told through the experiences of the millennials themselves and from the perspectives of their parents, educators, psychologists, recruiters, and corporate managers. Clearly, the millennials represent a new breed of student, worker, and global citizen, and this book explores in depth their most salient attributes. Although they're hard working and achievement oriented, most millennials don't excel at leadership and independent problem solving. They like the freedom and flexibility of a virtual office, but they also want rules and responsibilities to be spelled out explicitly. "It's all about me" might be the mantra of this demanding bunch of young people, yet they also tend to be civic minded and philanthropic.

Alsop illustrates what companies can expect from their new hires and provides valuable lessons about how some employers are changing tactics to recruit and retain millennials in the Internet age. He also describes the fascinating relationships between the proud, protective parents--so central to the lives of the millennials--and their beloved trophy kids.

The Trophy Kids Grow Up will show employers, parents, and millennials themselves how this remarkable generation promises to stir up the workplace--and perhaps the world.