Career decisions are hard to make. Many of us have been on both sides of the employment equation, either as recruiter or candidate, but how often do we pause to consider the underlying motivations behind candidate decisions? Understanding the issues most important to the job seeker, as well as the lifestyle and professional tradeoffs that compose these issues, can help both recruiter and candidate achieve a suitable and attractive match.

In this article, we explain and consider a theory called the "Career Value Equation." The Career Value Equation analyzes how the personal motivations of job seekers play out in career decisions. We'll also look at generational issues and how they influence career values, analyzing the job preferences of workers from the Great Depression through the elusive Gen-X and Gen-Y generations.

The Career Value Equation

The "Career Value Equation" is a decision-analysis model aimed at interpreting common choices job seekers make. By asking simple questions such as: Who?, What?, How?, and Where? the Career Value Equation helps us gain insight into the unspoken motivations behind candidate decisions.

Who do you want to work for? For some job seekers, who they work for is a top priority. These individuals are set on working for a certain company and will move to just about anywhere to fulfill this goal. Reputations, industry leadership, emerging trends, and generational issues often define this choice.

What do you want to do? What type of work interests you the most? What is your passion or highest level of interest? Job seekers who love what they do are often driven to seek well-defined jobs in their area of specialty. This group is particularly motivated by factors that can enhance and expand their skills set, such as job title, compensation, and growth opportunities.

How do you like to work? Do you like to work in teams or are you more interested in making individual contributions? Some people know their best "work style" and look for jobs that will accommodate it. For instance, are telecommuting, flexible work hours, company culture, autonomy, or company benefits important to you? For some job seekers, how the job is conducted is of utmost importance.

Where do you want to work? Candidates who limit a job search to a certain geographic region or metropolitan area do so because of family reasons or strong lifestyle preferences. Young single people may be attracted to the city, while middle-aged people with families might be drawn to smaller, more family-oriented communities.

With rapid advances in transportation and technology, where we work is becoming negotiable. Today more than ever, people have the option to choose where they want to work and where they want to live. For instance, a friend of mine lives with his wife in the San Francisco Bay Area, but commutes to work in the greater Los Angles are via commuter plane during the week. Some days he works at home in his "remote office," telecommuting with his computer.

For the job seeker, career-value priorities create "tradeoffs" situations in which the Who?, What?, How?, and Where? form a complex of questions that must be weighed and prioritized against available job options. For instance if where you work is most important, this will limit who you work for, how you work, and so forth. Similarly, individuals set on working for a particular employer will limit the where of their job choice. Knowing your candidate's primary interests, and the tradeoffs he or she is willing to make will take you far in making the right offer.

The Generation Equation

Career preferences can also be traced to the interests and characteristics of generational groups. What compose the Who? What? How? and Where? of our personal career values could well be motivated by the generation we grew up in. For recruiters, the big question is how generational values impact individual job choices and preferences.

The Great Depression/ WW II Generation is composed of those born between the start of the Great Depression (1929) and the end of WWII (1945). As this generation grew up, the "type" of work a person performed was of primary importance. People often respected what you did more than who you worked for. Professionally, men often followed in the footsteps of their fathers. The professions of farming, law, medicine, manufacturing, education, the trades, and the government/ military were some of the major fields of work. Women of this generation were generally guided into such professions as teaching, nursing, business administration, or homemaking.

For this generation, where one lived was also a critical value. With air travel and the interstate system not yet widely available, families tended to live within close proximity of one another. As this generation grew up, they faced such tough decisions as whether to leave the family farm and move to the city, or to follow a job to another part of the country. This is the generation that brought suburbia to life -- work in the city, but live outside it.

The famous Baby Boomer Generation includes those born between the end of WWII (1945) and the assassination of President Kennedy (1963). The Baby Boomers were the "boundary breakers" of the work world. Through the turbulent 60's, the rise of affirmative action, and focus on minority employment, this generation brought equal opportunity to bare. Other factors also expanded this generation's horizons. A higher percentage of the population attended college. Travel became easier with the expansion of interstate roads and more affordable air travel. And the reality of the "world economy" took root in face of the 70's oil shortage, the rise of the Asian/Pacific countries, and a revitalized European economy.

An emerging value for the Baby Boomers is who is the employer. This generation grew up in a time when businesses were becoming household names, building strong brand identities which infiltrated this group's generational identity. Established companies such as GE, J&J, GM, P&G, IBM, and the "Big 6 accounting firms" became attractive market leaders and thus desirable employers for Baby Boomers. Seeking career status and success, this generation learned to "move with the job" as their parents had, but they also learned that a lifetime career with one company was not a guarantee. When the 80's downsizing movement swept through, staying with a company for the length of most vesting schedules, (five to seven years) became the new standard. The notion of career mobility through changing companies to further "climb the career ladder" and build skills became a value throughout the 80's and 90's.

Generation X was dubbed so by marketing professionals who struggled to pin down the value system of this complex generation. Although some researchers debate the dates for Gen X, my preferred demarcation points are the assassination of President Kennedy (1963) through the release of Star Wars (1977). Why Stars Wars? Gen X'ers grew up in a time dominated by boundary-expanding ideas and trends as encapsulated in film and popular culture. Personal technology products such as home computers, word processing machines, and VCR's also became widely available and affordable to this group. If the Baby Boomers were the "boundary breakers," the hard-to-define Gen X'ers have become the "boundary expanders."

Let's consider how this boundary-expanding behavior is reflected by who Gen-X'ers choose to work for and how they chose to work. Gen X'ers entered the workforce when disillusionment about "secure jobs" and propaganda about the corporate "rat race" ran high. This environment infused Generation X with a healthy dose of skepticism and concern, making the ideal position a practice of keeping options open and developing valuable competencies, not necessarily a comfy job in a big company.

Furthermore, the "new economy" of the 1990s began differentiating itself from the "old economy" in attractive ways. The new economy, driven by high tech jobs, offered Gen X'ers a chance to target attractive industries and technologies rather than companies. The importance of who you work for was slowly replaced by what kind of technology you work with. Gen X'ers such as Michael Dell of Dell Computers and Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame epitomize Gen X'ers not afraid to expand the boundaries of work. Rather than target the best named companies to start their corporate careers, these individuals forged new ways of doing business.

Another major boundary-expanding trend led by Generation X is the notion of family and work balance. Having witnessed the high cost that many Baby Boomers paid juggling family and career, Gen X'ers look for balanced work/life arrangements. Lifestyle benefits such as telecommuting, on-site day care centers, work sabbaticals, personal time-off, on-site health facilities, and temporary employment arrangements are extremely attractive to this age group. Technology savvy Gen X'ers have redefined how work can done as we enter the 21st Century.

Meet Generation Next or Gen Y -- the debate on what to call this up-and- coming generation is not finished. It is clear, however, that most people are just casually categorizing Gen Y as an extension of Gen X. I consider the demarcation for this generation to start at the release of Star Wars (1977) and end at the beginning of the to the Gulf War (1990). As Gen Y is just now starting its career on the heels of boundary-expanding Gen X, I think we will see them become the pioneers of the digital frontier. Generation Next will become expert in technologies and concepts that are now still in their infancy. In some ways, this generation is bound to follow their predecessors in terms of demanding a balance in personal and professional lives, but they will also forge ahead into new possibilities with digital and communication technology.

As Generation Next essentially grew up in a world of computers, video games, CD's, and wireless phones, they have a comfort level with technology that many of us may never experience. Due to their high technical acumen, they will continue to use technology to redefine how work is done. This is a generation that may ask questions like, "how come work can't be both fun and rewarding?" But they may also ask, "why can't I have my specific needs met." One criticism of this new generation is the "me" mentality. They expect their needs to be readily met through technology and services. Mass marketing is slowly giving way to this very specialized target marketing, providing custom solutions to meet Gen Y's demands. The "market of one" concept feeds into the "me" mentality and will inevitably impact the workplace.

A new frontiers Gen Y may pioneer is where people live and work. Generation Next workers may demand job assignments that fit their interests rather than accept the "standard" assignments. They may also use technology to create their own customized work environments and schedules. Flexibility, adaptability, and change are not foreign to most young people growing up in the 21st Century. Gen Y will use technology to support their lifestyle preferences. This generation may bring telecommuting, home office arrangements, commuting by air travel, and distance learning to new levels of acceptance.

It has always been good practice to find out what motivates candidates, but in the new economy and the new workforce of Gen X and Y'ers, options are quickly increasing. The day may come when negotiations do not hinge so much on salary, office, and job title, but on how the job is structured in terms of vacation time, travel requirements, office location, working hours, length of commute, and vesting schedule for stock options. Employee benefits may no longer follow a standard, well defined package, but may include various options and choices. Option one may be most attractive to young, single professionals, whereas option two may be the best package for married professionals, and so on and so forth.

In today's world, it is difficult to say what the future will hold. As we move forward, what's important is that we pay special attention to candidate values; adjusting the Career Value Equation to fit both candidate and employer needs.

About the Author

Steve McIntosh serves as Program Manager, Performance Management for Cisco Systems, Inc. in San Jose, California. In his current role, Steve is challenged with introducing a strong employee performance management and development system that keeps pace and scales with the hyper growth of Cisco.

Before joining Cisco, Steve served as Manager, HR Planning & Development for the medical division of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to J&J, he served in training & development roles in the fiber optics communications division of Corning Incorporated. Recently, Steve has spoken at organizational excellence, performance management, and competency conferences in Chicago, Atlanta, and Toronto.

Contact Stephen McIntosh at Smcintosh00@yahoo.com