LA-based Sophie Rocha works in marketing for Gen Z career platform Home From College—and because of the nature of her employer, she’s regularly on the other side of the hiring table, interviewing candidates from her own generation.
But one recent interview pushed her over the edge.
“I interviewed a candidate last week, and they showed up on the call on their phone,” Rocha slammed, adding that their reasoning was “it’s not that serious” because it was a first-stage interview.
“I don’t know if that’s something that you want to say in an initial interview, like, hey, I’m actually going to be lollygagging in Europe, so I won’t be paying attention to this role,” Rocha added.
To add further fuel to the fire, the candidate demanded more money and made clear they expected the role to simply be handed to them—a level of entitlement that left Rocha speechless.
“Then they complained about the compensation, and then said, I know that you’re probably not interviewing anybody else for this position, so I’ll just expect to hear back and start Monday,” Rocha concluded incredulously. “I’m sorry, what?”
Rocha isn’t the first Gen Z-er to reach management ranks and then complain about her generation’s shortcomings.
And they’re not just complaining about the latest generation of workers; 65% of the bosses surveyed have put Gen Z at the top of their firing list before any other generation. Over half of respondents had already sacked a Gen Zer, and 12% said they fired one less than one week after a start date.
Being late to work and meetings often, not wearing office-appropriate clothing, and not using language appropriate for the workspace were specific examples used of this.
In the end, it’s making hiring managers more reluctant to hire the next generation of workers. Instead, most studies concluded that bosses are hiring more millennials as a result.
“Apparently, this is controversial, and the main reason why that video went viral, but you should be joining every interview from a computer, not your phone,” she stressed.
Failing that, for young people who don’t have a laptop or desktop, she recommended setting up your phone sideways so the video appears horizontal on the hiring manager’s screen—leaving them none the wiser.
“And do not touch it throughout the interview,” Rocha added. “I don’t want to be on FaceTime with you.”
Other tips included showing genuine interest in the company, making sure you take up no more than 50% of the conversation, and answering any questions in under 2 minutes. Essentially, an interview should be a back-and-forth, not a monologue.
“If you notice that you’re dominating the conversation, stop talking, because that means that you’re rambling,” Rocha said.
The advice Rocha gave that got the most hate in the comments section was to thank the hiring manager for their time with a follow-up email.
“It really takes two seconds, and clearly, according to my last couple of videos, people aren’t sending them, so you will stand out if you send a thank you to your interviewer after you get off the call,” Rocha concluded.
