New graduates want stability, not startups

The fantasy of graduating from college and immediately going to work with the next Mark Zuckerberg is dying.

For the first time in years, fewer college graduates are enamored by the idea of working for startup companies. Instead, this year’s college graduates say they want the security and stability that comes from employment at large established companies, according to a survey by Accenture.

The number seeking jobs at large companies is up 37 percent over last year’s graduating class, according to researchers for the business management consulting firm, who describe this year’s graduates as more like their parents’ generation than the millennials that preceded them in college.

Millennials are known as an entrepreneurial group — a generation skeptical of big business and drawn to small startups where they can get in on the ground floor, innovate, make their mark and maybe get rich off stock options if the business hits it big.

But working for startups is tough. Only a few grow into a Facebook or Google. Most don’t survive. And this year’s graduates are in no mood for risks.

“They’ve seen the classes before them and their predecessors feeling underemployed,” said Teri Hill, managing director for Accenture. “This group fears that the most.”

To compile its report, Accenture surveyed 1,000 U.S. students between the ages of 18 and 24 who are graduating from college in 2017, and 1,000 students who graduated in 2015 or 2016.

Accenture found that 54 percent of the people who graduated a year ago consider themselves underemployed, or working in positions that don’t fully utilize their skills. About 49 percent accepted a lower salary or benefits than they anticipated and 44 percent found it difficult to get a job.

Rather than being drawn to an entrepreneurial experience, this year’s graduates stress the significance of getting a good salary and training on the job, according to the report. About 84 percent expect their first employer to provide formal training.

That is the opposite of what small startups typically offer.