Interviewing a Gen Z Candidate? Be Prepared for these Issues.

Boterview is a Switzerland-based company that offers an AI interview preparation tool. Their CEO says the next generation of jobseekers don’t conform to expectations in many ways, including how they conduct themselves in interviews. The company’s site ​​coach helps jobseekers “strike a professional tone, craft the appropriate answers, and ace job interviews.”

Their interview AI tool offers Speech-to-Speech AI mock interviews that help jobseekers craft the right answers and master a professional tone. The AI coach includes emotion detection technology, so candidates get instant insights into stress, confidence, and nervousness levels.

The site offers pay-as-you go rates or packages that start at $19.99 for 60 minutes of practice interviews or $34.99 for 120 minutes.

It’s true that some Generation Z jobseekers have had much less person-to-person interaction than other generations. They spent some of their critical formative years locked down during the pandemic, attending school, working, and socializing through a screen.

So it’s not surprising that their interview skills are not what older recruiters and managers expect to see. Boterview did a survey of recruiters and found some data that may surprise you (or may not, depending on the average age of your workforce.)

• 72% of recruiters believe Gen Z regularly use ChatGPT to cheat during job interviews
• 67% of recruiters say Gen Z candidates have difficulty making eye contact during job interviews
• 21% of recruiters reported instances where Zoomers refused to turn on their cameras during virtual interviews (which may support the cheating with Chat GPT theory)
• 27% of Gen Z candidates have attended a job interview with a parent.

According to SHRM, 79% of Gen Z candidates report feeling frustrated and intimidated by the interview process. If getting the job is this hard, what must meetings and teamwork and interacting with managers feel like for them?

All considerations for recruiters, hiring managers, and supervisors when dealing with this generation in the workplace. The process might start with reducing the adversarial environment most interviews create. There are companies where recruiters coach applicants before their interviews with hiring managers. They invest in the candidate’s success before they walk through the door, which boosts confidence and helps them open up during the interview. Many of these company’s recruiters have told me, “You can’t learn anything useful from a candidate who’s terrified of you or the process.”

It’s also a way to measure a candidate’s coachability, one of the key factors in long-term success. If they have retained and used the information and advice they’ve been given for meeting their future manager, it’s a good sign that they’ll be able to learn and evolve over the course of their career.