The tipping point came last year. An Internet Trends report noted millennials were now Canada’s largest workforce demographic, surpassing Generation Xers and baby boomers. Thus the race was on to understand those aged 18 to 35.
Metro Vancouver’s largest concentration of millennials is in Surrey, where an estimated quarter of the region’s youth population lives.
Carli Mauro, 30, an employment specialist, and Poonam Minhas, 27, a human resources assistant, both work for the City of Surrey. A recent PwC-commissioned study found that millennials can be “loyalty-lite” and prone to job hopping; however, Mauro, who has been with the city for seven years, said that’s not necessarily the case if an employer is adept at attracting and retaining young talent.
“I started [at the city] right out of university, and since then I’ve worked in three different departments and done six different positions,” she said. “So it’s been a very encouraging place to work.”
Minhas, who has been with the city since March, tackled another perception about millennials: baby boomers in upper management keep them around in case they need help updating their social media statuses.
“That’s really what got me interested in working with the city in the first place,” said Minhas. “As a prospective employee it was encouraging to see it being used on regular basis, not just Facebook and Twitter pages sitting there inactive.”
At Simon Fraser University’s (SFU) Surrey City Centre campus, the faculty has long garnered a reputation for recognizing it’s in the middle of a millennial hotbed.
Uwe Glässer, dean pro tem of SFU’s Faculty of Applied Sciences, said the idea is to engage this demographic in career paths like technology and computer science.
“More than a quarter of Surrey’s residents are under age 19. The South Fraser region accounts for one-third of B.C. high school graduates, and this means SFU’s Surrey campus has an important role in providing post-secondary education.
He added that 252 majors are enrolled in the university’s Surrey-based software systems program.
Across Metro Vancouver, millennials are already reshaping the workforce. When Vancouver resident Jessica Louie gets asked that common icebreaker question at a party: “So what do you do for work?” she has to add an asterisk to her answer.
“What I’d say – to keep it brief – I’m a C.A. and a mobile hairdresser on the side.”
Louie, 29, is part of the growing trend of multi-tasking millennials juggling more than one career thread. Louie, who runs her own accounting firm, is also good at cutting hair. A recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study found millennials are also the kings of multi-tasking both personally and professionally.
The study found that half to two-thirds of millennials are interested in entrepreneurship, and 27% are already self-employed.
Louie, who quit her accounting job at Ernst & Young, has been a self-employed chartered professional accountant since the spring of 2014.
“My family was my inspiration,” she said. “A lot of them are entrepreneurs. My dad is a dentist, and he owns his own practice. My grandfather owned his own restaurant, and I’ve always been raised to be your own boss.”
Louie’s aunt was a hairdresser, and now one day a week, instead of helping other small-business owners and entrepreneurs with their taxes, she cuts hair for a secondary source of income – and a mental breather.
The PwC study also found that millennials value a work-life balance more than other generations, and while they may hold down a corporate gig, have multiple side projects.
Annette Kuan, 23, and her 21-year-old sister Jessica are enrolled at the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s marketing communications and Capilano University’s tourism programs, respectively, but they’ve also recently launched Chantz Clothing.
“Since we were kids, we always talked about starting our own online-based clothing store, and we’re so happy to have made our dream into a reality,” said Annette Kuan. “It was only a month ago when we launched Chantz Clothing, and we’ve already been on the SFU Fashion Week, which was an amazing experience.”
Annette Kuan is also completing a digital marketing internship at Build Direct, which sells manufacturer-direct building materials, and works part-time at both Browns Shoes and Sushi California.
Jessica Kuan also works at Sushi California, as well as at BlueShore Financial.
Sobbuh Behrouzi, 28, identifies as having “multiple entrepreneurial endeavours.” He works for his family’s chain of grocery stores – Persia Foods – and runs Pistol and Burnes, a coffee-roasting business.
Behrouzi did product management and strategy for Momentus Software, but now has two startups in various stages of development.
One is Kiki’s food delivery service, the other is Veg, an app that helps vegetarians find restaurants around the city.
“It’s always a struggle for any entrepreneur,” said Behrouzi, when speaking about finding balance between so many professional endeavours. “Knowing what to focus on is really an advantage of experience. I think that is a skill you learn over time and through successes and failures.”
