“Career Suicide?” - Gen Z’s Job Interview Habits are Raising Red Flags

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:00)
It's incredibly disrespectful to do a virtual job interview by phone, but Gen Z is doing it anyway. This is a market watch story. How many of you guys are doing job interviews with a phone? Oh, hi sir! And it's like moving, and you're trying to track and you watch the interview.
Let me read this to you, so I'm curious to know if everybody else is kind of on the same page with this.
It's incredible, is it this one? Okay, there it is. Gen Z job candidates are increasing use of smartphones for virtual interviews and a trend that has sparked debate about professionalism. Career coach Melissa Marcus, a former recruit of 20 years, called it incredibly disrespectful, noting the vertical format makes candidates appear on a small screen like FaceTime TikTok influencer Sophie Rocha went viral after posting about a candidate who interviewed by phone, writing, she lost faith in our generation by the choice reflects deeper shifts. Most Gen Zers grew up with smartphones. The iPhone debut when the oldest were about 10 and 90% of US households own one versus 81% with a laptop. Lower income candidates are far more likely to have a phone than a computer career. Coach Lindsey Bocardo, who works with Gen Z, said this has more to do with the technology they grew up with rather than a sign of respect or not. So, Tom, where are you at with this? If you do an interview and somebody's on their phone, do you take them seriously?

**Tom Ildsworth** (1:24)
Uh, no. And you know what's really funny?

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:27)
Tell me.

**Tom Ildsworth** (1:28)
You can turn a phone sideways, and you can lean it against a coffee cup, and you can stand up straight, even against a backdrop in Starbucks, and say, hey, Tom, I'm sorry, I'm at a Starbucks. I hope it's quiet enough here. I had to step out of my office because it wouldn't be appropriate to have an interview. You know, we're here during work hours, you know, one in the afternoon, because I'd like to interview for this position. I've had somebody say that to me. And you know what I say about that? I respect it. I respect it. But if you're just holding the phone, walking down the hall or something, very nice to meet you, and then you sit down.
There is it. So they grew up in the vertical format because they got to post on Instagram. I get that. But there's also certain things to sit down and to be taken seriously.
And communication skills are lacking. Oh, they can, they can text and abbreviate and talk. But there's a lot of Gen Z, this digitally native generation. And I'm not throwing out the baby with the bath water. There's a lot of smart people here. But we need to teach them about person to person communication and etiquette. When you're looking for a job and somebody wants to trust you with running or being or impacting part of their company.
And so I think there is a generational thing here. I don't sweep them all over and into a stack pat. But I have experienced it, but I've also experienced them saying, hey, it's the middle of the day, I had to step aside here, and this is where I can take the interview. And that I respect when they tell me, because they had no other choice, and they stepped away to take a break because they wanted a different job.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:05)
I mean, Vinny has a good point. Vinny, do you want to show them a case study to see what's wrong with that time?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:09)
So guys, anytime you're FaceTiming or doing all that stuff, this is a video from a while ago. Oh, this is fantastic. Francis, with a suspended license, shocks the judge by driving during a Zoom court appearance. Can you play this?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:21)
This is... Are you driving?
Ashley, I'm pulling into my doctor's office, actually. So just give me one second. I'm parking right now. You stationary? I'm pulling in right now at this second. Yes, I am.

**Tom Ildsworth** (3:41)
Brace for it.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:42)
All right. What are we doing?
So maybe I don't understand something. This is a driver with a license suspended?

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:50)
That is correct, Your Honor.

**Tom Ildsworth** (3:52)
And he was just driving.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:55)
And he didn't have a license.
I don't even know why he would do that. So defendant's bond is revoked in this matter. Defending is to turn himself into the Washington County Jail by 6 p.m. today. Failure to turn himself in will result in a bench warrant with no bond.