GenZ: A Personal Perspective
As Baby Boomers Retire, GenZ May View The World of Work Through Their Parent’s Experiences
Recently I celebrated another birthday, and as a gift to those making hiring/firing decisions, I wanted to offer this very qualitative insight to those whose jobs require hiring the next generation of talent, AKA GenZ:
One of the things you need to know about GenZ is that they’re watching—and ground zero of their observations can be focused around watching their parents. My younger son for example, has been interviewing for internships as he is transferring to a university. We were chatting about the internship interviews and I found it telling that part of his story is that he watched as I was laid off working in the private sector during the pandemic.
Apparently, this lived experience influenced his decision to seek out a career in the public vs. private sector. It was impactful to me to hear him talk about it this way. Here’s a young man at the very beginning of his career life, who already associates working in the private sector as risky and unstable. I found this to be profound as when I was his age, I never considered a career outside of the private sector. I viewed the public sector as being the opposite of innovative.
My older son who is pursuing a career in the trades, has in the past shared with me that he hoped he would not have to work the long hours I have in my career or spend so much time away from his family traveling for business. I found this also to be insightful.
Both my GenZers in their own way, have a fairly unfavorable view of the private sector corporate world. And it is this same world that needs this new generation to populate the ranks of their business ventures—there’s no shortage of articles and thought pieces dissecting how important GenZ is to the future of work.
It’s probably worth including the experience of the parents of GenZrs when trying to better understand what makes them tick. This is a generation that is taking it all in even more than we realize. Their views of work will be shaped not only by their own experience, but the experiences of those closest to them.
This is timely for me, for a couple reasons. My GenZ kids are both in the internship/interviewing stage too, and they both share some of the same skepticism of corporate/private sector work you identify here. I never thought too hard whether that was due to their observations of their parent's experiences. So, i'm looking forward to asking them directly about this. This will also be helpful for me in my day job. As one who interviews/mentors and hires GenZ, I should be seeking more insights into how they formed their opinions about work.
Very insightful, David, and what I hear from my kids too. My oldest is Millennial but sees the same thing. We were brought up differently and it's not better but engrained in our heads is what we saw our parents do and mentors do. My mindset has changed with all of this...even with my advancing years. Gen Z, for all of its interesting challenges, is wise in this area. They see the impact...and are trying to avoid it.