Gen Z and Job Interviews

[Vambram]

1 in 4 Gen Zers Brought a Parent to a Job Interview - ResumeTemplates.com

A ResumeTemplates.com survey found that 70% of Gen Zers ask their parents for help in the job search process.

www.resumetemplates.com

I ran across this interesting survey tonight as it was linked from a website which I often read for news and opinions. Do the survey results match up with anyone from Generation Z that y'all know?
What are y'alls thoughts concerning the different results of this survey?

 

[Ana the Ist]

1 in 4 Gen Zers Brought a Parent to a Job Interview - ResumeTemplates.com

A ResumeTemplates.com survey found that 70% of Gen Zers ask their parents for help in the job search process.

www.resumetemplates.com

I ran across this interesting survey tonight as it was linked from a website which I often read for news and opinions. Do the survey results match up with anyone from Generation Z that y'all know?
What are y'alls thoughts concerning the different results of this survey?

I don't understand what it means when it says "25% brought their parent to a job interview".

Did they need their parents' permission to get the job?

Did the parent work at the company?

 

[Ana the Ist]

This is what I keep picturing lol.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I don't understand what it means when it says "25% brought their parent to a job interview".

Did they need their parents' permission to get the job?

Did the parent work at the company?

When my son was 18 I took him to go apply for a particular job. I did it when he was 16 for his first job also.

I didn't go to any after that... But my son has learning disabilities that make writing difficult for him and I personally wanted to make sure he filled out the application correctly and didn't have problems with it.

It was a job that was perfect for him so it was important to me to make sure he got through the first portion of it that I knew would be difficult for him, and one of the things they asked was that the application be filled out there.

I never went to any with my daughter but she didn't have learning disabilities - my son was different because I wanted to make sure he got off to the kind of start in life he needed.

So I guess in general I get hovering, I did my fair share... lol

I have read many articles that say this is fairly common now even for parents of kids without disabilities...

But it might just be a similar vein, wanting to make sure their kids can make it through so they have a good start in life getting their first jobs.

It's some pretty hardcore hovering though if your kid has an average to above average intelligence - even if it's a company you work for.

 

[Ana the Ist]

When my son was 18 I took him to go apply for a particular job. I did it when he was 16 for his first job also.

I didn't go to any after that... But my son has learning disabilities that make writing difficult for him and I personally wanted to make sure he filled out the application correctly and didn't have problems with it.

It was a job that was perfect for him so it was important to me to make sure he got through the first portion of it that I knew would be difficult for him, and one of the things they asked was that the application be filled out there.

I never went to any with my daughter but she didn't have learning disabilities - my son was different because I wanted to make sure he got off to the kind of start in life he needed.

So I guess in general I get hovering, I did my fair share... lol

I have read many articles that say this is fairly common now even for parents of kids without disabilities...

But it might just be a similar vein, wanting to make sure their kids can make it through so they have a good start in life getting their first jobs.

It's some pretty hardcore hovering though if your kid has an average to above average intelligence - even if it's a company you work for.

Now, this is the sort of situation I can easily understand. I got my first job at 15 and had a parent sign off on it but I wasn't quite sure if that's what was being described in the survey.

 

[Vambram]

Now, this is the sort of situation I can easily understand. I got my first job at 15 and had a parent sign off on it but I wasn't quite sure if that's what was being described in the survey.

From what I understood in the survey, the 25% of Gen Z who brought a parent to the job interview did so in order to try to help them do better with the interview and get that desired job.

 

[Hazelelponi]

1 in 4 Gen Zers Brought a Parent to a Job Interview - ResumeTemplates.com

A ResumeTemplates.com survey found that 70% of Gen Zers ask their parents for help in the job search process.

www.resumetemplates.com

I ran across this interesting survey tonight as it was linked from a website which I often read for news and opinions. Do the survey results match up with anyone from Generation Z that y'all know?
What are y'alls thoughts concerning the different results of this survey?

I believe "help" can mean different things.

I "helped" my husband by designing, printing out and giving him a digital version of his resume for him, what he had sucked so I did a nice one for him. It was what he needed and he got every job he applied for after using the new resume.

You can pay for one to be done, which is what most people do, or you can finagle a free one... Lol. I'm for free...

Kids ask their parents a lot of questions concerning jobs and to them it might have been construed as helping.

Both my son and my husband's son are now in management, and surrounding these promotions for both of them there were myriad conversations as far as what to expect as well as when they were both new to management they would tell us if they were having a specific problem and ask us how we might deal with it.

So, there's "help" and then there's help.

To a degree we always help those we love, especially when facing unfamiliar situations.

My dad raised me as a "business woman", he really did. He taught me how to carry myself, how to shake hands with a man, how to speak with authority etc, and he started long before I hit puberty...

I did the same with my kids I suppose, because these things often determine success in life.

Is this all helping them get jobs? Yes... It is.

 

[ozso]

From what I understood in the survey, the 25% of Gen Z who brought a parent to the job interview did so in order to try to help them do better with the interview and get that desired job.

That's exactly it. They lack independence and self reliance. Haven't been taught those attributes and how being an adult works.

 

[Hazelelponi]

From what I understood in the survey, the 25% of Gen Z who brought a parent to the job interview did so in order to try to help them do better with the interview and get that desired job.

The most complaints about this that I hear is from businessmen who are saying college educated kids are taking parents to the job interview.

This number is rising and no one in business thinks it should.

They surveyed 800 managers, directors and executives who are directly involved in the hiring process and 19% said a recent college graduate brought a parent to the job interview with them 58% say recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce and nearly half of employers have had to fire a recent college graduate.

Nearly 4 in 10 employers avoid hiring recent college grads in favor of older workers - Intelligent

Intelligent.com surveyed 800 U.S. hiring managers on why Gen Z college graduates are less desirable to hire.

www.intelligent.com

^^^ that's what is concerning. Being prepared for the workforce is essential...

Our parents used to raise us in a manner that entering the workforce and navigating it was seamless and easy.

 

[dzheremi]

I'm very much outside of the surveyed demographic, but I can't imagine a world where bringing my father (were he still with us) would somehow increase my chances of getting the job! I never did that when I was whatever age Gen Z people are, either. I guess parenting must've shifted in recent decades, because the only thing the old man ever told me about jobs was to go out and get one and quit being such a bum. Haha.

 

[Gene2memE]

1 in 4 Gen Zers Brought a Parent to a Job Interview - ResumeTemplates.com

A ResumeTemplates.com survey found that 70% of Gen Zers ask their parents for help in the job search process.

www.resumetemplates.com

I ran across this interesting survey tonight as it was linked from a website which I often read for news and opinions. Do the survey results match up with anyone from Generation Z that y'all know?
What are y'alls thoughts concerning the different results of this survey?

Late Gen-X/Elder Millennial here (about to move past my mid 40s). I ran a team of ~15 to 20 people for about six or seven years in the mid 2010s. I would interview anywhere from 15 to 30 candidates a year, typically people just graduated from university. I've interviewed at least 100 late Gen Y and early Gen Z applicants in my time.

Parents "helping" with job applications and interview process was commonplace. The results aren't actually that surprising.

Having a parent physically present in the building was a not unusual occurrence. Parents would often drive their son/daughter to our offices and then wait in the lobby coffee shop. I ususally did the 'meeting with coffee' as part of the second round of the process, and met many parents of candidates.

Occasionally we'd get a more 'helicopter-parent' father/mother would walk their child up to our reception area - this was most common with younger applicants (2), female applicants or for applicants from Asian backgrounds. Some would even wait in our reception area until the interview was finished.

Parents being physically present during a job interview was more unusual. In my experience, it only happened twice - both with candidates where there was some light nepotism going on and I had rank pulled on me.

Early on in the pandemic, I did about a dozen video interviews and there were a couple cases where I suspected someone (maybe a parent) was coaching the applicant from out of shot.

 

[Gene2memE]

Our parents used to raise us in a manner that entering the workforce and navigating it was seamless and easy.

Did they? Not in my experience.

My experience with hiring is that Gen Z workers generally want a little more hand holding/emotional support and instruction than Gen X workers, but that they're also more capable of doing the tasks asked of them than earlier generations of workers. The key difference I think is in initiative - Gen X is generally are a bit more inclined to act on their own, whereas Gen Z are less comfortable with that. But that might just be an overall age thing too.

For me it's swings and roundabouts. Would I rather someone who's good at their job, but pretty much only does the work that they're asked to do and nothing more, or would I rather someone who's going to try and deliver extra, but sometimes goes things wrong when they go off reservation?

 

[Tropical Wilds]

1 in 4 Gen Zers Brought a Parent to a Job Interview - ResumeTemplates.com

A ResumeTemplates.com survey found that 70% of Gen Zers ask their parents for help in the job search process.

www.resumetemplates.com

I ran across this interesting survey tonight as it was linked from a website which I often read for news and opinions. Do the survey results match up with anyone from Generation Z that y'all know?
What are y'alls thoughts concerning the different results of this survey?

Since a majority of Gen Z are either just graduating college and over 30% are under the age of 18, I’m not sure why anybody would be surprised by these numbers. And I don’t know why anybody would be surprised at their resume being checked/worked on with a family member.

My sisters first job, my parents helped her fill out the application and after college my father (who has an MBA in business) helped her polish her resume. In fact, she *just* changed careers and she had both me and my father look over and polish her resume. She’s Gen X, mid/late 50s.

My first job I didn’t get help from my parents, but I was in a trade school and they facilitated my getting it at 16. After graduating college, my father looked over my resume and he drove me to a couple of interviews because they were far out of town and he offered the company and I accepted. After that, I got a job helping people transition into the job market so I didn’t need help anymore, seeing as resume buffing for others was part of my job. I’m a Millennial, early/mid 40s.

My husbands first job at 14 was because his mother said “we are going to lose our house” so he got a job. He got help from family filling it out and getting to and from the interview. He also recently had me look over his resume because he has held the same job for 25 years and has no idea what a resume should look like these days. He’s a Millennial, early/mid 40s.

My brother, Millennial, and my father and I go over his resume for his first job post-college. Anytime he has changed jobs he’s given me or my father his resume to look over. He’s early 40s.

My son just got his first job. We helped him with the application, my husband drove him to the interview, and he interviewed alone, but then the interviewer directly and specifically asked to speak to my husband and have him join the interview to hear described job duties, scheduling needs, hours, transportation, and get permission because my son was 16. He’s Gen Z.

My other two Gen Z kids are 13 and 14, so not old enough to join the job market.

Not sure I see where the shame is with a generation who’s either just over or just under the age of majority getting help from their parents lies.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

That's exactly it. They lack independence and self reliance. Haven't been taught those attributes and how being an adult works.

Since more than half of that generation is 20 and under, the youngest aren’t teenagers yet, and the oldest have only had college degrees for, at most, 2-3 years or are only now finishing post graduate degrees, I think lacking independence and self reliance puts them at where most people were at that age. Especially given for the 20+ crowd, they were raised to be prepared for pre-pandemic world, but got to be the ones to test-run the new post-pandemic one. My nephew who’s just graduating college and is Gen Z got an abbreviated version of all of the normal transitional milestones that come with being a Junior/Senior like job coaching, college prep, and employment/job/military fairs at school. Milestones he would have hit, like first job, were pushed back. His age per his birth certificate puts him at one place, but a world closed for 1.5-2 years and significantly limited for another 1.5-2 more has an impact.

The hand wringing at the autonomy of the generation on the launching pad and who more than half are still teenagers says more about the older generations than the younger. It means a whole new batch of people have crossed into the kids these days/back-in-my-day/old man yells at cloud territory. Where kids with their baggy pants and their rock music and their MySpace and their Tiks and their Toks are the thing that distracts us from the problems of our generation and the fear of getting older.

 

[Nithavela]

In a time where people are expected to have 5 years of job experience for an entry level position, where you might get one answer per 100 applications you write (not acceptance, just anything except dead air) and where many people are proven to just pretend that they are hiring as a scam, to get more potential recruits for a time where they might actually be hiring or to cover the fact that they are really going to hire someone based off nepotism, THIS is what you have a problem with? That young people are helped and supported by their parents?

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/why-do-entry-level-jobs-require-experience

Job Ghosting: Why Employers Ghost Candidates During The Interview Process

What is job ghosting and why has the trend become commonplace in the interviewing and hiring process?

www.forbes.com

https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-plum-job-listing-may-just-be-a-ghost-3aafc794

For shame.

It's no wonder that the trend of quiet quitting has been invented by a generation that is treated this way.

 

[Tropical Wilds]

In a time where people are expected to have 5 years of job experience for an entry level position, where you might get one answer per 100 applications you write (not acceptance, just anything except dead air) and where many people are proven to just pretend that they are hiring as a scam, to get more potential recruits for a time where they might actually be hiring or to cover the fact that they are really going to hire someone based off nepotism, THIS is what you have a problem with? That young people are helped and supported by their parents?

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/why-do-entry-level-jobs-require-experience

Job Ghosting: Why Employers Ghost Candidates During The Interview Process

What is job ghosting and why has the trend become commonplace in the interviewing and hiring process?

www.forbes.com

https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-plum-job-listing-may-just-be-a-ghost-3aafc794

For shame.

Let’s normalize asking for help, especially from supportive family members with the benefit of experience. The mixed messages this generation has to decode in order to figure out life is wild enough.

 

[Nithavela]

Let’s normalize asking for help, especially from supportive family members with the benefit of experience. The mixed messages this generation has to decode in order to figure out life is wild enough.

People of every generation have been supported by their parents, with some sad exceptions. It's just the current settled generations that imagine themselves to have made it "on their own" and to perpetuate that myth feel the need for the newer generations to live up to that impossible standard.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Since a majority of Gen Z are either just graduating college and over 30% are under the age of 18, I’m not sure why anybody would be surprised by these numbers. And I don’t know why anybody would be surprised at their resume being checked/worked on with a family member.

The reason why they surprised me is I had what I'm now assuming is the erroneous assumption that the younger half of the generation was less inclined to be in the workforce than previous generations....and the majority of first jobs are either in college or after college....in which case a parent seems like an instant way to not get hired.

I didn't have any hard data for this assumption...it's just an amalgamation of things I did know about Gen Z like they're living with parents longer, getting driver's licenses later or not at all, and the collection of general attitudes towards work that seem to be most prevalent in what I've seen in the generation.

I can understand anyplace that doesn't allow anyone under 17 to work without parental permission bringing a parent....but barring that (and educational disabilities or issues as was described above) it seems like a completely surefire way to not get the job.

My sisters first job, my parents helped her fill out the application and after college my father (who has an MBA in business) helped her polish her resume. In fact, she *just* changed careers and she had both me and my father look over and polish her resume. She’s Gen X, mid/late 50s.

Parental help on a resume or application isn't attending the interview with the parent though. I'm not saying it is unusual for parental help. My father worked for the federal government before I ever applied to a job in the federal government and he gave me tips. I had a 50+ page series of forms to fill out, I had to list basically everyone who would call me a friend and ex girlfriends and anyone I lived with for the prior 10 years, I had a series of in person tests, doctors physical, fitness requirements, and a "high stress" 5 on 1 interview. It was a 9 month process lol. My father had no idea what I'd be asked....but he still knew what kind of interview it was so he gave me some good advice (if you find yourself in such an interview they aren't looking for genius, they aren't looking for bravery or boldness, they want to see if you can work through the problems logically with sound reasoning and once you give a clear answer.....they'll berate, mock, question, and use other techniques to get you to doubt your original answers and change your response aka mentally bully you). It's not a fun process and I don't recommend it lol...

But if I had shown up to any of this with a parent I would have been told the hiring process was over the next day lol.

My first job I didn’t get help from my parents, but I was in a trade school and they facilitated my getting it at 16. After graduating college, my father looked over my resume and he drove me to a couple of interviews because they were far out of town and he offered the company and I accepted. After that, I got a job helping people transition into the job market so I didn’t need help anymore, seeing as resume buffing for others was part of my job. I’m a Millennial, early/mid 40s.

My husbands first job at 14 was because his mother said “we are going to lose our house” so he got a job. He got help from family filling it out and getting to and from the interview. He also recently had me look over his resume because he has held the same job for 25 years and has no idea what a resume should look like these days. He’s a Millennial, early/mid 40s.

My brother, Millennial, and my father and I go over his resume for his first job post-college. Anytime he has changed jobs he’s given me or my father his resume to look over. He’s early 40s.

My son just got his first job. We helped him with the application, my husband drove him to the interview, and he interviewed alone, but then the interviewer directly and specifically asked to speak to my husband and have him join the interview to hear described job duties, scheduling needs, hours, transportation, and get permission because my son was 16. He’s Gen Z.

My other two Gen Z kids are 13 and 14, so not old enough to join the job market.

Not sure I see where the shame is with a generation who’s either just over or just under the age of majority getting help from their parents lies.

It's not the getting help that surprised me....it's the bringing a parent to the job interview that surprised me.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Let’s normalize asking for help, especially from supportive family members with the benefit of experience. The mixed messages this generation has to decode in order to figure out life is wild enough.

I don't know that they’re getting mixed messages so much as they aren't getting messages.

 

[Trogdor the Burninator]

That's exactly it. They lack independence and self reliance. Haven't been taught those attributes and how being an adult works.

Given that the youngest Gen-Zs are 12 this year, the lack of independence is hardly surprising.

And I see your point - "Haven't been taught those attributes and how being an adult works". When I hear this grumbling from parents of my generation, my response is "well why didn't you teach them?"