WASHINGTON (TND) ā A recent survey found nearly 40% of employers avoid hiring recent college graduates in favor of older employees.
Survey reveals tough job market for Gen Z grads due to employer preferences (TND)
According to Intelligent.com, Gen Z college graduates are struggling with many aspects of professional life.
Their survey of 800 U.S. managers, directors, and executives who are involved in hiring, found these key results:
38% of employers avoid hiring recent college graduates in favor of older employees
1 in 5 employers have had a recent college graduate bring a parent to a job interview
58% say recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce
Nearly half of employers have had to fire a recent college graduate
There are plenty of millennials looking for work. If I could hire someone with work experience or something with no experience, the choice is obvious.
Additionally, I have heard complaints about gen z from millennials and older. Even in my very very small business, gen z workers have been very unreliable.
The work they do is to make things, they are paid for the things they make. They are paid well above the market rate. Like significantly higher, but they still disappear for a month or two at a time without warning and donāt respond to messages.
There is always a final exam or family emergency. I donāt mind if they take time off, but cāmon. How many finals exams can you have per year.
So due to their lack of communication I often need to find people to replace them. Millennial workers are hard working and produce high quality work. They often over communicate.
So this is my perspective on the issue.
I do have some very good gen z workers and some bad millennial workers, but that is the exception.
Iām a millennial and it sounds just like me and the majority of people I know. A friend of mine just gave up during this Christmas because she wasnāt feeling well and her manager kept pressuring her and making her feel guilty. I can tell you my friend is a nice and honest woman, but this just scared her and made it even harder to return. Sheās completely freaking out now and started drinking and it takes me a lot of effort to support her.
Iāve been there myself too. Loved my job. Perfect track record for a year. Then suddenly for a day I had 5 bosses, each giving me conflicting orders. I clearly communicated multiple times that it doesnāt work and that I need one boss. Iām sure that if they wouldāve spoken to me as a human being that I wouldāve continued. I cared and they didnāt.
But ya then the next day I was ready to go but at my door this powerful dread came over me and I simply froze. And then you just start feeling worse due to guilt and so on and it becomes harder to overcome that barrier. After a month I managed to finally overcome my fear and return to the same job with the same people! Iām still proud of that. Unfortunately there was a lingering resentment from my managerās side. I decided to move and do something else, eventhough I loved that job and I was good at it.
Itās not a comment on you, because I wasnāt there. But in all the situations this happened to my friends and me it was always due to a lack of half decent communication. One could argue that a manager should be good at listening.
Letās stop this idiotic hazing ritual. 15 years ago I was a recent grad and people were saying similar stuff. These attitudes kept people my age out of many workplaces. It was shortsighted.
I was rejected many times before I got my first job, and managers in my first roles used my age against me a lot, especially when I didnāt stay in my lane. Finally a company removed my leash and treated me as an opportunity rather than a threat, and they got a big return on that investment, but it took years to find a place like that.
We were acquired and Iām doing other stuff now, but when I see my products in the wild, I sometimes wonder about all those hiring managers who couldnāt see past my age. Did they ever learn that unreplaceable means unpromotable? Did they ever learn to have a bench? What would we have built together if they werenāt so afraid of change?
Of course this is just one story, and profit isnāt a proper motive for doing whatās right. But those who donāt care that ageism is bad for society should at least consider that itās bad for business and their careers.
