Generation Y: Tech-savvy grads with pushy parents

By Peter Apps

LONDON (Reuters) - They may be a whiz with the computer and brimming with confidence, but would you give "Generation Y" a job if you had to suffer their pushy parents and fairweather notions of loyalty?

Technologically skilled, convinced they are highly employable but sometimes genuinely useless, the new British university-educated graduates are maddening employers -- but a recession could burst their bubble.

Britain's universities are turning out more graduates than ever before, and a report on Thursday from the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGA) said employers found the generation born since 1982 ambitious, demanding, confident -- or overconfident -- tech-savvy and ethically conscious.

But they also said some were simply "self-centered", "fickle" and "greedy".

"They are coming up to recruitment stands at events and saying "what can you offer me?"," LGA chief executive Carl Gilleard told Reuters. "Better would be to say "do you have time so I can tell you what I can offer... Generation Y is me, me, me."

But perhaps unlike the more cynical, disaffected "Generation X" of the 1960s and 70s, they are less focused on salary and more on work-life balance, environment and ethics, he said.

With a job for life being something of the past, they are also seen as less loyal to individual employers.

The 217 employers surveyed -- including government organizations, major banks and companies -- said despite many applicants they had trouble finding suitable candidates.