Are young job seekers of today entitled?

My response whenever this comes up is the same – NO – they aren’t entitled at all.

Quite the opposite. They are growing up in a world with fewer opportunities, more competition for those roles, and greater expectations to get better grades and to look like this or that. Finding somewhere affordable to live, etc is now a dream.

Talking to so many younger candidates, not one has ever expected to get an opportunity. In fact, most are appreciative of the free help and tips we offer.

These days with tech and social media, people may also feel anxiety and have a feeling they are not good enough.

We, the previous generation, are the ones who allowed this to happen by buying into the unregulation, tech changes, constant advertising and social media bombardment, AI, offshoring, etc.

When I grew up in the 80s, so many of us were able to get jobs because of people we knew.

Want to work in a bank – ask your mate Terry who works there. OR at worse just go and speak to someone in the bank

Want to work in IT – go ask your mate John; he can get you in where he works.

Now, to get a job, there are online portals, HR, tests, AI to get through. The hoops that you must jump through can often seem never-ending; that’s before we talk about diversity, equality targets and suitability for the actual role too.

You can’t even get a job in a local pub chain without uploading a CV to a portal. Long gone are the days when you can just go ask the landlord face to face in the workplace.

A lot of young people would love the opportunities we had, but now not only face the challenge of AI but the anxiety of feeling they aren’t doing enough.

So next time you come across someone struggling – support them, help them.

It is really tough out there.

99% are not entitled, and most feel they should have to do hard work.

Were we any different?