Ploymint

A couple of days ago, I found a quiz entitled “How Millennial are You?”. Normally I don’t take these kinds of online quizzes, but the fact that it was done by Pew Research Center made me give it a shot.

My Millennial score was 93 out of 100. Online results are compared to a national phone survey that polled a sample of 2,020 adults. 60 questions were asked in the phone survey, and the online version was composed of the 15 questions show to be the best predictors of typical Millennial characteristics. In a sense, this test is the generational version of the Myers-Briggs test.

The Four Generations

Although Generation Z technically makes five generations, only adults 18 years or older were included in the phone survey. Social scientists state this generation consists of those who were born after 1997, so no members of this generation have reached adulthood. Here are the four generations and the average millennial score they received on the phone survey.

The Silent Generation (1928-1945). Millennial score=4

The Baby Boomers (1946- 1964). Millennial score=11

Generation X (1965-1980) Millennial score=33

Millennials (1981-1997) Millennial score=71

What Makes You a Millennial?

For each question, you are able to see the percentage of how many members of each generation gave the same answer. One of the most telling questions was “Have you ever created a Social Media profile?”. 75% of Millennials answered yes, compared to 50% of Gen X, 30% of the Baby Boomers, and 6% of the Silent Generation.

Many people think Millennials just talk about themselves on their digital space, but many are using Social Media to land jobs. Platforms like LinkedIn have changed the way we network within our fields. With that being said, Social Media is also one of the Millennial’s main form of communication. How many times have you had a friend not have the time to answer a text, yet you see them Tweeting at that same time?

That’s not to say Millennials favor Social Media over texting. 25% of Millennials send or receive 50 text messages a day. Anyone in a group chat with four or more people know that number can be more like 500 on some days.

According to this survey, being career-minded is another defining Millennial characteristic. In response to the question “ How important is being successful in a high-paying career or profession”, 15% of Millennials said it was one of the most important things. This is compared to 10% of Generation X, 4% of Baby Boomers, and 5% of the Silent Generation. 47% of Millennials said it was very important. At 40%, Generation X is the most similar, but the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation both come in at 28%. The Silent Generation had 32% say this wasn’t important in their lives, the Baby Boomers were at 25%, and Generation X came in at 17%. This is compared to only 10% of Millennials who don’t consider a high-paying job important. In my opinion, I think this is important to Millennials because of the massive mountain of student loan debts most of us have. I know my loans are a big motivator for me in growing my writing business.

How Millennial are you? Take the quiz and find out. Do you think our characteristics help or hurt us in the workplace? We’d love to get a discussion going about our answers!