As Generation Z enters the workforce, many are facing unexpected challenges in securing employment. Despite being tech-savvy, innovative, and highly educated, these young job seekers often find themselves at a disadvantage, and it isn’t all through faults of their own. Let’s see why employers are opting out of employing Gen Zs.
Lack of Experience
Many Gen Zs are choosing to jump straight into a lucrative career. Instead, they’re opting out of student debt and gathering valuable life experience from the outset. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make job-seeking easy when they’re fresh out of school with limited professional experience. Employers often prefer candidates with a proven track record.
Overemphasis on Technology
Being tech-savvy is an asset for future careers, but Gen Z's obsession with technology can be a drawback. A large aspect of working life is collaboration and teamwork, so most employers look for candidates with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to navigate face-to-face interactions.
Unrealistic Salary Expectations
We applaud their ambition and find it commendable that they’re opting for financial independence from a young age, but Gen Zs often enter the job market with high salary expectations. It’s to be expected when their peers are making millions of dollars on social media platforms, but it’s a big ask for entry-level positions.
Job-Hopping Tendencies
Gen Zs are becoming well-known for their high-earning side hustles. They also favor multiple jobs as opposed to one career path more than previous generations. The perception that Gen Z is more likely to job-hop makes employers wary. It doesn’t bode well for long-term commitment.
Lack of Discipline
Many employers say that Gen Zs don’t take the working world seriously enough, with many getting fired within the first few weeks of employment. For many of this generation, they took on their first jobs during the pandemic and worked remotely, which might be impacting their ability to work professionally.
Poor Interview Skills
There is wide belief that Gen Zs fail to take interviews seriously, assuming that their tech skills will be sufficient to guide them through. There are plenty more skill sets required in the working world, and some employers feel that they apply themselves to interviews inadequately.
Inferior Language Skills
We’ve established that Gen Zs have a language of their own, largely based on their social media habits. Individuals who embark on new careers have to navigate their way through the professional world and adapt to new terminology and ways of communicating, a skill that seems to be lost on Gen Zs.
Heightened Sensitivity
Many employees panic about the prospect of working with Gen Zs due to the heightened sensitivity to various subject matters that are prominent in the modern world. There’s concern about offending them with incorrect terminology in matters like gender fluidity, which can make for a tense and uncomfortable working environment.
High Competition
The job market is highly competitive, and Gen Z is competing with more experienced candidates from previous generations, making it much harder to stand out. While they’re frontrunners in tech, they lack the wide set of skills that many older generations possess, so they’re not quite making the grade.
Remote Work Preferences
Having started their careers at the height of the pandemic, many Gen Zs have embraced remote working and tend to favor it over in-person roles. Not all industries or companies are equipped or willing to offer such flexibility, leading to fewer job opportunities.
Lack of Networking
Networking is a crucial aspect of job searching. Gen Z’s reliance on digital interactions can sometimes hinder their ability to build strong professional networks. Though many are prepared to turn to professional sites such as LinkedIn, there’s still a distinct lack of networking that is often required to enter the job market.
Inability to Collaborate
With many Gen Zs investing in groundbreaking global movements that impact their generation, such as equality and inclusivity, employers can be wary about how they’ll interact with older generations within the workplace. While their passion and enthusiasm are admirable, it can make employment difficult if there are workers from multiple generations.
Perception of Entitlement
Some employers perceive Gen Z as entitled, expecting rapid advancement and perks without demonstrating the required experience or loyalty. It stems from social media trends that encourage this generation to express their desire for a promotion prematurely in a bid to improve company culture.
Social Media Footprint
Gen Zs are social media savvy and can navigate their way across the multiple platforms available to them. Nowadays, candidness and truth-sharing are embraced, but a careless or controversial social media presence can deter potential employers who scrutinize candidates' online behavior as part of the hiring process.
Inflexibility with Roles
Gen Z candidates often have specific ideas about their career paths and may be unwilling to start in positions that don’t align perfectly with their goals. They’re part of a generation that values and encourages change in the workplace, but this attitude can lead to a heightened self of self-importance. It doesn’t lend itself to flexibility.
Economic Uncertainty
The economic climate, especially post-pandemic, has led to fewer entry-level positions as companies cut costs and streamline their workforces. This means that companies are favoring candidates with specific job experience over those who have recently graduated.
Inadequate In-Person Skills
Employers believe that Gen Z applicants have had too much Facetime and not enough face-to-face time, which makes workplace communication difficult. Their lack of social interaction can lead to a poor understanding of in-person cues, which makes training periods more complex and lengthier than necessary.
Misunderstanding Workplace Culture
There can be a disconnect between Gen Z’s expectations of workplace culture and the reality, leading to misalignment during the hiring process. Not every workplace offers diversity and inclusivity which Gen Zs deem as discriminatory. The reality is that longstanding workers might not fit the mold that they’re expecting, which is unrealistic.
Employer Biases
Some employers may hold biases against hiring younger workers, believing they lack dedication or understanding of workplace norms. Through no fault of their own, Gen Zs lack the skillsets from on-the-job training due to pandemic-related remote working, but some employers aren’t prepared to take a chance on them.
Outdated Recruitment Practices
Traditional recruitment practices might not effectively reach or appeal to Gen Z, who are more attuned to modern, digital-first job search methods. They’re less patient than previous generations and unprepared to commit to long recruitment periods, brandishing them as outdated. Rightly or wrongly, for many businesses, these are standard recruitment processes.
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