Millennials have grown up in an age of multi-tasking. Multitasking is defined as “The practice or capability of handling more than one task at the same time,¹”  but the way in which it manifests itself reveals far greater insight into millennials and their approach to school, work, relationships, life, and their entire future.

They are so accustomed to multi-tasking that they find anything else to be boring. 

In school, this means watching movies while doing their history reading, in work it means not wanting to spend hours on tasks that seem meaningless, in relationships it means texting one friend while talking to another, and in life it means always needing to see something new and exciting on the horizon.  As for their future, their world is changing so quickly, and technology is advancing at such astonishing rates, that most of them can’t even determine where their IT careers will take them in 5 years, let alone 50. 

Consider IT contract employment as the bridge between the traditional model of lifelong careers at a single company, and the new workforce which complements contract employment and entices millennials with change, variety, and excitement.

Instead of a ‘regular’ job that may drag on for years until an employee picks an arbitrary time to leave and move on to a new company, contract employment offers IT careers with something that millennials crave: a purpose.  Contract employment places candidates into a specific role, a defined project, with a beginning, middle, and end.  Millennials want the power to choose, going so far as to expect things to be catered to them, from playlists on internet radio to product recommendations on shopping websites.  IT contract employment offers candidates the flexibility and control to choose the next path of their IT careers based on the particular contract: the location, duration, company, role, compensation, and objective of the project.  When the project is complete, there is a natural opportunity to advance to a different contract and/or a different company, making IT contract employment advantageous in today’s workforce.

At one time, a point could have been made that ‘permanent’ positions offer greater job security than contract employment, but the last few years have proven ultimate job security to be a fantasy.  Millennials know this first hand, as they have watched friends and relatives be laid off, and companies close or leave the area. They do not enter the job market with a preconceived expectation of achieving career-long loyalty with one specific company.  IT contract employment not only acknowledges this change in the workforce dynamic, it embraces it.

When you consider all of the benefits of contract employment, especially as it aligns with the career goals and working habits of millennials, it’s clear that IT contract employment and millennials are a match for the workforce of the future. Contract employment does not cure millennials of their need to be attached to their smartphone 24/7, nor does it instantly give them wisdom, patience, and focus.  It, however, provides exciting career opportunities and a sense of professional satisfaction, which is a strong foundation for obtaining the others.

¹ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/multitasking