It’s no secret that Gen Z often gets slammed for, in the words of Sister Act star Whoopi Goldberg, not “busting their behinds” at work quite like previous generations did. Despite struggling to land entry-level roles, bosses have accused them of showing up late to the interview, refusing to put in any overtime for screening tests, and ghosting recruiters. Now, even a Gen Z hiring manager is backing the bosses slamming her generation.
“I fear that the people who say that Gen Z aren’t getting jobs because of their attitude are slightly accurate,” the 23-year-old who goes by @Sopharoch posted in a TikTok video that’s now gone viral.
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.
The candidate then gushed about the job’s remote setup before openly admitting they had no intention of ever working from home—instead revealing they’d use the policy to work full-time while on vacation.
“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?”
Gen Z really are the hardest to work with—even managers of their own generation say they’re difficult
Rocha isn’t the first Gen Z-er to reach management ranks and then complain about her generation’s shortcomings.
Resume Genius asked hiring managers which generation is the most challenging to work with, and 45% pointed to Gen Z, the generation born between 1997 and 2012. Most shockingly, even 50% of Gen Zers admitted that their own generation is the most difficult to manage.
Another study found that nearly three-fourths of managers consider Gen Z the most difficult to work with, and many bosses get frustrated with their new hires regularly. Only 4% of respondents said it was never difficult to manage Gen Z.
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.
A separate study pointed to a lack of initiative, unprofessionalism, poor communication skills and general unreadiness for the workplace as top reasons for firing Gen Z grads just months after hiring them.
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.
Career advice from a Gen Z hiring manager: ‘You should be joining every interview from a computer’
In a series of follow-up videos, Rocha shared some tips for young job seekers on how to not “totally bomb” their shot at landing a role,“ since Gen Z apparently don’t know how to act in interviews”.
“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 tell me about yourself question is not an invitation for your life story,” she added.
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.
Although the topic of thank-you notes is quite contentious (with some arguing that candidates shouldn’t have to do more free work, and it adds to a hiring manager’s already full plate), Rocha insisted it’s “just polite”—and even an ex-Meta recruiter agrees it’s a green flag.
“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.
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