If you’ve read the posts Racing to Roam or Bucket List, then you are familiar with my journey to complete races across the country, which has often led me to small towns with a unique mixture of attributes or histories. However, since fulfilling the task of all 50 states in 2021, the focus has shifted to finding races with themes that reflect a particular area of the country best. In West Tennessee it’s not uncommon to find festivals and races related to something the town is known for like Doodle Soup Days in Bradford or the Strawberry Festival in Humboldt. So, last summer, Christie and I chose to complete a race at the White Squirrel Festival in Kenton. In case you were not aware, Kenton is one of four communities in the US with a large population of white squirrels. And since we had been seeing a white squirrel on our daily walks on Union’s campus, we thought it fitting.

Being familiar with Kenton’s claim to fame, my attention was grabbed when I read the term Purple Squirrels in an article about how colleges can prepare students for the jobs that are ahead in the workplace. I guess if God can create white squirrels, why not Purple ones too! However, a little digging into the term found me in an unexpected place and adding some new vocabulary to my generational notebook. It seems that human resource personnel, specifically recruiters, are using the term Purple Squirrels to describe people with unusual combinations of skills. David Dumeresque refers to Purple Squirrels as those “very rare individuals who are extremely talented with a multifarious mix of core skills—education, competencies and experience—but with that ‘X’ factor that allows them to look at things differently and see opportunities where others might not.”

So, as faculty members who are often responsible for recommending students for internships, grad school, and job placements, how can we be coaching our students to become Purple Squirrels? Scott Carlson shares, “…the most mindful and successful colleges will teach undergraduates how to evolve in their careers, preparing them for a period of exponential change and constant disruption.” Many of the job titles our students will hold in the future haven’t even been created yet, so how do we teach them the essential skills that will lay a solid foundation for their success?

This challenge is real for both higher education and human resources, as I often hear when discussing Emerging Generations. Competency in the soft skills, what I refer to as essential skills, are what make the Purple Squirrels stand out and why they are desirable to potential employers. The reality is that as rare as it is to see a white squirrel, even in Tennessee, finding a Purple Squirrel is becoming even more difficult. The life experiences that cultivate these essential skills are lacking in many college graduates. “Recent college graduates, employers and researchers say, may not display the maturity, initiative, communication skills, and workplace etiquette that would allow them to excel in a corporate environment,” offers Carlson.

It appears, at least according to my research, that employers are seeking those Purple Squirrels who have demonstrated some type of leadership experience in college, whether that comes in the form of Greek life or being a lifeguard. Recruiters are finding that those who rise to these leadership positions seem better equipped to transfer learning from one area of life into another. Carlson’s research explains, “the latest generation of workers has grown up in an environment that is too structured—or too ‘syllabused.’” They struggle to make practical applications from one situation to the next, they have not engaged in enough experiential learning to grasp what failure at a task can teach them.

Carlson’s article in The Chronicle offers several solutions that could assist us in cultivating Purple Squirrels on our campuses, but the biggest obstacle appears to be that “Nobody’s measuring that. The only thing that matters is that first job and its starting salary. End of story. Why aren’t we collecting data that first 10 years to see how the education and all these broader skills come into play?” Excellent question, in my opinion, and it returns me back to the post Follow Where You’ve Been. What can I do, in my area of influence, to encourage becoming a Purple Squirrel? Please consider sharing any ideas you have in the comments below so that we can help emerging generations to flourish!

References:

Carlson, S. (2017). The future of work: How colleges can prepare students for the jobs ahead. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dumeresque, D. (2014, October 1). Purple squirrels: Hiring the ultimate game changers. Semantic Scholar. Retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Purple-squirrels%3A-Hiring-the-ultimate-game-changers-Dumeresque/7cd38b6bf134d057276ef9c05d3d62a32a3f08c8