How do Gen Y make decisions about their careers? In our most recent survey, we found one significant influence - role models. 72% of Gen Y would have chosen different schools, majors or careers if not for their role models - underscoring the influence that role models have on Gen Y.

Sixty percent said their role models influenced them in “selecting career paths and opportunities, while 45% said that role models helped them with “choosing a major.” Other areas where role models played a part were: “undertaking a project or challenge” (32%), “decision to attend college” (30%) and “choosing college courses to take” (30%).

Role models, drawing upon their own experiences, clearly have the ability to shape and guide Gen Y through a period of their life where major decisions are being made.

Most Gen Y had role models who they had frequent contact with. Many cited ”teachers or professors” (46%) or “parents” (41%) as role models. Less common role models included “friends” (19%), “family members” (15%) and “manager from job/internship” (15%).

Employers, for tips on how to support the Gen Y guidance process, download the whitepaper.

Gen Y is known for being gurus at social networking so even we were surprised by the results of our most recent survey which revealed that 53% of Gen Y is intimidated by networking when searching for jobs and internships. It turns out most are intimidated by in-person networking (62%) and telephone networking (50%), both forms that are not electronic and require contact with people they don’t know.

When it comes to employers using online networking, Gen Y told us which employer behaviors they find acceptable: they agreed “invitations to connect” (67%) and “invitations to join employer-hosted groups” (62%) were appropriate, but they drew the line at “poking,” which some equated to “flirting,” and found “friending” less acceptable.

If you are looking to network with and build relationships with Gen Y, keep in mind a couple of notions: (1) as newcomers to the workforce, they may not be as comfortable with career networking as your more experienced hires, so go easy on them! and (2) as social networking mavens, they are leaps and bounds ahead of us and we need to follow their lead on social media conventions.

Employers, for tips on how to network with Gen Y, download the whitepaper.