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Plenty has been written about millennials (people born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s) and work. After all, in 2019 they already outnumbered all the other working generations, and they are currently the largest generation in the U.S. labor market. But with the oldest millennials starting to assume leadership positions, a new, younger generation is now entering the workforce — Generation Z. Now, the oldest members of this new wave (born in 1997) are graduating college this year, which means many have already started entering the workforce. So what are popular Gen Z jobs, and how do they differ from millennial preferences?

There are some key characteristics making Gen Z special. According to Sean Lyons, an associate professor at the College of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph, this cohort is “practical” and “realistic” like baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964), but also “passionate” like millennials. And they process information and manage their finances like the Great Depression’s silent generation. What that means is they want to be happy and productive in whatever job they end up in; if their job can help someone else along the way, then it’s a bonus. They’re also less likely to job hop: a trend of changing jobs frequently, especially as a means of quick financial gain or career advancement is more common among millennials. “I think that’s going to be a welcome message to a lot of employers,” Lyons says. “Dealing with millennials was frustrating because they were just so enthusiastic, and had such big dreams that it was hard to give them any kind of advancement or satisfaction that would meet their needs. This group seems to have [a] much more realistic set of goals for themselves.”

Since Gen Z values stability, they are also much less likely to dream of the unachievable. In fact, almost half of the list of popular jobs for Gen Z is made up of tech-related jobs. Having grown up with the ubiquitous technology in place, this generation are true digital natives. Among their top priorities are app development, computer vision, machine learning, and audio-engineering jobs. Computer vision engineers and machine learning engineers work with some of the most advanced tech currently being developed — artificial intelligence or machine learning. Though tech skills can be learned through community college classes, boot camps or even online courses, most tech jobs still require a bachelor’s degree, if not more. This means that Gen Z are willing to work hard to achieve their goals.

Apart from tech-related jobs, Gen Z are also “digging” health care, education, and philanthropy. “I really want to bridge arts and activism, namely in the field of, like, environmental issues and sustainability because I really fear that if we continue our lifestyles as they are now, then they will pose a great danger to the world,” says 17-year-old Alice Cheng. “So I want to try and stop that or at least prevent, you know, let’s say the negative effects of climate change impacting us all too quickly. I’ve really been interested in leveraging my influence from social media and also possibly branching into the entertainment industry and seeing if I can use my voice to share this message that I have.” Entrepreneurship will also be a favored path for this cohort (like millennials). In fact, according to Lyons’ findings, over 50 percent of young professionals have considered starting a business or have already started one

So what are the skills that Gen Z has and lacks? As was previously mentioned, this generation is highly skilled in all things tech — that’s one thing that will set them apart from their older colleagues. They can also multitask — perform several things at the same time — even more so than millennials, Deep Patel, author of the 11 Principles of Success, wrote for Forbes. They’re used to constant updates from apps, texts, email, and more. Switching between different tasks and paying attention to a range of stimuli is natural to them.

So what’s their greatest weakness? It’s not a sense of entitlement (as was the issue with millennials), it’s their lack of social skills. “They don’t quite have the same comfort level that people expect of them,” says Lyons. “They are having a hard time with those basic social skills of speaking clearly to somebody and making eye contact.” At the heart of the issue is where the gen Z-ers socialize — online and through electronic devices. This may keep them out of jobs that require a high degree of emotional intelligence (like jobs in customer relations). The good news is that this is something most employers can work on with this cohort. “I think we’ll have to adjust our expectations for how much social skill training they might need depending on what nature of work they’re doing,” Lyons says. “If it’s customer-related or if it’s just interaction with colleagues, we might have to adjust our expectations of how people communicate, which has been a struggle for the millennials so it’s going to be a much bigger struggle for this group moving through I think.”

Source: Global News