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I’ve been freelance designing for over 3 years now – since 2013 – and I wanted to share to you and other designers my experiences with these blogs. To find out more about me, check out my about page. I hope you enjoy the readings.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? How about 15? If you ask a Millennial, such as myself, you may get three different answers; each one more broad than the last. With the nearly complete integration of technology and the internet in our society, it makes it difficult to answer future-driven questions, such as those, because life is moving at an increasingly fast pace. The world has become more easily assessable, ideas and lifestyles are constantly being exchanged, and the entire landscape of business is evolving. Naturally, change is met with skepticism and I find myself often times defending this group individuals who think and act uniquely different but share a common bond – a generation.

Millennials will tell you that the hardest thing to accept is becoming a robotic cog in the traditional corporate setting. Here are 5 tips to attract a creative Millennial to your company:

  1. Location, Location, Location. Driving 45 minutes through a crowded expressway at 8am on a Monday morning sucks for everybody. You may want to consider a relocating towards the Millennial workforce to avoid creating overly emotional employees. Some cities are adopting bike lanes, which are really popular among Millennials and with the explosion of the Pokemon Go app, every morning has the potential to be fun and exciting. Simply put, we want to work and live in the same area (especially if there’s a Starbucks and/or Pikachu in the nearby).
  2. Relax bro. No one wants to be constantly managed by another person and sometimes your opinion of Millennials can cloud your judgement on us. We’re not a lazy generation – we just prefer the quick and easy way. Manual labor is pretty much for machines now and there is no need to constantly remind us about how different things were back in your day. Be patient, embrace the new ideas Millennials have and we will bloom into amazing employees.
  3. Everyday is casual Friday. Personally, I can make a suit and tie look good! Maybe one day I’ll get to a point where that becomes an everyday dress but for now, jeans and a shirt are totally acceptable. This tip is more about letting a Millennials’ personality shine in the workplace. Again, we are a very creative people and having a restricting dress code can hinder the creative process. Let us feel comfortable and expressive while we work.
  4. Let us take the lead. Sure you can be safe and assign all the lead roles to the senior whoever at your company but where does that leave the young Millennial who may be more connected to the world around them? Millennials need to feel that their thoughts and opinions are heard and, keyword here, accepted. Give us a chance to work out our ideas, even if they are doomed from the start because we learn more from attempting to solve a problem than listening to someone else solve it.
  5. The Incentives. This is where things get interesting. There are some big-wig companies who think they have the incentive part figured out. They may offer gym memberships, day care, free parking, or even beers during work hours to lure Millennials in. Then, they cut back on insurance policies and retirement plans as if we weren’t going to notice. Hello! We heard you talk about how things were back in your day. We still want our 401k, pension, and stock options. Ultimately, it still comes down to money. Beer Fridays are nice but imagine how many beers I could get with a respectable salary.

These tips may be hard to swallow for some people but the fact of the matter is that, during the Millennial generation, we have witnessed the birth and rise of the Internet. We’ve watched a man turn an apple into one of the greatest technologies ever invented. We were amazed when Michael Jordan met Bugs Bunny and devastated when Mufasa was betrayed by his brother Scar. Millennials have a lot to offer the work place when given the opportunity. We do more than take Snapchat selfies; we share our experiences on a global scale and can connect with people unlike ever before.