As Jessica Stillman noted in yesterday’s BNET1, young job interviewees are failing in basic interview etiquette — you know: texting on their mobiles, chewing gum, casually dropping f-bombs; the sort of stuff us 40-somethings tried to get away with in our high school social studies classes.
One reader, bruce, chimed in, confirming Jessica’s findings:
I’ve been interviewing for nearly a month to fill an outside sales rep position and a marketing manager position in a health care related company. These are both professional type position[s], yet one rep candidate had her cell phone on, it rang and she answered it!!
Another sales rep candidate showed up in black denim pants, a striped long sleeve shirt over a dark blue t-shirt with the collar open and no tie, Birkenstock-type shoes and grey socks, and, to top it off, a large tongue pin, or whatever they call those things… I’ve heard that Gen-Xers and Gen-Yers are motivated differently, but this is incredible. I crave to speak to someone who can actually converse in an intelligent manner without many “ya know” and “sorta” and “kinda.”
And indeed, “Gen-Yers” are said to present management challenges all their own. Here are a few BNET tips on managing millenials.
Have an interview horror story of your own? Trouble with the youthful crowd of applicants? Share it.
(Image courtesy amypritchizzle via Creative Commons)
