Exit
is much more collegial than on
Wall Street, Blake said. He recently went on a 5-mile run with his
boss during a business trip, something he said would have never
happened at his old job.
“Everybody knows each other;
we shoot the shit all the time,”
Blake said. For him, leaving the
world of suits and the need to
constantly check his BlackBerry
was such a “no brainer” that he
left his bonus on the table — essentially passing up thousands
of dollars — to do so.
“[Young people] definitely
want a different deal from their
work than their fathers and
mothers did,” said Stewart Friedman, the director of the Work/
Life Integration program at the
University of Pennsylvania’s
Wharton Business School. “Part
of it is the role models — or lack
of role models — for the kinds
of lives they want to live in their
own parents. They see a lifestyle
of all-consuming immersion in
work that is not something that
they want to do.”
Friedman conducted a study
comparing the expectations of
college seniors in 1992 to those
of graduating seniors in 2012.
He found today’s 20-somethings
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were more likely than their older counterparts to say their job
should provide them with a sense
of purpose and the chance to help
others. In addition, the 2012 seniors were more likely to associate career success with being able
to determine their own hours and
have time to themselves.
More traditional companies
outside of banking are catching on. MGM resorts advertises a
The attitude is just
always having to be there
and just always trying to
impress people. Sometimes
you needed to be sitting
there just to be sitting there.”
“work, live, play” attitude for its
program, which provides paid interns with opportunities like pool
parties with a DJ, volunteer trips
during work hours and running
one of the resorts’ famed roller
coasters. Their strategy of catering to interns is paying off. According to Adam Miller, who runs
the program, the company has so
far received more than 1,000 applications for just 40 slots
open for this summer.