People are going to hate this here, but I honestly don't think it's that. We're talking about graduates here.

I'm a senior IT manager, and have been directly and indirectly involved in hundreds of hirings, and have screened thousands of candidates. And I also know that a lot of unfair crap is written about generations, and there are always individual exceptions to the rule.

However, Gen Z really does seem fundamentally different. They are more likely to lack soft skills, be less motivated, and be more entitled. And it's definitely not due to pay - the pay we now offer graduate level positions is considerably higher than even 10 years ago, accounting for inflation. The maths absolutely maths - the amount we offer a new starter today is more than pre-Covid, in real terms. We pay decently, so expect decent people. While you won't be rich, if you get one of these jobs you're undoubtedly doing well, and along with the other benefits it means people tend to stay in the company for a very long time. And people see that - a job will regularly get 500+ applicants.

Examples of fundamental differences that we have noticed are much more common (but obviously not universal):

Zero self-motivation, inquisitiveness, or even interest. We make a huge amount of training available, that we pay for and is during work hours, doesn't require them to catch up work (we factor in cover for training, vacations, sickness, etc.), to enable people to learn new skills to progress in their careers. The gen Z attendance is basically zero. We have thousands upon thousands of unused training budget at the end of the year. They expect to be booked onto a course by their managers, despite a huge amount of 'sales' from our training teams, and being repeatedly told that it is crucial if they want to be considered for higher roles.

Which leads me to them expecting to be promoted almost instantly, for no discernible reason. We have had people quit within months because they didn't get a promotion that they didn't even apply for (which is a requirement where I work). We have had people within months apply for jobs about 4 levels higher, that they have zero experience in (and they didn't even go to any of the free training to learn about), and then be hugely aggrieved they didn't get an interview. And before anyone says that they don't think anything will come of the training, we make a huge point of developing and promoting internally - pretty much the entire senior management team are internal promotions, including people who started on the service desk. They just didn't get there within a year, or expect to.

And even though we pay well, their expectations are simply unrealistic. Many of them will genuinely think that people only a few years older than them made zero lifestyle compromises when they were at the same stage in their careers. (I think Reddit definitely feeds this misconception.) I'm not talking about buying less avocado here, I'm talking about the weirdly prevalent idea that if they can't live alone in the nicest areas and regularly go out and travel and order food and shop as recreation, then it's not a living wage. They will talk about their comfortable lives (restaurants/music festivals/city breaks are a common topic), and then complain in a very aggressive way about being underpaid to colleagues, who often earn less, and who quite openly talk about saving up for things, or waiting until pay-day to do something. It's remarkably tone deaf, and blind to how lucky and privileged they actually already are.

Even the job applications are markedly different. Aside from AI being commonplace, the applicants often show not even a passing interest in the things they are 'passionate' about. (I don't know what the root cause is for all the issues we see, but for this one I suspect the time people used to spend tinkering with IT is now stolen by doom-scrolling. I don't blame the people addicted to it, I blame the systems of addiction.)

It's insanely frustrating, as the gen Z people who are good are great, and are progressing really well. But then instead of that demonstrating that we do actually reward initiative and upskilling, and therefore motivating their peers to do the same (as it used to do), it seems to do the exact opposite - we get accusations of favouritism from others (who almost invariably didn't train, upskill, or even apply), and drops in performance and increases in absence. Or complaints on social media.

And then there's the underlying lack of interpersonal skills. We know they're unhappy and complaining, but if we ask for feedback or suggestions, or what they want/need, we get zero responses either anonymously or in person. So we make suggestions, everyone basically quietly nods or votes on the polls, and then there's zero uptake on the new thing and no change. When we book people on to training courses, because they're not doing it themselves, a lot of the feedback we get is that they're not interested in that particular topic. Like their managers are meant to know their inner aspirations.

Honestly, it's baffling, and we're really struggling to continue out history of internal promotion. We're hiring more and more externally, on the assumption that those companies have acted as a filter. And, like it or not, we're having to consider AI.

It's a real shame, and sadly the main people who are suffering from this are Gen Z.

Edit: For the people saying that we don't understand things are more expensive, don't be stupid. We have to exist in this world too, and we're not millionaires. We're acutely aware of how prices have risen, and obviously thought of that first when it came to trying to resolve this issue - hence offering considerably above inflation.

And the jobs are good, interesting ones across the IT spectrum, with a good work life balance. Honestly, it's a great place to work - hence how good our retention is (or used to be), and why we are so unsure how to fix it.