Gen Z: helpless or just asking for help?

Surveys show bad behavior when it comes to job hunting. A survey of over 1400 Gen Zers showed abundant reliance on parents for their job search. For instance, the survey showed:

• 25 percent brought their parents to interviews
• 70 percent asked their parents for help with job hunting
• Out of those 76 percent of mothers and 45 percent of fathers helped out
• 17 percent had parents submit job applications for them
• 34 percent said they had a parent do the job application because they were unmotivated.

On the surface, these are depressing statistics, but they don’t seem to match what I see in my life. Are all these youngsters stuck in terminal childhood with mommy (and the survey showed it was more likely mom) taking charge of life into their 20s?

Or is the problem exaggerated?

Who is at fault here?

First, the concept of the younger generation being inept is something every adult says about the new generation, and has probably been said since the dawn of time. (Adam to Eve: ‘Our boys just don’t have the work ethic we did! Why do we put in 60 hours a week tending the Garden of Eden? Now, look at them—lollygagging around!’)

Second, the clear problem to this is not Gen Z, but the parents. “No, I will not come with you to your job interview” is something every parent should say. (There are clear exceptions for disabilities, and indeed, it’s okay to drive someone to an interview but wait in the car.)

If Gen Z is misusing parents, the onus falls on the parents’ heads. But not everything that looks bad is bad.

Also read: Reversed ageism: Why do companies avoid Gen Z workers?

It’s okay to get  help

70 percent asked parents for help with job hunting. That’s fine! Very few people are experts at job hunting and asking for help is normal. I’ve sat down with people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, and gone over their resumes and given them interviewing tips. Many people hire professional resume writers to pull together a great resume. And ChatGPT resume writing is a booming business.

By combining asking for help (which is normal) with parents doing the applying for you (which is abnormal) makes the Gen Z situation look far worse in than it is.

In fact, I don’t think the problem is nearly as bad as this survey shows. I think most Gen Z is doing pretty well. I asked on LinkedIn if others were seeing what I was seeing, and got responses that are well worth reading. For instance: 

Sarah White: It’s the same BS they said about us when we were young. I had a recruiter on here when pushed admit that the parent was “brought to the interview” because she was at home and walked by on accident during a video interview.

Another one admitted that it was because the parent drove to the office and stayed in the car (the persons car may have broke down/been in the shop/etc).

There’s a lot of liberties being taken for dramatic effect on LinkedIn lately by recruiters.

Lindsay Mastro: They also cursed millennials for job jumping and causing an avocado toast epidemic. It’s always something. I’ve loved interviewing and working with GenZ’ers. They’re fun, stick to their boundaries, authentic, and inspire the new wave of work ✊🏻

Matt Russell: I’ve interviewed many of them and hired an intern last year. I have never seen or heard from mom, dad, auntie, or their cat in the interview for that matter. Like many things, I believe it’s targeted noise that gets blown out of proportion. Do they need coaching and support as they enter the workforce? Yes! So did I back when I was little whipper snapper as a young millennial.

Irma Croteau: The Gen Z’s in my personal circle of friends are amazing young people who are smart and driven. We “adults” often joke that they wouldn’t be our friends if we had been their peers instead of their parents because the majority of them are a lot more mature than we (Gen X) ever were at their age. My one Gen Z team member is smart, driven, ambitious, and has a “give me more, I’ll figure it out” attitude to any challenge. I’m not worried about the future, the top 20% always end up doing 80% of the work anyway…we’ll be fine.

Of course there are horror stories! I have my own. The very first job interview I was involved in (when I wasn’t the candidate), the candidate showed up in shorts so short, Gen Xers would call them Daisy Duke shorts. This was 1997. She did not get the job.

So as many have said, they need some time and some coaching. Who is responsible for that?

Training Gen Z

Every generation needs training. Some people need more than others. It would be great if every new applicant was trained by some other school or business and you could just hire amazing, well-trained individuals. That’s not practical.

Instead, consider that onboarding a 22-year-old can be significantly different than onboarding an experienced professional. Both need clear guidelines about your company’s policy and practices. Assuming the older candidate already knows how to behave can also get you into trouble.

And if mom or dad shows up for an interview? Do not give the parent a chance to sit down. Say, “Thank you so much for driving Junior. The interview process will take about two hours, and he’ll text you when he’s done.” Then hold the door open until the parent leaves.