Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials make up a generation nearly as large as the Baby Boom, and they’re full of potential. In an interview with Elisabeth (Lis) Steklis, 26-year-old executive at a full-service residential interior design firm and graduate of Drexel School of Design, features of the best millennials compared to other generations, as well as other millennials become clear.

Traits of millennial overlap with those of other generations when they are going through similar life stages. For example, early career seekers usually look for positions offering opportunities for career advancement. They require strong leadership, and wish to be believed in and given a chance. Differentiating characteristics of millennials include cohort experiences such as greater technical savvy from more Web exposure. The shared 9-11 experience invokes patriotism. They tend to find comfort in networks and team experience. Since they have the benefit of a large network and vast opportunity at their You Tube/Monster fingertips, they don’t have the patience to pay dues when not finding fulfillment in work, and they tend move on rather than stay the course. 

Innovating, leading millennials stand out from their peers on the issue of “paying dues,” as well as on other more subtle factors. Lis Steklis’ experience illustrates this. 

Lis works for the family business of Philip Greenberg and Associates, a niche interior design firm with cache clients in business for over 15 years on the Main Line in Philadelphia and featured on the television show "Designers Challenge." She purposely took a position in which she could “learn the business from the ground up.” She chose to work in a smaller, more intimate family business setting rather than work in a large firm because she felt she would be given more personal attention and gain a greater sense of professional identity. This strategy has paid off. In her current position, she manages all aspects of the business from drafting, proposals and their presentations, to invoicing, trouble-shooting and project management.

Lis says she believes in paying dues. She says that though she is living her passion, her income is likely lower than that of her peers in commercial design and other fields like investment banking. She says that she is happy with her choices and looks forward to her future with enthusiasm. 

She aims to balance life with work more as she establishes her career. She has long-term goals and hopes to be married by about age 30. She hopes to start her own firm doing staging to help sell residences in the coming years as she feels she is ready. She creates “Happy Spaces” with her DNA design approach – De-clutter, Neutralize and Accessorize.

Lis’ traits that typify the risers include: self-discipline and confidence to start out doing the area of their passion even if it means taking less pay than peers and passing up opportunities in higher paying areas; a willingness to learn from the ground up and pay dues; active and definitive longer term goal setting for work and life.

To recruit and manage the best millennials:
1. Offer the chance to flexibly take on a lot of responsibility.
2. Provide stepping stones and opportunity from the ground up. 
3. Show strong, reliable leadership. 
4. Explicitly allow for and encourage teamwork and collaboration. 
5. Interact and observe enough to ascertain their levels of job satisfaction, so the best will stay longer.

It's important to offer incentives attractive to milliennials, because they all do have an extensive network of contacts and opportunity at their fingertips more than any other generation.