Two weeks from now, product designer Dav-id Seymour will board a plane to Pakistan to begin an eight-month tour of Asia.

Seymour, 25, graduated in 2006 and has been working in design for a manufacturing company since then, but now he feels ready to broaden his horizons. His plan is to travel overland through India, China, Laos and Vietnam before flying on to Australia, where he will spend a year working freelance.

After that he will move on to South America for more travelling and then perhaps to North America before he considers his options for a permanent job.

“I think my generation feel freer to follow our own paths,” he said. “There are so many options open to us. It’s a cliché, but you only live once. You have to find a job you love, and experience as much of life as you can.”

Seymour’s views are typical of a group researchers call Generation Y – of those born after 1980 who have grown up in the information age. Several studies have been carried out into the characteristics of this group and now, as they begin to dominate the graduate-jobs market, recruiters are striving to understand what motivates them.

At the Association of Graduate Recruiters’ (AGR) 40th annual conference, which opens today, a panel of experts will debate the Generation Y issue. Some will argue it is an irrele-vance while others will insist that tailoring the recruitment process to fit their needs is the only way organisations can attract the best young employees.

Speaking on the importance of understanding Generation Y will be Paul Redmond, head of the Careers & Employability Service at the University of Liv-erpool and a leading expert on generation theory and the graduate recruitment market.

He believes these youngsters have been shaped by three forces that make them different to previous generations. “The first and most significant is technology,” he said. “These are digital natives who have grown up with instant access to the internet and who are running their own businesses from their laptops while they’re still students.

“The second is a change in institutions – education is very different now and organisations are more dynamic. The third factor is the change in society’s values. Young people in this generation have been really cared for and protected by their parents, which has shaped their outlook.”

Redmond said this combination of influences had created a generation that was confident and entrepreneurial, who saw a career as a cause and wanted a socially responsible employer. Generation Y people, he said, were success-driven, bored by routine, expected a good work-life balance from day one and were prepared to walk away from an employer that did not respond to their values and concerns.

For recruiters keen to attract the top new graduates, this is valuable information.

Yvonne Crew, graduate recruitment manager at Centrica, the energy company, said: “There have been a number of studies into how to attract this group. One found that within three clicks on a company’s web-site these graduates want to know what your business does, what criteria they need to meet as candidates and to whom they can talk about it.

“If that’s not there, they lose interest and go somewhere else. We want the top graduates to come to us, so it’s vital we speak to them in their own language.”

Andy Headworth, managing director of Sirona Consulting, which specialises in giving businesses advice on how to deal with Generation Y staff, believes such changes are crucial for retaining this workforce. He said it might be necessary to reeducate Generation X and Baby Boomer staff on how best to manage the new age group.

“Generation Y have been brought up to expect a lot from life,” he said. “They’ve been mol-lycoddled from birth and expect to be treated with respect. Managers have to coach them through problems rather than simply telling them what to do.

“Organisations have to adapt to these expectations, otherwise their best staff will walk.”

Employers are already taking steps to ensure they hold on to their Generation Y graduates. Centrica is using open social networks via its intranet site to pass on information to graduates. The company is focusing on worklife-balance flexibility, has provided laptops for all new graduates and summer interns to facilitate flexible working and aims to provide mentoring for graduates from their first day in the job.

Some experts, however, feel that the Generation Y label is irrelevant in the workplace and that employers don’t need to bend over backwards to accommodate the perceived wishes of this group.

“It’s a mistake to stereotype any age group,” said Graeme Wright, who is the head of planning and research at the recruitment consultant Work Communications.

“There’s a huge range of attitudes and priorities out there; if you’re talking to people looking for a job in the City or law you’ll find they’re just as willing to make sacrifices for their careers as the generations before them,” he said.

“And the whole argument falls down if you look at the Chinese market, where young people are even further away from the Generation Y definition.”

Even if the generalisations are accurate, British Generation Y graduates may have to adjust their expectations to compete in a globalised workplace.

Business education expert Sir Paul Judge, who will be speaking at the AGR conference on the skills graduates will need in an era of globalisation, said: “Every year in India, 24m kids start primary school, and another 21m start in China. Eventually, all those kids will come out with good degrees and good training. They won’t be insisting on work-life balance.

“Our world is changing and our graduates need to be prepared for tough competition. I think we’re probably at a peak of putting so much emphasis on our lifestyles.”

For now, though, Generation Y are undeterred in their conviction that there is another way, and perhaps their entrepreneurial spirit and technological nous will mean they remain unruffled by international competition.

“In a dream scenario I would set up my own design company,” said Seymour. “You can do everything online now, you don’t even need to meet your client, so you can work freelance from wherever you want to be. I like the idea of settling in the French countryside. I definitely see work as a means to an end rather than how I want to spend my life.”

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