An up-and-coming software company in the heart of the Silicon Prairie is not only easing the major pain point of Generation Y — finding a good job, when 40 percent of all unemployed workers are millennials — but it’s also completely built and run by millennials themselves, from the co-founders to the company’s “Job Squad” of campus intern-ambassadors.
We sat down with Kansas City–based Briefca.se to find out more about what makes for a thriving modern working environment and why they’re so passionate about their product: a native mobile app that aggregates, filters, and allows students to single-click apply to high-quality jobs, currently to the tune of about 200,000 careers in its pilot program with five Midwestern universities.
Read on to hear from co-founders Nick Mallare and Caleb Phillippi, and marketing lead Jackie Emory.
Why is your company one of the best places for millennials to work?
Jackie: What makes our company different and appeals to millennials is our transparency and teamwork. But we’re all working for a cause we believe in and doing something we love, which, as you know, is the driving force behind millennials and the jobs they apply to. We balance work and fun really well, taking breaks throughout the day to relax, tell stories, watch the latest viral video and even have friendly competitions. We’re always looking to expand our company, and find that having even younger people than ourselves on the team brings a new perspective. Working for a start-up seems to be the next big thing for millennials, and we’re happy to be a part of that!
Nick: Any start-up environment is a great opportunity for millennials, because you can wear many hats and run entire projects or departments, like social media or content. We have expectations, but they’re not rigid — you can fail and test new things without the repercussions. My personal opinion of millennials is that we work better in less structured environments overall. Wearing many hats allows you to accelerate your experience. The future of the job market looks more like employees as a service, and contractors may take on more of the load, and millennials seem to be driving that trend.
Do you feel there’s a preparedness gap between millennial workers and the requirements of the workplace?
Caleb: Millennials in the job market are underprepared for relevant experience on the job, but no more so than previous generations. It’s a problem with the way that colleges put emphasis on the skills that are taught. There are a lot more opportunities out there than just what your degree classes are teaching you. If you’re a student and you seek out a start-up that might bring you on for some free grunt labor and you can start building your résumé, that’s great. But there’s no excuse for someone going into the marketplace with no work or internship experience before graduation.
Do you ever find it difficult to manage millennial employees?
Nick: If you try to fit a square peg in a round hole, you’re going to have that problem. Older management teams at larger companies haven’t adapted their styles. Millennials want to have a direct say in what happens, and there seems to be a direct line between millennials having a voice and being difficult to manage. You have to meet them in the middle. I previously worked at a 300-plus employee company and saw a lot of mid-40s managers didn’t understand how to manage millennials, who wanted to feel like they have a direct impact on decisions, or at least to feel like their opinion is important and heard.
Caleb: If a manager says, “Well, they’re millennial, so we had to get rid of them because we just couldn’t work with them,” that should be a red flag. Millennials are going to be the majority of the workforce soon, and if managers can’t manage millennials then they should get a different job. That will also be true for Gen Z and whatever they call the next generation after that, and so on. You have to adapt.
Do you actively encourage or provide opportunities for your employees/colleagues to network outside the company, or to have formal or informal mentors?
Nick: We encourage everyone on our team to be a part of the Kansas City start-up community, go to events and network via that path, and all of them have had success, whether they’ve found a mentor in their field or just someone who is passionate about start-ups in general, someone to meet with on a regular basis.
Eighty-eight percent of millennials said in the Bentley PreparedU study that it was a priority to work for companies that are making the world a better place. How much is your mission a part of your company culture?
Nick: One of the things we always try to drive home is: Why are we here? We help college kids find jobs. The majority of us are very passionate about that, and about disrupting the space, and having an impact on the unemployment rate and the economy. But it depends on the personality of the employee. If there’s someone who really desires that mission and vision, then we try to help them find ways to embrace it, but on the development side we also have some people who look at working here as just a job. Any company that says that everyone is behind their vision is fudging it a little — it has to be individualistic. Not everyone wants to change the world. Some people just want to write great code and look back on that and say they learned a ton while they were working for you, even millennials.
In your experience, how important is work-life balance to millennials? And how do you handle that as a company?
Nick: It depends on where people are in their lives. Our senior developer and I have young kids, so we really value our time between, say, 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. during the week. But the reality is that nobody wants to work all the time. The more effort you put in, the greater the outcome, but we do want people to go on vacation, and take time off. As long as you give 100 percent when you’re in the office, and you’re willing to stay until 7 p.m. on a Friday if we need you, then that’s great.
Melissa Massello is a freelance writer, former startup executive, and serial entrepreneur who is passionate about supporting women’s leadership and gender equality, both in business and at home.