McDonough Prof. Examines Grad School Motivations in Millennials

In the study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, “Even the Best Laid Plans Sometimes Go Askew: Career Self-Management Processes, Career Shocks and the Decision to Pursue Graduate Education”, McDonough School of Business Professor Brooks Holtom and his co-authors investigated what motivates millennials to leave an organization and return to school during the first three years of their career.

While little is known about what truly motivates this generation, the study speculates that early career changes are a sign of boredom and applications to graduate school may be a last resort. Regardless of socio-demographics of students, the likelihood that early career millennials would return to school is influenced by career goals, career planning, job satisfaction, or career shocks.

“For young employees, it’s not just leaving a job,” said Holtom. “Many are attending grad school, which led us to explore this phenomenon as we are seeing elevated turnover rates amongst young people early in their careers.”

Interestingly enough, Holtom discovered “counter-intuitive findings” that positive surprises such as being promoted early were more likely to result in early career employees leave the organization and pursue graduate education.

“Millennials have a mental image of their future life and will do their best to find jobs that match that image,” said Holtom. “Punctuating events or “shocks” can cause employees to stop and reevaluate the position or job, wondering ‘does this fit my image?’”

He added:

“Millennials should understand what they want out of their careers,” said Holtom. “It is important to set short and long-term goals. When career shocks occur, millennials should pause and reflect in order to make more conscious decisions that will better serve their long-term interest.”

regions: Washington, DC

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