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O P I N I O N
Up and bummer
At what should be an incredibly productive and exciting time in the lives of young professionals, the AEC industry is failing to engage.
I t’s unfortunate that “millennial” topics have become buzzwords. It’s a shame the discussion revolves around the same stale talking points. Diatribes about participation trophies, “finding the why,” and entitlement obscure the bigger picture. But just beyond the fog, if you can manage to get there, lies the opportunity to have a meaningful discussion about a fully engaged workforce at every career level.
Jamie Claire Kiser
Recent survey results show that the AEC industry is falling far short when it comes to providing a satisfying career for individuals between the ages of 26 and 35. If you’ll be patient, I’ll share with you another set of data points on this topic. And these are tantamount to a call to action. In my work with firms, I have heard countless times that someone is “the right person, but not ready yet” to take on a bigger role. This wait- and-see attitude ignores mounting examples of extremely successful young leaders across all types of organizations. In due course, this leads to the “right person” feeling held back in their career, causing frustration and creating the risk that they
will relieve their headache by joining another firm – one that puts them in a leadership position. “We have got to figure out how to engage these young people at what should be an incredibly productive and exciting time in their professional development.” The data supports what I hear from both the up- and-comers and the established leaders. Zweig Group divided its 2018 nationwide Best Firms To
See JAMIE CLAIRE KISER, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER April 15, 2019, ISSUE 1292
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