The issue is tremendously complicated. Distrust anyone painting a single viewpoint, especially a populist one. There are several facets that deserve individual analysis.
Professions with no market in Italy
There are professions where work in Italy is scarce or underpaid. The arts world, or the organized nonprofit sector. Despite being a country overflowing with artistic heritage and foundations, we generally refuse to pay professionals in these fields. Worse, the few positions available are too often assigned through nepotism or given to wives, lovers, and friends. The natural effect is that many young people go where an actual job market exists.
Out-of-control competition
Then there are professions where competition in Italy is completely out of control. Marketing, psychology, teaching. Serious selective universities produce graduates for the same market flooded by diploma mills. The result is an absurd number of candidates for very few positions. Human nature divides people into those who fight to the last drop, those who freeze from anxiety, and those who seek new territories. Fight, freeze, or flight.
A gerontocratic country
Internships and early career experiences in Italy are generally underpaid. In the German and Anglo-Saxon world, there's more respect for beginners. Better paid and more listened to. In Italy you're generally disposable because we live in a gerontocratic country, dominated by people over 60. Public debt is cannibalized by pensions, corporate executives aren't typically young, they hoard benefits and salaries, and they're not always enthusiastic about new arrivals.
Generational entitlement
This must also be said: many young people under 30 live in a pathological state of entitlement. While my generation was perfectly fine fighting tooth and nail, working until midnight, and living in basements, too many now believe they're owed something simply because they're special. Either it's handed to them effortlessly, or they burn out, or they quit indignantly and live on benefits or parents' money.
The dozens of times I've encountered this pattern as a manager are incredible. It's a real phenomenon that clashes with my Calvinist work ethic, which holds that the world is hard and nobody owes you anything.
The myth of abroad
Going abroad seems like a brilliant option. But how much do you spend relocating? How much must you invest? Are you certain that the spreadsheet of income and expenses comes out better than staying? I'm not. My experience is that grinding it out in Milan yielded a better return on investment than 80% of my acquaintances who flew to London or Germany.
A narrative has spread that competition abroad is easier. Perhaps. Some people have genuinely succeeded abroad and deserve respect and admiration. But many others are washing dishes in London at 40. You can't universalize.
How to retain talent
I believe in failing fast: I stress-test people immediately to understand their character. I pay them fairly for their contribution, offer free training, and listen to their perspectives — what I never had and find unjust. And I try to stimulate in those trapped in entitlement an ethic of pragmatism and fight. When they manage to transform their frustration into a desire to prove themselves, magic happens.
