As millennials enter the workplace in growing numbers, an unflattering stereotype persists in the minds of incumbents: Generation Zuckerberg are selfie-snappers that value re-tweets and Instagram fame over the greater good.

“I actually think that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Adam Smiley Poswolsky, author of “The Quarter-Life Breakthrough.”

According to research from IBM Corp. and others, there is stark evidence against this, he said at the 28th Professional BusinessWomen of California Conference in San Francisco. “Fifty percent of millennials would take a pay-cut to find work that matches their values; 90 percent want to use their skill for good,” he told Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio.

Further, they don’t see pursuit of social good as some pastime separate from work; they see it as part of their identity inside the workplace as much as outside, Poswolsky explained. Companies can attract Millennials by integrating social good into the mission of the company and offering opportunities for service projects or paid sabbaticals for purpose driven work.

And yet the stereotype is borne out in other areas, Poswolsky admitted. “We need to do a better job of being patient, being persistent,” he said. “You can’t expect to start a job and in two months, get promoted.”

Agitating for change

If Millennials can nail this, they can give their ideas for social change practical legs to walk on, he said.

Case in point: Poswolsky got an idea while talking to female speakers at events. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, well they covered my transportation, they covered my Lyft and a salad or my hotel maybe.’ And I’ll be like, ‘Well, I got paid $5,000.'”

So, Poswolsky started the Women Speaker Initiative to address this pay gap and the overall dearth of female and minority speakers at conferences.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the PBWC Conference.

Photo: SiliconANGLE