Chris Resto is the author of Recruit or Die: How Any Business Can Beat the Big Guys in the War for Young Talent

When I received my first project assignment as a new hire at Gemini Consulting (now Capgemini), I was quite unhappy. My peers were assigned to the fast-paced industries of financial services and telecommunications, and I was “stuck” with a client in publishing.

“How boring,” I thought. “How will this benefit my career?”

This is a common challenge for managers of young talent. Although recent grads do want to contribute to the organization, they also want to make sure they are developing their own skills and career paths, right from the start. If they don't believe there's something in it for them, their performance may show it.

The good news: a little care and education goes a long way when a young employee makes snap judgments about an assignment, as I did, based on limited and superficial information. But I was lucky enough to have a manager who helped me see this light.

As you might expect, my manager sat with me at the beginning of our project and told me what his expectations were. But when I thought the meeting was over, he said, “Now, Chris, what are your expectations? What do you want to learn?” I was stunned, and pleasantly surprised.

I told him I worried that this project in publishing wouldn't be as challenging as one in banking or telecom. He smiled, sensing that it was simply a matter of which industries seemed more glamorous to me on the surface. So he walked me through the specific tasks and responsibilities of each of the projects. It turned out that the publishing project was quite complex, involving a parent company's six business units in different locations and requiring us to navigate many complex culture conflicts in addition to making the data-driven business case for changing processes. My manager had given me the information to see for myself that the publishing project would give me ample opportunity to build new skills and my resume.

Then I told him what I wanted to learn. He replied, “Your expectations are too low. Here, I'll help you think of some more because we want to make sure you get more out of this project.” It was then when I realized I was so naive and didn’t know what I didn’t know. He added as goals for me, learn how to organize a large meeting, learn how to facilitate a large meeting, and learn how to present to a group of people who won’t initially be open to your message. As my manager detailed additional skills I could gain from the assignment, I became grateful that he cared about my career.

Since I have been running UPOP, a professional development and internship program for sophomores at MIT, I have seen other great examples of managers use this process of managing expectations to turn new hires' frowns into smiles. One manager at Johnson & Johnson is among the best. He takes a UPOP intern every summer, and every summer the student isn't exactly thrilled about the work that lies ahead.

His trick: At the beginning of projects, he asks my interns to write down their expectations for the projects and for him as a manager. He asks them to list professional skills they want to develop and anything they learned in school that they hope to apply. Then the manager does the same exercise separately. When both lists are done, the manager and intern compare their results, and work on compromises to expectations that don’t overlap.

Year after year, this manager's interns leave J&J saying it was the best experience ever. And the manager claims that his interns add tremendous value to his group.

When setting expectations with young talent, make it a two-way street. Your new hires will feel much more valued and will be motivated to create more value for your organization and your clients.