Employers, listen up. Today's graduates not only want a job that fits their interests and challenges them, they are looking for training so they can continue to learn, a work schedule that allows them to have a balanced lifestyle, and a generous benefit package.

Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, said graduates also want to be compatible with their co-workers, want a management team that communicates effectively and, of course, "a decent salary."

First, you have to remember many of them are still trying to find jobs that parallel their interests," Gardner said. "A lot of the jobs out there now are in sales. They would like to have more selection. So they are taking temporary employment."

Parents of graduates have emphasized the importance of having health care benefits. "This really gets hammered at home, so it is important to them," he said.
"They don't like to be called slackers. They are willing to work hard, but more in the 45- to 60-hour range, not 90 hours a week like many of their boomer parents have," Gardner said.

"The attitude of the graduates is, 'What's in it for me?' " said Shanin Hart, International Society of Automotive Engineers manager of Younger Member Activities in Warrendale, Pa. "It's a hard audience for us."

To reach younger members, Hart said, the organization, which provides its members with technical information on their areas of interest and offers job opportunities and career services, recently launched a new Internet job site at careers.sae.org.

"We're also offering our younger audience Power Track, a formalized career path they can follow from kindergarten through their professional career," Hart added.

Chris Plouff, director of career services at Grand Valley State University, said students are brand-conscious when it comes to looking for a job. They are skeptical of companies they don't recognize. Stability is very important to them because they have seen their parents get downsized. So they think "name" companies offer stability.

"But ideally students shouldn't limit themselves by seeking out only brand names or large companies," Plouff said. "Small and medium-sized companies are diamonds in the rough. The best advice for the company that wants to snag the prize student is to provide a work environment that is dynamic and challenges them and gives them the opportunity to grow. Students also are interested in flexibility, stability, pay and benefits and a chance to make a difference."

Gardner said most students prefer to stay in Michigan for their first job, "but as time drags on, they look elsewhere.

"You also need to know that to most of these students, Chicago is in Michigan," he said. "And they prefer to work and live in Chicago rather than going back to Detroit."

So how do you manage these college graduates' lofty expectations?

Participating in internships and co-ops gives students a realistic look at today's workplace. That gives them a chance to see how business hierarchies operate and that people with years of service to a company often don't have all of the perks younger workers want.

Plouff said college career-services offices tell students that they have to prove themselves in entry-level jobs before they are privy to a flexible work schedule. But his office only talks one-on-one with about a quarter of the students before they graduate. So that leaves the rest of the students without a reality check.

"People and students hear, 'go to college and get ahead in life,' " Plouff said. "People make an unrealistic jump that a college degree means they will make lots of money right away."

Changing their mind-set has to start when students are in grade school and continue through the college years. "The reality of working has to be brought into the classroom."

He added that today's grads have a sense of entitlement. "This group of students we are seeing now, a lot has been done for them by their parents. They think things will be done for them in the workplace."

Mark Taylor, director of Guidance Services at Arkansas State University-Beebe, summed up today's college students and tomorrow's job seekers in "Generation NeXt Comes to College: Meeting the Postmodern Student."

This group of young people is consumer-oriented, meaning they are looking for the best deal, may feel a sense of entitlement, want to negotiate and might seek legal intervention if they are disappointed, the report says.

They also want instant gratification and are entertainment-oriented. They tend to be skeptical, cynical and distrustful. Having grown up in a society stressing safety issues after several tragic events, they are cautious.

"These young people believe that it is not cool to look like you care and have been described as 'aggressively unsentimental.' They may appear emotionally repressed and difficult to engage," the report says.

Still, overall, younger workers want what most workers want.

"They want a full-time job with benefits where they can use what they went to school for," said Christine Brant, director of career services at Madonna University in Livonia. "They did not want to be underemployed."

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