When it comes to some job candidates from Generation Z (ages 12 to 28), traditional interviewing skills such as dressing professionally, arriving on time, paying attention to the interviewer, and showing a general interest in the job may have gone the way of dial-up Internet.
Resume.Org, a free online resume builder, surveyed hiring managers who had interviewed at least three Gen Z applicants in the past year. According to the results, most of this group were unprepared, lacked professionalism, and acted disinterested. One in five managers believe that many in this group would make undesirable employees.
More than half of survey respondents (51 percent) indicated that Gen Z job candidates had exhibited poor communication skills, 47 percent said they were dressed too casually, and 44 percent said they showed a sense of entitlement. More than 23 percent said they had found that job candidates had inflated their qualifications or used artificial intelligence in their applications.
“Many Gen Zers are very comfortable with online communication, but in face-to-face interviews, nonverbal cues like eye contact, body language, and tone are often less polished,” Resume.Org career coach Irina Pichura told The Epoch Times. “Growing up in an era of texting and social media, some come off as too casual.”
Pichura is also the founder of Resumeology and has provided career coaching and recruiting services for more than 10 years, working with Fortune 500 companies such as Goldman Sachs and ADP. She blames the COVID-19 pandemic, in part, for creating the very casual work-from-home model, in which people often work in T-shirts and sweatpants, or even pajamas.
“When it comes to getting back to the office, some younger people don’t know what to wear, since they’ve been so used to virtual meetings, emails, and texting,” she said.
Sharing some of the survey comments, Pichura quoted notes from personnel managers.
“During a Zoom interview, the candidate lounged on their bed, barely sat up, and countered a salary offer via text with a demand for 20 percent more, but refused to return calls to discuss it,” she said. “One applicant chewed and spit tobacco into a cup, filed their nails during the interview, and texted someone while I was speaking.”
Other candidates took calls during the interview, conducted the interview from their cars with the windows down, or rolled their eyes at the interviewer.
“I’ve also heard stories of those Gen Z applicants who were hired just disappearing from the job if they didn’t like it, without even telling anyone,” Pichura said.
It’s important for Gen Zers to do mock interviews with an instructor or career coach and invest some time in developing interpersonal communication skills, she said.
“I think there’s also a lack of verbal and face-to-face communication among their peers,” Pichura said. “Many of them live on social media and rely on emails and texting to contact their friends. A lot of them don’t even like to pick up the phone to make calls anymore.”
Pichura, who has a psychology degree from Fordham University, also cautioned all job candidates about their social media postings.
“Platforms like LinkedIn provide professional branding opportunities, so they should keep these posts related to business and professional development,” she said.
“They also want to be careful about what they post on Facebook, Instagram, and others, as potential employers may review those platforms as well.”
The survey also revealed that many of the resumes received from Gen Z job seekers were of low quality, including spelling and grammatical mistakes, poor formatting, and missing or false information.
“A resume is your first impression with an employer and determines whether you get an interview,” Pichura said. “While education is important, employers prioritize real-world experience, so applicants should lead with hands-on work rather than just coursework and projects.”
“Many recent college graduates may struggle with entering the workforce for the first time as it can be a huge contrast from what they are used to throughout their education journey,” Huy Nyugen, Intelligent’s chief education and career development adviser, said. “They are often unprepared for a less structured environment, workplace cultural dynamics, and the expectation of autonomous work.”
What will get Gen Zers in the door is a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, reliability, punctuality, and being open to feedback, according to the report.
“They should also emphasize their ability to work with others in unfamiliar environments and their desire to learn new things quickly. I suggest they use specific examples from academic projects, internships, or out-of-classroom activities to show how they have developed these skills,” Nguyen said.
