Women of Influence by SheSpeaks

Gen Z in the Workforce: Insights with Jade Walters

• Episode 189

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In this episode, we sit down with Jade Walters to discuss her journey as a successful content creator and expert on the experiences of Gen Z in the workplace.  Jade shares her experiences of starting a blog during her college years, the impact of a viral tweet, and how she turned her passion for professional development into an ebook. We also delve into the perceptions and myths of Gen Z in the workplace, discussing how this generation is challenging the status quo and redefining career paths.

Highlights: 

  • How a viral tweet during the pandemic led to the creation of an ebook.
  • The importance of professional development for Gen Z. 
  • Gen Z's entrepreneurial mindset and adapting to the job market.
  •  Overcoming myths and misconceptions about Gen Z in the workplace.
  •  The role of social media platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn in professional growth. 
  • Setting boundaries and promoting a healthy work-life balance as a Gen Z employee. 
  • Jade's insights on how Gen Z can bring positive changes to the workplace.

Connect - Links & Resources

http://theninthsemester.com 

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Speaker 1:

I've seen that shift with a lot of people in my generation where it's like they're investing in themselves and a lot of times, too, they can use the knowledge or use the experience that they have with their business or with their other business ventures to help them get a job, or they can use that to go full time as an entrepreneur time as an entrepreneur. I've seen my generation really see the value of investing in yourself and creating things that it's just for you, that no one can take away from you.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the show. Hope you're all having a great week so far. So we have been off on a couple week hiatus but so excited to share a couple of updates with you. We have been recording some awesome content for you, great podcasts that we will be featuring over the next several weeks. We have decided to slightly update the name of the show just to reflect more of what we're doing on each of these episodes, so the show is now called the Women of Influence podcast by she Speaks. Each week you can still expect to hear great conversations with women who have built some sort of influence, whether that is in the publishing world or in the social media world or in the business world, just across many different areas, so that we can find lessons from their stories to hopefully inspire each of us. You'll see new art as well for the podcast, but I am excited to share with you more about our guest today.

Speaker 2:

We have Jade Walters on. She is a social media marketing and campus recruiting professional and several years ago during COVID, she had a tweet that ended up going viral and that was very much the start of her becoming an influencer in her own right. She now has over 100,000 followers where she provides tips and opportunities for Gen Z so that they can stand out when they are looking for jobs. Gen Z is probably about 27 or 28 right now, and the youngest is probably around 13 people in that age range. But at the older end of that age range they are obviously in the workforce, and so Jade helps provide tips and skills for interviewing for jobs and she shares job postings. I am excited for you to hear this conversation with Jade because we really get into a lot of interesting topics around what does Gen Z bring to the workforce, how they will impact the workforce as we go forward. I'm going to let you hear my great conversation with Jade. Here we go. Jade, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

Hi, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

I'm excited to have you on the show, so let's just take a step back. How did you get started? You've built this huge following. How did you get started to doing what you do now and building this following?

Speaker 1:

So I've been blogging for a few years now, since 2017, but I really started creating my content for the ninth semester during, like my senior year, more so like my junior year like I dabbled a little bit in the content because I have a personal blog that I was, you know, creating some of that content with. And I just started on Twitter, honestly, like I had made a tweet where I was sharing post-interview questions. It was at the height of the pandemic and then that went really viral and then from there, I turned that into an ebook and then, as I approached my senior year, that's when I decided to, you know, explore more content, whether it was blog posts or Instagram carousels. I was just trying little things just to see you know how well it would do, and I was really interested in the topics of just professional development. It came pretty easily to me just because I had a lot of knowledge that I was able to pour back into others.

Speaker 2:

So you take this tweet that you did, that went viral and you decided to convert it to an ebook. So, okay, just that there's something about Gen Z that is so, I guess, entrepreneurial in that you realize that you have something because the tweet goes viral and then you convert it into something else. So what does the e-book do for you?

Speaker 1:

For that e-book. It just allowed me to just expand on the topic. So the thread essentially was just about good, great post-interview questions. And then with that ebook I was able to really go deeper where I can help that reader prepare for before, during and after of the interview. So it allowed me to just expand on this topic and go more in depth with the resources and the help that I was able to give others as they were preparing for their interviews.

Speaker 2:

If you think about, then, this area that you focused on, which is really giving Gen Z tips for helping them stand out in the interview process and really helping them focus in terms of the job market, what would you share and what do you think people should know about Gen Z as it relates to the workplace and working?

Speaker 1:

I feel like there's many layers to this and things to consider. I will say the biggest theme is that, gen Z they're not afraid to leave a situation that they feel isn't working for them. I know a lot of people give us flack about leaving jobs early or not staying in job for years and years, but I appreciate that because it just shows that we're not going to just continue to just stick something out just for tenure or just to say that we've been here for X amount of years, because we've seen in other generations where they can be at a company for 5, 10, 15 years and they're unhappy or they're still in the same level that they were for years or still making the same pay. Especially with the pandemic, we've seen that it's okay to leave a situation where you're not happy because there's always something better on the other side.

Speaker 2:

I think that it's also a good time when you're younger to get different experiences and to kind of try things on to see what fits. There was a study that said that it was amongst hiring managers and it said that 40% of employers will not hire Gen Z applicants and that they tend to favor applicants from other generations, and that these employers are citing that. Reasons are that they feel like Gen Z is ill-prepared for working, they don't know how to act in an interview or they might be difficult to manage. With your knowledge and expertise of Gen Z and coupled with what I just said, which is I personally, as a member of an older generation, would say, I think we have to take as hiring leaders, we have to take into account that Gen Z brings a skill to the table right out of the gate. I want to get your perspective on this as an expert in Gen Z the gate. I want to get your perspective on this as an expert in Gen Z.

Speaker 1:

What are perceptions, what are myths and what's the value that people need to keep in mind when they bring somebody in from Gen Z.

Speaker 1:

I think it's important to remember that with Gen Z, they're now getting into the workforce and for some of them they may not have had professional experience before or it may be their first interview. So it is understandable that they may not be prepared for interviews because they just haven't been in one before. So it's a brand new setting. But I think the biggest thing and this is what I've heard from my audience and even like as I experienced when I was on my own post-grad job hunt is just the importance of giving them a chance, just because with our, with my generation, they're very I will say they're very adaptable because for some of these students they may have had numerous leadership experiences on campus or numerous opportunities where you know they were on an e-board of their club. They're very much a generation where they can turn lemons into lemonade. There are some students who they've had numerous campus roles and numerous leadership roles on campus to where it's like they're pretty much ready to work in these environments because they've been preparing for the past four years without even realizing.

Speaker 2:

Is there a myth in your mind that Gen Z is harder to manage, or do you think it's just that older generations don't change up how they manage somebody who's of Gen Z? They just need more experience managing those people?

Speaker 1:

I will say for other generations they're probably used to micromanaging their employees and Gen Z is very anti-micromanage, so I can see why they would say that we're hard to manage. So it is a matter of learning about what this generation needs from their employer, needs from their boss, to be an effective employee on their team. Some people can deal with the micromanaging to a certain extent, but for Gen Zers, they don't need that micromanaging and they need more of a support. They need more of an advocate and even just kind of in a mentorship, in a way like, especially if it's their first full-time job and they're navigating what that role looks like or where they want their career to go from there.

Speaker 1:

I feel like with Gen Z, especially over the last four years, we've seen the importance of having like a safety net or a safety blanket when it comes to our careers, especially during the pandemic when we were seeing people being laid off all the time.

Speaker 1:

We're still seeing a lot of people being laid off now.

Speaker 1:

So that's where we're deciding okay, we're going to invest in ourselves and we're going to create something that is just for us.

Speaker 1:

That was one of the reasons why I created my blog, because I wanted to work in early career recruiting, but then I also wanted to have a business that was my own, that is just in case anything were to happen, If I were to ever get laid off or something like I have this business that it's mine and no one can take away from me.

Speaker 1:

And I've seen that shift with a lot of people my generation where it's like they're investing in themselves and they can use the knowledge or use the experience that they have with their business or with their other business ventures to help them get a job, or they can use that to go full time as an entrepreneur Like for me, the role that I have, like wherever I go career wise. The ninth semester is going to come with me and I'm going to learn a lot as an entrepreneur that I can still adapt into my full-time work or I can still bring in and just I've seen my generation really see the value of investing in yourself and creating things that it's just for you, that no one can take away from you.

Speaker 2:

There's so much value for your generation that you have that mindset. You have this full-time job that you but you also have created this this, this ninth semester, which is your business that you can do while you're in that full-time job, when you've been posting on TikTok and you post frequently about different jobs and internship opportunities for Gen Z. What made you decide to go with that method in terms of sharing opportunity, and what's the response been like?

Speaker 1:

So I started with TikTok because at that time, it had been popular in the States for about a year and I have been a fan of TikTok since 2019, but then it got popular in 2020. And, as a content creator, a lot of my creations has been through written content or Instagram posts, and I wanted to challenge myself to do video content, because that was just an area that I didn't really dabble much in it, like I didn't really feel too comfortable in front of the camera so I chose that platform as a challenge for myself. But then also, at the same time, I saw how it was beginning to blow up in the state, in people literally growing communities at rapid fire, so I saw that as a great place for me to get started. But then, at the same time, too, I was using utilizing the platform for career advice or tips and I noticed that this was a place where you can come to for that information as well as finding those job opportunities. So seeing other people doing it showed me, okay, that this is something that I can do. And I started with TikTok and and it was really great.

Speaker 1:

Like nowadays, a lot of my content I have been shifting back into written content just because it's always been my go-to and my specialty. But I still show up on TikTok and I still have a very supportive community there, which is great. And now I'm dabbling more in to sharing more insights of my life, because on LinkedIn I'm still sharing the same advice, whether it's early career tips or job opportunities, but then I was also incorporating antidotes from my early career. And now I'm in a phase of TikTok where I'm trying to do that too, because at first a lot of my content was strictly focused on the tips and the resources and job opportunities, but I started to get more requests from my audience wanting to learn more about me. So it's been fun to give the audience what they want but then also incorporate things that I want to do and show who I am behind my business.

Speaker 2:

I love that you're thinking about the platforms differently. I think obviously there's, there are nuances to each of the platforms and what does. Well, I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about. You said that you wanted to really kind of push yourself and challenge yourself to do video content. Do you feel like video is kind of where the platform because like LinkedIn just pushed out like so much more video, right? Do you think that's where things are going?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've definitely seen an increase in more platforms wanting to incorporate video, but I think it's great to give the viewers options towards like you have the video, but then you can also see that written content, and then even, just like with platforms like TikTok, they're expanding the video time. So I know for TikTok you can post a video that's up to like 10 minutes long, and that's something new within the last two years. Like at first it was just 30 seconds and then it was a big thing when they pushed it to 60 seconds. So now that it's at 10 minutes, that's pretty huge and it just shows that people they want to hear more, like they don't want to have a limit in the information or the stories that they're receiving when they're on these platforms.

Speaker 2:

In thinking about how job seekers are changing. How do you think Gen Z will reshape the workplace?

Speaker 1:

Definitely by setting boundaries. Like we're really great with setting our boundaries, whether that's like we're going to leave the office promptly at five and where, like I know, there's been this big shift in the generation where a lot of people are like pretty sober, curious, or just like I know like happy hours is like a really big thing in the corporate space. That was something. When I got into the corporate world I was very surprised to see like there was like my first job there was so many happy hours and just like normalizing this culture of drinking. I know a lot of my generation are. They're not really fond of that or they just like happy hours at work is just not the best place to get drunk. So just setting firm with their boundaries of what they want, what they'll allow in the workplace as well as what they'll allow when it comes to the relationships that they're building with their coworkers.

Speaker 2:

I love that, that to your point, like when you said that Gen Z is kind of creating and helping to set boundaries, that Gen Z is now in the workforce and kind of bringing these attitudes and these philosophies to the workplace. But I also wonder, you know, can Gen Z teach old dogs new tricks, Like, can the older generations learn something from that approach? And and I think that we can, I really do. I think there's so much there. Well, Jade, I am so grateful to you for spending this time. If people want to follow you, what is the best way for them to do that?

Speaker 1:

Yes, thank you again for having me and the best places to follow me. I'm at the 9th Semester on TikTok and Instagram, and you can also find my content on LinkedIn at Jade Walters and my website, theninthesemestercom.

Speaker 2:

I cannot wait to see what's ahead for you, because it's unbelievable what you've accomplished in just a short time, since you've kind of hit the ground running in the workforce. So thank you for spending this time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

My pleasure.

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Aliza Freud

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