A Millennial is a man concept geared towards grouping individuals together based upon their age range. Does the mean I have the same mindset as 5 years old? Matthew Goldman wrote “ The Problem With Hiring Millennials Is Their Age, Not Their Generation” published on June 20, 2014, by Entrepreneur and he argues that hiring millennials has nothing to do with their generation but related to what they have experienced in their lifetime. The stereotype fabricated about millennials that cannot be applied to every individual said to be a millennial. Goldman utilized the appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos to present the argument supported by his reliability to the argument and his experience dealing with it first end. The argument geared toward employer who hesitation about hiring millennials. Through a series of personal narratives, Goldman was effective in making the argument due to appeals to logical reasoning, personalized experiences, and credibility.
In this article, Goldman commences by disclosing the stereotypical assumption of how an individual that identifies as millennial such as “ they’re entitled, narcissistic, idealistic, lazy, unfocused and spineless to name just a few of the blanket stereotypes”(Goldman,1). The use of external sources to convey his argument presenting the stereotypes plays to the notion that it is a concern not only in the workplace but also by the generation of the baby boomer. However, the reference doesn’t come with much credibility as it is paraphrased from a source that can be found on a blanket google search. In addition, lacks the sources necessary to use pathos to convince business employers that stereotypes of hiring millennials should be abandoned. Goldman resumes the article by remarking that he is categorized as a millennial based upon his birthday. Goldman subsequently explains what event contribute to what a millennial has experience in their lifetime.
Appealing to ethos presented in this article, Goldman uses logos through personal narratives to dismantle the generalized assumption surrounding entitlement about millennials, he highlights that stereotypes are highly attributed to the baby boomer generation that raised millennials as “Greed is good.” But remember, a large cross section of boomers had their idealistic, social cause phase, too. So in my opinion, baby boomers who disparage millennial attitudes are forgetting their own history and their evolution from idealism, anti-authoritarianism and activism to traditional work values. “(Goldman,3). He emphasizes that every individual mimics the environment around them instead of experience around them. Following, Goldman describes his experience with hiring millennials who themselves have a presumption of what will occur working in a business environment such as technology, travel expenses, and compensation especially in interview process like “, I asked a candidate about a technology listed on his resume. He responded that my company does not use that technology and therefore it is irrelevant to the interview. “(Goldman, 3). This is an example of enlightenment that can be brought on by any individual not just a millennial.
Furthermore, his last points of the article are to abandon our t speculation much be forgotten in order to recognize hard working individual based upon their work ethic and not their age. He then theorizes that taking constructive criticism has nothing to do with age but with how an individual is successfully able to translate the criticism as “They are still attached to the days when everyone was a winner and everyone received medals and trophies”.(Goldman,3). He emphasizes that individual including millennials must take the criticism and put forth in their work rather than seeing it as a character flaw. To finalize his argument about hiring millennials, he concludes that any individual out of any generation must “Vet the millennials, the Gen Xers and the baby boomers, too. There is no sense in developing talent that will not last in the organization. In fact, it’s irresponsible to hire people not expected to make it in the long run.”(Goldman, 4). As hiring an individual of any generation consist of the same training that will contribute to the team growing into a successful organization.
Goldman is effective in convincing his audience about abandoning the assumption made about millennials entitlement, and each individual being group as a whole generation. The audience is able to relate to a prejudice being made before being introduced especially in the work environment. However, Goldman could have used more outside source to build his credibility about how these stereotypes about millennial actually take place in a work environment.