"When you come to the table, what is the depth of your appetite, how spicy and tasty is your flavor, how do ensure that you continue to earn a sit at the table? What is your value?" 

Chimezie Udechukwu

Yesterday I had one of the rarest opportunities in my life to sit down and discuss on contemporary HR issues with leading practitioners in the field albeit in a convivial atmosphere. I finally got to meet in person, Leslie George and he left me with this powerful message for millennial which he captions  "Be of value".

If you are a millennial, and you are swearing by all the wicked gods in your village that you will never work for any organization beyond two years, you have another think coming.

If you are a millennial, and you plan to have organizations beg you to stay, and change their whole outfit to accommodate you, keep dreaming.

If you are a millennial, and you are under the delusion that the world revolves around you, pele

You cannot bargain or negotiate from a position of weakness or disadvantage*. The only thing that will make organizations ask you to stay, or move things to accommodate you at great cost, or hire you even, would not be because you are under 32, or that you believe your ilk owns the future (keep dreaming), it would be because you have something that people older or otherwise do not have: "value".

If you have nothing of value to exchange, to bargain with, or that gives you leverage, all your expectations will turn out to be delusions. If you don't have anything that you bring to the table, to contribute to the success of organizations, if you are not worth more than your young age and sense of entitlement, you will stand on the unemployment line like all the others who are of no value to any organization, millennial or not. No one makes sacrifices for something that is of little value.

Become a repository of value and competencies that organizations seek. Have something in your  hand that is worth so much that a bidding war will start because of you. If you are going from employer to employer, and you are expecting them to roll out the red carpet and drums, and your value is like the temperature of ice, below zero, that chant of, "we are millennials" will not help you. Do more; become more.

This is simply a beautiful tonic especially for those who continue to see life as an entitlement.

Need I say more?

OjisiEmezie