Gen Z vs AI. Round 1: Fight!
In a recent survey by ZipRecruiter, 76% of Gen Zers report that they are concerned about losing their jobs to ChatGPT. Most entry-level jobs are seen as launchpads for Gen Z careers – and that’s where AI is moving in. The lower-level launchpad is in jeopardy, as AI technology targets “junior-level jobs”. According to LinkedIn learning, 83% of organizations want to build a more people-centric culture, and L&D (learning and development departments) are helping, but it might not be enough. Because 100% of organizations are looking at ways to use AI to perform lower-level tasks, according to Insider. Automating many of these so-called junior tasks, where on the job training takes place, is a huge risk for Gen Z. While Gen Z may be more comfortable using technology, like ChatGPT and other machine-learning programs, AI represents a clear and present danger for Gen Z careers.
Tackling grunt work has long been the place where careers begin. Corporations have been reticent to invest in training programs in recent decades, expecting junior level employees to learn by doing and observing – or perhaps by Googling and struggling. MIT researcher, Paul Osterman, says that the workers that need training the most aren’t getting it (namely, Gen Z). Only 38% of contract workers report receiving formal training from their legal employer, and even less training at the site where they were assigned. Freelancers also received less formal training at their client sites, and in terms of informal training lagged behind standard and contract employees by as much as 36%. Meanwhile, 80% of human capital executives saying that it’s hard to find qualified workers, according to the Conference Board. Companies are turning to every possible solution – cutting training programs, cutting costs, and creating opportunities for always-on AI solutions. If leadership won’t invest in training for new workers, maybe they would rather invest in getting rid of them altogether?
Reducing Reliance on Traditional College Degrees Can Help Gen Z
As college costs continue to soar, and student loan forgiveness remains a political hot potato, Gen Z isn’t the only large demographic that’s questioning the value of the college degree. Multiple state governors, from red and blue states, have instituted programs that eliminate the need for four-year college degrees for the majority of jobs in state government. Vox reports that Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, joins Democrat Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, as well as the leaders of states like Maryland and Alaska, in eliminating the importance of traditional college degrees for government jobs.
A little over 10 years ago, at IBM, less than 10% of U.S.-based roles were open to non-degreed applicants, regardless of their other qualifications. To widen its excessively narrow talent funnel, the company launched the SkillsFirst initiative, according to the Harvard Business Review. IBM overhauled its hiring practices to create on-ramps for people who were previously overlooked and to build a pipeline of capable nondegreed workers. A study, called “Dismissed by Degrees”, shared that more than 60% of employers rejected otherwise qualified candidates just because they didn’t have a degree. That’s changing, but is that change going to be enough?
Struggling to Win Against AI – And A Lack of Interaction
AI isn’t the only battle facing Gen Z. In an essay entitled Remote Work is Failing Young Employees, authors Charlie Warzel and Anne Helen Petersen share this Gen Z anecdote, from Haziq, a 22-year-old living in Ireland, who says, “I think I’m missing out on a lot of the soft skills that one picks up in the first few years of working. If I was sitting next to my manager, I could just have a quick chat and move on,” he said. “But I’m much less likely to Slack my manager and ask something because I don’t know what they’re up to at the moment. The amount of on-the-job learning has reduced dramatically.” Hybrid work, or returning to the office, might offer some solutions to the proximity problem. But if AI is taking on new responsibilities, will proximity matter? Opportunity for Gen Z workers isn’t a matter of proximity. Especially if AI is handling that opportunity now.
Gen Z and the Search for Relevance: It’s Taking Too Long
In the ZipRecruiter survey, 41% of job seekers said that finding relevant opportunities was their number one obstacle. Another challenge? The interview process. It’s taking too long. How long is too long? How about “Nine Rounds of Interviews and No Callback”, the title of a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, where Rza Mollayev explains the changes since 2020 in his personal experiences of the job search. After graduating NYU in 2020, he applied for six jobs and had an offer within a month and a half. Cut to this year, where he was in the market again – and seeing as many as 1,000 applicants for job postings he found on LinkedIn. After applying to 120 jobs and doing 30 interviews with 19 companies, going through as many as five interview rounds before being rejected, he landed a job with cosmetics-maker, Lancome.
When Gallup reports that only 24% of US workers surveyed in May strongly agree that their organizations care about their well-being, the threat of AI encroachment seems to add insult to injury. Gen Z workers often feel a lack of purpose at work, especially when jobs are more menial than meaningful. With generative AI in the workplace, those sentiments are only going to increase. Insider says that the most tech-savvy will become “minders of the machines, cleaning up the deluge of errors that these faceless AI tools will spit out.” Gen Z is at a crossroads – we all are. Hybrid work isn’t about splitting time between home and office. Hybrid work now means discovering how humans will work side-by-side with transformational AI technology. The fight is on to find meaningful job opportunities for Gen Z – and for all of us – in the age of AI.
