Young software engineers discuss values, what frustrates them about working in tech, and what they really think of older colleagues. Responses to our exclusive survey.
Awesome article, that is actually quite timely for me as I work for a large tech company and we had a recent leadership training on "Connecting with Gen Z" as preparation for new grads starting this summer. A lot of what was discussed in this blog post provided the same info, but a few things worth noting that weren't discussed here that I think are relevant.
1. Compared to previous generations, Gen Z feels more anxious and overwhelmed compared to other generations at the same stage in their career. I don't exactly know the cause of this, but it does change the approach I would take in coaching/mentoring considering that this might be how they are feeling.
2. Much of Gen Z started their careers during Covid or in a post Covid world of remote/hybrid work. Many people can attest that human interaction is much more difficult in the remote world than it is in person, making onboarding and learning quite challenging. But one thing I overlooked was that feeling social connection with peers, is a large factor in how well many people learn and improve. The training we were provided also sourced various studies showing that lack of social connection to the workplace was their number one predictor of lack of job satisfaction, and seems to be affecting Gen Z much more than it has with other generations in the post COVID world.
100% and I don't think bi-annual or quarterly in person company gatherings will meet the human interaction need for Gen Z working in a fully remote environment.
I used to attend a lot of meet ups pre-COVID and I wonder if that could be an answer. I often found the most interesting relationships with tech workers outside of my company. Those have largely died out in my area, but it could be an opportunity for some entrepreneurial mind.
Interesting insight and worth considering as Gen Z moves into the workplace.
As a parent of a late Gen Z, and future software engineer it’ll be interesting to see how sentiment shifts. No doubt Gen X will increasingly become the annoying old guys. But how will post COVID work practices and an entirely new set of development tools impact this group?
A couple of antidotal examples: A tendency to savor in person events if they are high quality. Flexibility to work from anywhere during a time when they are most productive.
I’m personally very skeptical of tech influencers and it seems like the Gen Z bullshit detector is fairly sensitive. I don’t find personal value in Theo and Primeagen’s content but if it resonates with younger devs I won’t hate on it.
I will say that many younger Gen Z are critical of hype, AI and crypto in particular. It’s just technology and they seem annoyed when older people rave about it.
Above all I believe Gen Z is a hardworking generation that benefited from a lot of changes in the K-12 education system (in the U.S.). Their level and mastery of mathematics is beyond where I was in high school. Likewise, the number of Gen Z that were exposed to programming at a young age via code camps can only help but influence the number of students that pursue computer science related degrees.
I actually believe there's a selection bias because the audience looking at this newsletter and especially those who chose to respond to this survey is already a group of people who are more eager to learn and more vocal to express their own opinions!
Awesome article, that is actually quite timely for me as I work for a large tech company and we had a recent leadership training on "Connecting with Gen Z" as preparation for new grads starting this summer. A lot of what was discussed in this blog post provided the same info, but a few things worth noting that weren't discussed here that I think are relevant.
1. Compared to previous generations, Gen Z feels more anxious and overwhelmed compared to other generations at the same stage in their career. I don't exactly know the cause of this, but it does change the approach I would take in coaching/mentoring considering that this might be how they are feeling.
2. Much of Gen Z started their careers during Covid or in a post Covid world of remote/hybrid work. Many people can attest that human interaction is much more difficult in the remote world than it is in person, making onboarding and learning quite challenging. But one thing I overlooked was that feeling social connection with peers, is a large factor in how well many people learn and improve. The training we were provided also sourced various studies showing that lack of social connection to the workplace was their number one predictor of lack of job satisfaction, and seems to be affecting Gen Z much more than it has with other generations in the post COVID world.
100% and I don't think bi-annual or quarterly in person company gatherings will meet the human interaction need for Gen Z working in a fully remote environment.
I used to attend a lot of meet ups pre-COVID and I wonder if that could be an answer. I often found the most interesting relationships with tech workers outside of my company. Those have largely died out in my area, but it could be an opportunity for some entrepreneurial mind.
Interesting insight and worth considering as Gen Z moves into the workplace.
As a parent of a late Gen Z, and future software engineer it’ll be interesting to see how sentiment shifts. No doubt Gen X will increasingly become the annoying old guys. But how will post COVID work practices and an entirely new set of development tools impact this group?
A couple of antidotal examples: A tendency to savor in person events if they are high quality. Flexibility to work from anywhere during a time when they are most productive.
I’m personally very skeptical of tech influencers and it seems like the Gen Z bullshit detector is fairly sensitive. I don’t find personal value in Theo and Primeagen’s content but if it resonates with younger devs I won’t hate on it.
I will say that many younger Gen Z are critical of hype, AI and crypto in particular. It’s just technology and they seem annoyed when older people rave about it.
Above all I believe Gen Z is a hardworking generation that benefited from a lot of changes in the K-12 education system (in the U.S.). Their level and mastery of mathematics is beyond where I was in high school. Likewise, the number of Gen Z that were exposed to programming at a young age via code camps can only help but influence the number of students that pursue computer science related degrees.
I actually believe there's a selection bias because the audience looking at this newsletter and especially those who chose to respond to this survey is already a group of people who are more eager to learn and more vocal to express their own opinions!
Very interesting series. GenZ soon will be getting managerial/lead c-level roles (or already is starting). Wondering how it will go