Another survey that indicates the youngest of adult job seekers, many who prepared for their adult working life during the pandemic, continue to lean on their parents in what sound like unacceptable ways.
Resume Templates recently surveyed more than 800, 20-something recent job seekers now working full-time, and 54% said they had a parent speak with a hiring manager on their behalf. Among those recently employed, 45% said they have a parent who regularly talks to their current manager.
Julia Toothacre is a career strategist at Resume Templates, who regularly works with Gen-Z job seekers. She said that the level of parental involvement in a grown child’s professional life, even young ones, does them no favors.
“When you bring someone into your career and allow them to speak on your behalf, whether that is a parent or a friend or significant other, it can undermine you as a professional. And your manager and your coworkers will see you more as a child than a peer,” Toothacre said.
About 75% of those Gen-Zers surveyed said they asked a parent to be a reference during their job search, 63% had a parent submit job applications on their behalf, and 54% asked a parent to email hiring managers. Half said they had a parent speak directly with hiring managers on the phone.
None of these potentially career-damaging optics would be happening if parents said no.
“You have to stop speaking for your child. I immediately thought your parents have failed you in this scenario. They can mentor, they can guide, but they should not be speaking for their child. They need to let them learn and let them fail,” Toothacre said.
There are other ways parents can actively and much more productively be involved in their children’s early-career job searches.
“Any time you can help connect your child to people in your network, that is a good learning experience for them to do informational interviews and to start building their own network. When it comes to resumes, I don’t think you should write them, but you can edit them. Same with interviews. Don’t go to the interview with them, but practice with them,” Toothacre said.
As someone who coaches 20-somethings just starting out, Toothacre also believes older co-workers and managers are, at least sometimes, unreasonably harsh and critical.
“They are still learning. And we have to have grace with that, because we were all 20-something once and in our first job. And I think there is so much demand on professionals these days, and we expect these new professionals to just jump into their job and be good at everything. And they are not,” she said.
Resume Templates’ full survey results and methodology are online.
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