5 facts you should know about Gen Z in the job market

Faced with a dynamic and constantly changing market, Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2021) cultivates expectations and faces very different challenges from their leaders millennials and boomers. "Many of these 'young people' have already entered or are preparing to enter the job market," says Mari Galindo, founder of Nice House, an entertainment platform focused on vertical videos and generation Z.

"Glassdor even pointed out that the number of Gen Z professionals would exceed that of  boomers (born between 1945 and 1964) in 2024. On the one hand, while Gen Z brings with it a number of important skills for the current economic scenario, above all digital fluency, ambition for experience and knowledge and an amazing (in a good way) ability to adapt, on the other hand, their massive entry into the job market worries company managers and recruiters," he explains.

Myths and truths about Gen Z in the job market

In January 2024, Resume Builder, software that uses artificial intelligence to help people put together a good CV, published alarming data. According to the survey, more than 30% of recruiters simply refuse to hire a Gen ZIn the same survey, 30% of managers dismissed their younger employees within a month of their joining the team.

Below, Mari discusses the main stigmas that Generation Z faces in their daily professional lives. Check it out:

1. Lack of commitment to work

MYTH. "The difficulty of managing Gen Z in the workplace has to do, in most cases, with the mentality of the generation - such as the way they interpret their professional career and, above all, an attempt to break the patterns established by past generations, which are now considered outdated or obsolete," explains Mari.

2. The education received at home contributes to certain attitudes at work

TRUTH. "Some behavioral issues, during the interview and also in the workplace, both positive and negative, come from the upbringing that young people have had at home. These are not necessarily generational characteristics," he says.

3. Young people prefer remote work 100%

MYTH. "The Covid-19 pandemic ended up impacting Gen Z more severely. Those who had been looking for a job since 2020 were already being introduced to the home office model (or semi-presential, depending on the segment), which also shaped young people's expectations of the job market as a whole. In 2021, for example, LinkedIn pointed out that 70% of generation Z believe that distancing themselves from older coworkers and managers has a negative impact on their career, as it is difficult to learn from them at a distance," points out the founder of Nice.

4. Flexibility between professional and personal is everything

TRUTH. "The same LinkedIn study mentioned above also showed that 38% of those interviewed prefer the hybrid work model, precisely because it helps them maintain their personal routine and also exchange experiences with more experienced colleagues," he adds.

5. You can't change Gen Z's attitude in the workplace

MYTH."There are ways of getting around generational differences, such as investing in mentoring and other development programs to improve the etiquette and performance of these young people and even using their ambitions to create opportunities for growth and innovation. These measures help not only to polish this rough diamond called Gen Z, but also to learn from it," he instructs.

Even if sometimes against the will of recruiters and managers, it is extremely important for companies to invest in younger people. "Ignoring the potential they possess is not ideal for any company - in a few years, they will will be the majority in the corporate environment, surpassing even the millennials in numbers. Investing in Gen Z goes beyond the benefits for companies; it is the main factor in our having, today and increasingly, a more inclusive, dynamic and resilient job market," concludes Mari Galindo.