[jessica8926]

I read this interesting article today about how millennials feel insane amounts of pressure to succeed immediately post college. I am interested to see if this is the reason so many of us millennials are pushing to get our CPAs. So that we can reach some sort of satisfaction in succeeding at getting our CPAs at such a young age. Thoughts?

https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/why-millennials-feel-more-pressure-to-succeed-than-any-other-generation.html

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[Missy]

I know millenials here won't LIKE what I'm about to say but few can deny it completely. As a Gen X who has raised a millenial or two of COURSE you all feel extreme pressure. None of you have experienced dissappointment in relation to your peer group. Everyone who WANTED to play little league got to, any girl who wanted to cheer made the squad. Not surprising that post college you hear of the 24 year old CEO of a Fortune 500 company and feel like you need to achieve something worthy of going viral on the internet. This is not a dig to you millenials, but we, your parents, set you up for this in a big way.

On the other hand, Gen Xers (me) have kind of slacked in significant ways. Lets be honest all of OUR major achievements were social LOL. Boomers cured diseases, gen x made sure we all walked around with a cell phone attached to our bodies. Go us.

Millenials kind of need to pick up the slack, make some significant achievements in other arenas (can you all do better with politicians than your parents generation, PLEASE?)

The pressure is good, just unexpected for many of you 🙂

Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

Finance manager/HR manager

 

 

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[ABTX411]

^^^ Yes!!! I call this the “plight of the participation award.” I think the pressure is created by a feeling of being ENTITLED to succeed. Parents, with the best of intentions, make their children truly believe that they can be anything they WANT to be. In reality, you can only be anything you are QUALIFIED to be, and even then, a great deal of work, determination, and even luck is required.

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[jessica8926]

I totally agree even though I am a millennial. Thankfully my parents did not and could not give me everything I wanted or thought I needed. So I fully accept that I need to put in the work to get to where I want to be. I do not feel entitled to success, but I think I do feel pressure to succeed not for others or to make a lasting contribution. But rather succeed for myself so that I can tell myself I put in all this hard work for a reason and that I did not let myself down. Maybe it is different for other millennials who feel success is in the amount of likes or hits you get on a video or being a CEO.

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Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

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[Jdn9201]

Very interesting article – thanks for posting Jessica! I'm 33, so I'm an older millennial. I see 2 big issues with our generation, based on what I see from my friends (almost all of my friends are 25-35). For those of us who grew up in middle class families, went to good schools, may have been spoiled by parents, etc. – I see big issues with entitlement. They expect to come out of school and land top jobs and they do not understand the concept of starting at the bottom and working their way up. I've had jealousy issues before from some of my friends because they see me with my 2 degrees, my own house, being able to go on vacation, etc. but they didn't see all of the hard work it took for me to get there. I've been working since I was 16 and my first job, I made minimum wage. While others partied or spent 5 years ‘finding themselves', I was working almost full time and busting my tail off in class.
The other problem I see is I feel like half of our generation is being left behind. Especially for those who grew up in broken homes or with parents who didn't have the right priorities, I feel like our education system is failing so many nowadays. There are so many jobs out there that are begging for qualified people and pay very well, but there aren't enough people with the skills to fill them. They also don't teach them common-sense life skills, like how to balance their checking account, or how bad credit card and student loan debt is.

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[Nessie]

Jessica, I'm going to read the article a little later. Thanks for posting.
MLA, I totally agree with you. I am a Gen Xer myself.

Another topic I might add is bullying. When I was in school most kids were bullied at one point in their life. I was bullied and had to deal with it myself. I simply befriended a girl who was 6 feet tall at age 12 and she would jump into a fight if I could not handle it. The bullying stopped after my friend sent a girl to the hospital.

Guess what? Bullying doesn't stop at school. Bullies are everywhere including your workplace. That person who is nasty with you for no reason is a bully. If helicopter parents constantly jump in like they have with millenials, how will they be able to handle the real world?

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[jessica8926]

@jdn9201: too spot on with entitlement. It actually upsets me when I see people in the same gen as me doing this. It makes me embarrassed and just annoyed. Because then the entire world labels the millennials as being big entitled babies and I am FAR from that.

@Nessie: totally agree parents now a days coddle their children like there is no tomorrow. I feel lucky to have parents who were realistic and honest and not like that.

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[ChristieF]

I'm almost 31, but I don't consider myself a millennial. I “lost” at stuff and we had to try out for stuff and if we didn't make the cut, that was it. I do see the entitlement mentality popping up everywhere in my peers from high school though. They want rewards without having to work hard for it. I have 2 kids and refuse to let them grow up with that mentality. They see me working my butt off for this exam and we make sure they don't think they can “win” just by participating. Our oldest has to work hard to keep her grades up otherwise things get taken away. It's worrisome that WAY too many expect a lot for no work. I agree with @jdn9201, the education system is failing our kids. I may work full time, but I come home and teach my kids and make sure they're learning what they are supposed to learn (i.e. my daughter reads a grade and a half above her required level and everyone else in her class). It takes a whole lot of parenting to get the millennial mindset out of the way.

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[Anonymous]

The ability to tolerate frustration is the preeminent skill you can give any child. It's almost impossible to get anywhere without it. Unfortunately, however, narcissim and entitlement will get you a long way in a large organization. I find I'm a lot happier if I expect to see that and am prepared to deal with it. I don't know about the generational thing, if I had to try to link world-view to the generation of our employees I probably couldn't do it. There's so many confounding factors – how your parents viewed work, their economic status, age, even birth order.

I think the nice thing about passing this exam is you do feel a sense of camraderie with anyone else who has passed it. I imagine it's the same thing lawyers feel about meeting other people who passed the bar. The only people who truly known what it's like to jump throught that hellish hoop.

[livealittle]

something a previous co-worker said to me

a happy childhood is poor preparation for life

kids need to learn how to face disappointment and that failure is how you learn.

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[jessica8926]

Haha hopefully people do not take your quote too seriously. I do think you can have a happy childhood and still be prepared for dissapointment and failuer. I do agree with the idea that it is trying to convey though, thanks for the insight!

AUD - 77
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Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

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Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[Knight4CPA]

All about that healthy balance, i had a great childhood… doesnt mean i didnt have to go out in the backyard and pull weeds either though.. 🙂

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[Knight4CPA]

Jessica, you wont find out until May24 right?

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[jessica8926]

Yeah….don't remind me -_- still sour about it haha but I also check the website everyday just in case it decides to magically appear lol

AUD - 77
BEC - 82
FAR - 75
REG - 81

Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[Knight4CPA]

Hah… oops! I'm testing out this Friday, so ill be seeing awaiting that final score release on the 24th as well, IL candidate here as well -_-

AUD: 70, 80✔ (Expires 1/18/2017 - / Ninja MCQ / CPAExcel MCQ)
REG: 61, 70, 75✔ (Expires 2017 - Ninja MCQ / CPAExcel MCQ)
BEC: 78✔(Expires 5/17/2017 - Ninja MCQ / Becker Flashcards / NinjaNotes)
FAR: 57 (just to get trigger time I scheduled 1 week after REG) Retake 5/13/16

[jessica8926]

Well good luck looks like we both are in the same boat with it being our last exam. The wait is so terrible when it is hopefully your last test!

AUD - 77
BEC - 82
FAR - 75
REG - 81

Illinois Certified Public Accountant 2016

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[Author]

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