The 2001 study suggests all that will change. To reach its findings, the pollsters conducted interviews with 2,001 college freshmen from 100 different public and private four-year colleges across the United States. The composite picture that emerges of the Millennial Generation contrasts sharply with the X patterns. The freshmen have clear and fixed career goals that they expect to achieve through hard work. They are confident and optimistic, not only about themselves, but about the general direction of the country and its future.
Technology is seen as their biggest advantage, followed by better career opportunities.
The freshmen hold their parents in high regard, but distrust Generation X. Honesty and integrity are the attributes they admire the most. Their top requirements for jobs are having idealistic and committed co-workers, and doing work that helps others. They have realistic salary expectations. This isn't the first time in our history that a generation has been more or less raised as an antidote to the one that preceded it. The now famous, high-achieving heroic G.I. Generation was cast in much the same light to remedy the wrongs associated with the Lost Generation that came before it.