Posted on 06/14/2024 9:35:16 AM PDT by Red Badger
College grads venturing out into the corporate world should, by now, know the ins and outs of the job interview process.
Dress smart. Project confidence. Know how to answer that boilerplate question, “What’s your biggest flaw?” Don’t bring your parents along.
Wait, what? Come again? Yes, it seems the safe-space generation apparently needs mommy and/or daddy to show up as they try to land their dream job.
According to a survey by Resume Templates, 26 percent of those ages 18 to 27 brought along a parent to a job interview — and that’s just the beginning of the disturbing findings from the survey, conducted in April among 1,428 U.S.-based respondents who said they had searched for a job in the last year.
“Gen Z has a reputation for lacking the independence, motivation, and real-world knowledge to contribute in the workplace,” the employment resource provider said in a media release.
That’s putting it mildly.
“Many Gen Z’ers involve their parents in their interview process. In fact, 26 percent of all Gen Zers who have undergone a job search in the past year say that they have taken a parent to an interview,” the media release read.
“Of Gen Z’ers who brought their parent(s), 31 percent had a parent accompany them to an in-person interview, while 29 percent had them join a virtual interview.
“For those who had a parent come to an in-person interview, 37 percent say that their parent accompanied them to the office, 26 percent say their parent physically sat in the interview room, and 18 percent say their parent introduced themselves to the manager. Additionally, 7 percent say their parents answered questions.”
Of those Gen Z’ers who attended virtual interviews, 71 percent said that the parent was off-camera and 29 percent of parents joined Zoom interviews with their children.
There are no words.
Another 24 percent of Gen Z respondents said their parents submitted job applications for them and 18 percent said their parents wrote their resume from scratch for them. (Only 13 percent wrote the cover letter from scratch, thank heavens.)
“The top reasons Gen Z’ers ask their parents to complete and submit their applications include thinking their parents’ work is better (46 percent), not knowing how to communicate with hiring managers (34 percent), being unmotivated (32 percent), and poor mental health (22 percent),” the media release read.
“The number of employment opportunities and complexity of the job market are factors causing Gen Z’ers to seek parental help,” said Andrew Stoner, an executive resume writer for the firm.
“Knowing what a company does, verifying its legitimacy, and understanding what a specific job entails are tasks that can be challenging for someone without any formal work experience. A parent’s help should bolster a child’s development and eventual independence.”
“While a parent writing a resume or cover letter isn’t necessarily an ethical concern, a child should be ready to fully discuss every aspect of their resume with a potential employer,” he added.
“Broadly speaking, Gen Z can become more independent through a healthy partnership; one that is led by a willing parent and develops critical life skills.”
Now, a caveat — while Resume Templates does a great deal of market research into trends in the employment market, it’s also in the business of selling resume services. Furthermore, this appears to be more of an informal survey than a rigorous poll.
That being said, do you know what the number of 18- to 27-year-old job seekers bringing parents to job interviews should be? Zero. Zilch. Nada. No matter how informal the poll, there shouldn’t be a. single. person. who. admits. to. this.
If you have some degree of schooling, you should not need your mom or dad to write your resume. You do not need them to write your cover letter. And you certainly do not need them to sit in an interview with you like you just got caught flushing a cherry bomb down the toilet at your middle school.
Between helicopter parenting, safe-space culture, digital lives replacing life skills, and our culture’s collective tendency to treat maturity and self-reliance as a millstone around one’s neck, it appears we’ve finally raised a generation completely unable to function as autonomous adults.
This isn’t just one of those “kids today!” rants we’ve heard from time immemorial. This time, we’ve really done it. And you don’t need this survey to back this assertion up. Look around you. It takes a village, they say — and our village has raised a generation that knows how to use 86 different Instagram filters but doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman.
There isn’t a single person on God’s green Earth who should openly admit to bringing a parent along to a job interview. Period. It doesn’t matter if you think their worth is better, they know how to communicate with hiring managers, or your fragile mental health means you just aren’t up to it.
If these are the men and women who will inherit our positions in American enterprise as we move up the corporate ladder — and eventually, one day, take over — we’re thoroughly doomed.
INTERVIEWER: And just exactly why should I hire your kid? If your child fails to maintain our standards, will YOU be ready to step in and do the job?
1) Generational stereotyping is for idiots.
2) This isn’t the first time the practice of bringing parents to a job interview has made the news. I first saw references to it at least 20 years ago.
Notice, they just did a reprint:
C. Douglas Golden, The Western Journal
I have never heard of such a thing.
I have interviewed some really dumb people for high-tech jobs, but never in 40+ years have I had to deal with parents either before, during or after an interview...........
Isn’t this and stuff like this really about mothers who divorced the dad or are single? In other words our generations being raised by women?
Neither have I. It has, however, been bandied about on Big Media for at least two decades.
It wouldn’t surprise me................
GOOD FOR BOTH OF YOU!!
“I knew a guy that broke his hip in an auto accident. His mother drove him to a job interview because he was still unable to drive.”
Now THAT is admirable. It would tell me that with a broken hip, he finds a way to keep a commitment, somehow.
Wowza, now THAT is a story.
Since the author agrees that this is utterly stupid why does he keep referring to them as “the child” or “children”? They are 18+ years old, i.e. adults. The author is making the same mistake as the idiotic parents, not treating them as adults.
I’m lucky, the company I work for doesn’t put up with BS at work. Our Gen Z-era are all fantastic.
For the same reason the Media keeps calling Hunter Biden a ‘child’..................
When my kids went off to college, they knew how to grocery shop, cook, and do their own laundry. And they were some of the very few who did.
They had to teach their friends how to do their own laundry.
I think you're right. Good catch.
For the past decade or so, many parents have had to drive their kids to and from work for financial reasons. Parents with higher incomes don't understand. They can afford to pay the extra cost for Junior to drive. They might even buy Junior his first car. The rest of us cannot, so we end up giving our adult kids rides until they can afford everything on their own. I knew many families in that situation. I worked with young adults who got rides from their parents. They gave their paychecks to their parents, too. They were helping to support their families.
Also, approximately 20% of Gen Zers from 18 to 27 are still teenagers, most likely to be living at home while seeking a job, whether or not they sometimes live at college.
If you work out the math of those involving parents times those of that subset taking parents in to interviews, it comes out to 8%, which is only 80% of the 18-year-olds in the studied population.
Misinformation.
That wss just Daddy with his shotgun making sure Junior gets a job and out of the danged house!
I noticed the 8% earlier, but I wasn’t sure if my math was right. You just confirmed it.
Yup! They could be 18-year-olds in their last year of high school.
And, based on what I observed at one job, many of them are earning money for their parents.
But they can choose their gender!
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