The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace (Hardcover)

~ Ron Alsop (Author)
Key Phrases: trophy kids, helicopter parenting, many millennials, The Trophy Kids, New York City, Merrill Lynch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alsop, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, explores the emergence of the 80 million strong millennial generation into the workplace and the resulting ramifications in this insightful and in-depth look at Generation Y. Born between 1980 and 2001, millennials are a new breed of student, worker and global citizen, with distinctly different—often paradoxical—values and motivations. Millennials have a high sense of entitlement but are also philanthropic and community-minded; they set a high premium on career success but are incorrigible job-hoppers and rarely exhibit loyalty to any particular place of employment; their commitment is to self-determination and to garnering as many skills as possible before moving on in pursuit of their dream job. Based on data collected from interviews with student recruiters, particularly in management consulting, and at accounting and investment banking firms, Alsop explains how companies can take the lead in understanding and reaching out to Generation Y and what organizations can expect in their new hires. This well-crafted book will help companies adapt to meet the desires and demands of the millennial generation and retain the best talent. (Oct.)
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Review

"Ron shares some great insight on what my generation demands from companies and how companies can recruit millennials. Whether you are a ‘trophy kid’ or not, this information will be useful for you as you interact with millennials now and in the future."—PersonalBrandingBlog.com, October 11, 2008

"The Trophy Kids Grow Up by Ron Alsop will give you a sense of the average millennial—a worldly, technologically savvy, confident and driven individual—and tell you how to adapt to this rogue workforce. The author also highlight the stark differences between the millennials and the baby-boomers that shaped the current workplace. Millenials are changing the nature of the workplace: Alsop will tell you how to get ready." —ManageSmarter.com, October 10, 2008

"In his book The Trophy Kids Grow Up, Ron Alsop explores the helicopter parents phenomenon. He realizes that parents do—and always have—been their children's career advisers."—Careerbuilder.com, August 13, 2008

"Alsop, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, explores the emergence of the 80 million strong millennial generation into the workplace and the resulting ramifications in this insightful and in-depth look at Generation Y. Born between 1980 and 2001, "millennials" are a new breed of student, worker and global citizen, with distinctly different—often paradoxical—values and motivations. Millennials have a high sense of entitlement but are also philanthropic and community-minded; they set a high premium on career success but are incorrigible job-hoppers and rarely exhibit loyalty to any particular place of employment; their commitment is to self-determination and to garnering as many skills as possible before moving on in pursuit of their "dream job." Based on data collected from interviews with student recruiters, particularly in management consulting, and at accounting and investment banking firms, Alsop explains how companies can take the lead in understanding and reaching out to Generation Y and what organizations can expect in their new hires. This well-crafted book will help companies adapt to meet the desires and demands of the millennial generation and retain the best talent." (Oct.)—Publishers Weekly, August 11, 2008

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (October 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470229543
• ISBN-13: 978-0470229545
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #147,156 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Subject and Advice, October 23, 2008

By	Michael Gooch "Author of Wingtips with Spurs:... (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

Born between 1980 and 2001, "millennials" challenge us as they move into their roles of student, worker and citizen. For anyone that has experienced these trophy children, they realize that we (management) need help and guidance. This is a well-crafted book that will help you adapt to the demands of the millennial generation. It is also full of advice on how to retain this generation. As pointed out in this important work, attracting is one problem. Retention is quite another.

Spending most of my career in human resources as a manager and now as a human resources corporate director, I have experienced many of the attributes from this generation and found this to be a very helpful book for planning the future. Ron Alsop shares his insight and helps us understand the many facets of this fascinating albeit frustrating group. As I read the book, I wrote down many of the conflicting qualities and characteristics of these millennials.

1. High sense of entitlement
2. Philanthropic
3. Surprisingly Community-minded
4. High premium on career success
5. Job-hoppers
6. Not Loyal to any employer
7. Technologically savvy
8. Committed to self-determination
9. Confident
10. Hard working
11. Achievement oriented
12. Display poor leadership abilities
13. Not good problem solvers
14. Demand freedom and flexibility
15. Expect explicit rules

How can we ever hope to blend this eclectic mix of attributes? Well, this book provides a rich portrait of these young people (and their parents) and more importantly, offers sage advice on how to deal with them.

I hope you found this review helpful. Michael L. Gooch, Author of Wingtips with Spurs:Cowboy Wisdom for Today's Business Leaders.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for employers, educators, and co-workers, May 20, 2009

By	Frederick Talbott (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ron Alsop casts a thorough, balanced spotlight on this generation's strengths, preferences, and challenges, sharing essential understanding for all who teach, hire, work and play with this remarkable generation. He also prompts us to recognize how they developed and explore their interests and world view. As an MBA professor, I found this to be an essential guide that has helped me best motivate many. It also prompted me to think about and continue to explore my own generation's strengths and challenges, as well as the confluence and interaction of the several generations in the workplace and our overall society. I recommend this to every educator, employer and manager. It is studded with essential insight shared with refreshing storytelling and clarity.
Fred Talbott
Vanderbilt University

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Expectations, December 21, 2008

By	Stephen T. Hopkins (Oak Park, Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Journalist Ron Alsop (The Wall Street Journal) has taken a group of columns and expanded them into a book titled, The Trophy Kids Grow Up. Alsop's kids are the millennials, those born between 1980 and 2001, who have grown up with prosperity and have had lavish attention and praise wash over them throughout their lives. Now that they are arriving in the workplace, Alsop proposes ways that companies need to change to accommodate this generation of workers. I'm not as sure as Alsop is that this generation is shaking up the workplace. It may be that this group, to whatever extent they represent a real group, may be unrealistic in their expectations of the workplace, and are making their concerns heard. Some companies are listening and making changes; other companies are likely to tell them to grow up. Alsop provides lots of examples of what changes some companies are making. Each chapter ends with "chapter highlights" to recap his key points. I found this book to be tedious to read and sometimes repetitive. I was aghast to read about helicopter parents wanting (and sometimes getting) to sit in on performance assessment meetings with their children who are adults. My forecast is that this cohort called millennials may be starting out with expectations that some companies will be willing to meet. As the bulk of millennials come to the workforce, their expectations may become more realistic and more consistent with current corporate practices. If you read this book and decide to copy what some companies are doing, I encourage you to think twice, and make only those changes that you conclude are absolutely necessary to avoid alienating the talented millennials you want to become part of your organization.

Rating: Two-star (Mildly Recommended)