What We Can Learn from Gen Z—Interview Edition
We constantly hear about all of the generational differences in the workplace. There are 5 generations of people in our workplace today! But I love to see signs that we are all aligned on certain aspects of work and all things career.
Today, I had a real treat. While on family vacation, I observed my Gen Z stepdaughter on a panel interview for a new team member. She's several years into her career, extremely brilliant (of course) and works on research trials at a top cancer hospital.
But here's the part that I thought was great - the interview and the takeaways. The panel of equally situated research team members asked a variety of questions based on the candidates' experience, as well as behavioral / interpersonal questions. They were prepared and knew what they wanted to learn about candidates. In my mind, all those years coaching managers on how to best interview candidates (preparation, types of questions, etc.) was still valid.
Afterward, I asked how the last candidate did on her interview. "By far the best we've met yet". I had to know WHY? What made this one better - especially in their view? Do we evaluate candidates differently? Do Gen Z interviewers look for something different, new, something I haven't thought of? Here's the breakdown of what made a great candidate the favorite, and other candidates less favored:
Bring your best self to the interview - really show up, be ready to talk about the job, the day to day and also yourself.|
Be able to talk about what you do - and elaborate on it. What do you like about your job, what are you really good at, what do you want to be doing.
Talk about what you bring to the team - even if you don't have ALL of the desired experience. Which aspects of your experience tracks, and what skills will be a value add? For this candidate, she is bilingual and worked on the same systems.
She also talked about being able to quickly pivot when things don't go as planned, and why she is very interested in this exact type of research. This was key, because she doesn't have all of same experience, but now they knew they could train her and she could learn.
What brought others down, in their view?
Don't show up with no questions. Have questions & be able to engage. Even a simple question such as, "What's your favorite part about this job?".
Don't read me your resume. Be prepared for the question, "So tell us a little bit about yourself". Be ready to talk about who you are, your interests and more than your resume.
For example, "I just moved to NY and I'm really interested in finding a new research job, but would like to focus on [x, y and z], which I didn't get to do previously".
The best takeaway - think of your interview as an opportunity to learn about the team, the job and to help them learn about why you are the person they want to work with. Some things don't change across generations!
