How Important is Company Culture to Gen Y?

The other day, I was talking to one of my good friends who was excitedly telling me about her amazing internship that she got this summer. She talked briefly about what the company does and what she’s gonna do there, then she went into a 10 min rant about how employees are allowed to wear casual clothes to work, how they go to happy hour regularly, and how they have a lax scheduled time of work. It was as if the company didn’t matter, the position didn’t matter, but the only thing that did matter was the environment that she would be working in. She absolutely loved the fact that you could wear casual clothes; she talked about it like it was some sort of revolutionary concept. As we all know, it’s not, and many companies are starting to initiate these little changes in order to attract new talent. And at the end of the day, it’s these little details that will make or break a job opportunity for a Gen Yer.

The fact is that if I want to get into sales, then I can join 1001 different companies. If I want to code java, I can do it at a plethora of companies. If I want to do advertising, I can do it at thousands of different companies. But which one would be I really love working at? Which company has the people that I will love to hang out with outside of work? Where will I feel comfortable and relaxed and yet still feel motivated enough to work hard? It’s these types of questions that are defining the roles that Gen Yers are taking, and not the “what does the company do?”, “What’s my job description?”, and “What’s my career path?” questions.

And personally, I think that this is a much better way of looking at job opportunities than the way it was looked at in the past. Life’s too short to sit in a cubicle (unless you want to) and waste away your life not enjoying what you’re doing or the people that you’re doing it with. That doesn’t mean that the job has to be perfect and the environment has to be amazing, because obviously it won’t be all of the time, but it is something that should be a key focus of any job search. If you think that you wouldn’t fit into an environment and that the culture isn’t in line with what you’re looking for, then don’t waste your time. It’s better to be patient and find a place that you feel comfortable working at then forcing yourself into a situation that isn’t right for you.

Realistically, it’s gotten to the point that most job descriptions read the same anyway and the only way to differentiate between companies is by the culture that they’ve created. If you thrive off competition, then join a company that has a lot of bonuses and incentives. If you thrive off collaboration, then join a company that emphasizes team-work and group effort. If you know yourself and your personality and you focus on finding a company that matches those characteristics, then you will feel that much more satisfied with the company that you decide to go with.