Re-Energize Entertainment Engineering: How to Blend the Experience of Yesterday with Millennials' Vision of Tomorrow

With the average age of SMPTE members increasing, the entertainment industry needs to attract and retain young engineers to strengthen our ranks and our future. Millennials are key consumers of our products, but how do we attract them to the industry as technical professionals? The differences between Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials are vast in everything from work philosophy, to pace, to professional goals. Is the entertainment industry properly equipped to recruit, manage, mentor and retain this new generation? — This paper is a compilation of the essays listed below by Millennial engineers in the entertainment industry - all in their 20s - with observations, ideas and recommendations on how to engage with their generation. Highlights include the benefits of a corporate program targeted at recruiting and training Millennials, SMPTE education outreach and hiring non-engineers for engineering positions. • “Evaluate Millennials On Our Potential, Not Our Experience”, by Joshua Berkowitz • “How Motion Pictures and Television Found Me”, by Abel Lawal • “Education and Engagement with the Millennial Generation”, by Matthew Donato • “Working Together: A Bridge of Understanding from Millennials to Baby Boomers and Generation X”, by Jaclyn Pytlarz • “Competition vs. Collaboration: How Entertainment Engineering can Benefit from the ‘Open Source’ Generation”, by Jennifer Zeidan • “It's All About Personalization”, by Stephanie Wu — It is hoped that these essays will be widely read, considered and embraced to help the entertainment industry fully benefit from the talents and energy of the Millennial generation.

Published

2016-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

millennial, millennials, generations, generational, cross-generation, baby boomers, generation X, generation Y, generation Z, gen X, gen Y, gen Z, diversity, entertainment industry, engineers, engineering, entertainment engineers, entertainment engineering, television engineers, motion picture engineers, careers, recruiting, hiring, students, graduates, applicants, college, university, mentor, mentoring, collaboration

DOI

10.5594/M001716

ISBN

978-1-61482-957-7