A narrow vision of the generations

To the editor:

This is a response to Jordan Bean’s series of columns on the millennial workforce.

What more would you expect from a consultant (whatever that means) with two-plus years’ work experience? Mr. Bean’s article is full of fancy words and jargon only a fellow consultant could appreciate. He portends to know much, but, how can he? Take this from a millennial who has 15-plus years’ work experience, who realizes that is but a fraction of the experience the leaders of my industry have.

Mr. Bean’s vision is narrow in respect to millennials; it only incorporates what he has learned in his short period in productive society. It may be correct, but only in a fraction of his generation’s experience.

“The millennial advantage,” he says, is that “they’re able and willing to reap the benefits that technology offers.”  This is not unique to his generation, it’s not even unique to this millennium or the previous. We don’t need to go back 1,000 years to prove this statement false. I can use what I know of my employer’s experience to do that – a person who is 67 and has been mastering his trade for over 40 years. He is not shy to pick up the latest in technology – that is something he has had to do to survive in his industry.

Whether it was the latest version of the iPhone, or the cell phone, or the calculator or the personal computer, he had to embrace it or be left behind, as the prosperous portion of mankind has always done! Mr. Bean’s articles, if anything, show the great weaknesses of millennials. Lack of experience, narrow views, heady intellectual knowledge, limited practicality.

Mr. Bean states, “We’ve grown up in an era where a university degree is a qualifier.”  To whom is it a qualifier? I have no degree, I have a license to practice as a master in my trade. I obtained that license with no help from higher education. I have proved that a license is always more valuable than a degree. I own my home, I drive a new vehicle. I have intellectual and altruistic pursuits, hobbies and more.

I could disprove most of what Mr. Bean states, but that would be a waste of time and space. The real skills needed to succeed are the same as they have always been: hard work, knowledge of one’s practice and sometimes a little luck.

David Mendzela

Vice president of operations

Gerard A. Laflamme Inc.

Londonderry