NEWSWEEK.COM 29
about the impact they can
have. Even more than mil-
lennials, employers report,
“mission” is important to
these recent college gradu-
ates and potential employ-
ers make sure to articulate
it—whether it’s curing
cancer for Merck, building
rockets and weapons to pro-
tect the national security at
Lockheed Martin, or using
technology to improve the
lives of those in the devel-
oping world and solve prob-
lems at IBM. (See “Wanted:
Cautious Grads Seeking Adventure” on page 30.)
McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm, con-
ducted extensive research on the current crop of
graduates a few years ago in preparation for their
arrival as future hires. “Overall they were very hope-
ful, they felt they have a role to play in changing
things they felt were unfair or wrong—and felt
they had some agency and could make changes,”
says Caitlin Storhaug, Director of Global Recruiting
Communications & Marketing.
Employers are optimistic about the current crop
of potential employees. Once Gen Zs achieve their
goal of stable employment, a spirit of exploration
and adventure begins to emerge, according to Sto-
rhaug and other potential employers. They con-
sistently report a desire to explore different roles,
work on career and skills development and move
within whatever company they land at.
Gen Zs also bring a technological savvy to the
workplace. If Millennials were known as early
adopters of social media and other aspects of the
digital age—and perhaps for oversharing personal
information to their own detriment—Gen Zs are
the first true “digital natives.” They have learned the
perils of digital footprints and online oversharing
by watching their older brothers and sisters. They
are more careful about curating their digital pres-
ence and using it to build a personal brand.
Many of his friends at UT, notes Bauders, have two
Instagram accounts: a publicly available one that can
be seen by future employers and a private account
under a fake name they share only with a few select
friends. The practice is so common, there’s even a“Ideally everybody wants
to have a career that you
are happy in, but also
something that they are
stable in. I need to have
this backup in place now
instead of trying to do
this in 20 years when
I have a family and a lot
more responsibilities.”
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