Imagine showing up to a job interview with your mom. “Hey boss, here’s my mommy to tell you how great I am!” Seriously, Gen Z, are we doing bring-your-parent-to-work day now? If you need your parents to hold your hand in an interview, how are you going to handle the job?
Some Gen Zers are bringing their parents to job interviews, a survey of 1,428 zoomers found.
Experts say this trend shows Gen Z values parental guidance but that it can hurt job prospects.
However, having a parent in the interview may alleviate stress and anxiety.
A small study suggests some Gen Zers are bringing their parents along to job interviews.
In a Resume Templates survey of 1,428 US zoomers, 70% said they had asked their parents for help during their job search, and 26% said they had brought a parent to an interview.
Discussing the results on her radio show, the reporter Kim Komando said a candidate once showed up to an interview for a studio position with their mother.
“That is just a bad sign,” she said.
For the Gen Zers who said they had a parent at an in-person interview, 37% said they had them come into the office, 26% said the parent physically sat in the room while the interview took place, and 18% said their parent introduced themselves to the hiring manager,
Seven percent said their parents even answered questions for them.
A growing trend?
The sample is small but builds on previous findings that some zoomers are happier when their parents are there to support them in finding a job.In a survey of 800 managers, directors, and executives commissioned by the student-life publication Intelligent last year, one in five employers said a candidate showed up to their interview with a parent.
Some employers, 39%, said they avoided hiring recent graduates in favor of older candidates. When asked about interview behavior, 50% said they’d had young candidates ask for too much compensation, and 47% said they’d dressed inappropriately.
These polls have limitations. Managers saying they have encountered candidates doing something doesn’t mean it’s becoming the norm. (Business Insider could not find any Gen Zers on social media who said they’d brought their parents to interviews.)
It’s also cyclical that younger generations are criticized for their every move. In 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that in an Adecco survey of college graduates, 3% of millennials said they were dragging their parents into interview rooms.
But there also could be some truth in it. Erin McGoff, a content creator who gives career and life advice, said she had asked around and had been surprised to find evidence of parents attending interviews and trying to set them up for their adult children.