We Analyzed A Group Of Cn Gen. Z To Better Understand Them. Here Is What We Found

Welcome to the latest installment of This Week In China, a bi-weekly newsletter talking about the hottest buzz in the workplace, and business mainly comes from China, one of the most dynamic and fast-evolving economies. We will talk about the future of work and the future of business alongside the most note-worthy anecdotes from the Chinese community. Please subscribe to the newsletter so you won't miss out!

How big is an age difference to be considered a generation gap? I Googled and? Baidu’ed. Some say 13 years, some say 12 years, and some say 6 years. Some even say that there is a generation gap between 3 years. I cannot say it’s untrue: according to the development of today's society and tech, if I am immediately sent to hibernate for three years (anyone familiar with me knows how big I am a fan of "The Three-Body Problem”), I would have to take a long time to adapt to the new world.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the post-60s and post-70s often complain about the post-80s being "spoiled", the post-80s dislike the post-90s that are "fragile", and the post-90s complained about Gen. Zs' "weird way of thinking".

However, the new waves will not stop crushing the old ones, the talent market will always be crowded with fresh faces. Elder professionals, like me, carry the responsibility to help the new generation of working people (including participating in the LinkedIn China’s Time Donation Program), but the prerequisite for help is understanding, otherwise, the communications will eventually end up preaching, and nobody wants to be an unpleasant long-winded senior.?

Some time ago LinkedIn China’s in-house User Experience Research team conducted large-scale research and mapped the professional attitudes of thousands of professionals in first-tier cities and "new first-tier" cities, including post-80s, post-90s, and post-95s, which meets the definition of Gen. Z in China.

The Methodology

The approach adopted in this study is qualitative exploration first, followed by quantitative research. Some of the qualitative research was conducted by AI ChatBot interviews with a sample of 300 people, covering Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Qingdao. The male to female ratio was 1:1, the age range was 18-26 years old, the ratio of students to new professionals was 1:1, the ratio of “first-tier cities” (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) to “new first-tier cities” was 1:1 (Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, Qingdao), and at least 1/3 of the respondents were from first-tier or overseas universities/colleges. The other part of the survey was conducted by group discussions and one-on-one interviews. The group interviews were divided into six groups of six people each, and the one-on-one interviews were conducted with four people.

For the quantitative study, we used an online questionnaire that could be completed in 20-25 minutes, and a total of 1700 samples were collected. Among them, there were 850 respondents in "first-tier cities" (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen) and 850 respondents in "new first-tier cities" (Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi'an, Qingdao), with a ratio of 1:1; 900 were post-95, i.e., born in 1996 -born in 2003, and aged between 18-25 years old; another 400 post-90s (born in 1991-1995, aged 26-30 years old) and 400 post-80s (born in 1981-1990, aged 31-40 years old) were set as a comparison. The conditions of the sample are 18-41 years old, who do not reject to work.

(In short, our methodology is as statistically rigorous and reliable as possible, so please be assured.)

Through the survey, we have a lot of interesting findings. I refer to data visualization to give you a more intuitive understanding of Gen. Z’s attitude towards the workplace today, and the differences with the older generations.

Tip: You can click through each of the charts, the corresponding interactive data table will be opened, so you can check the more detailed data distribution and comparative relationships.

Work. Why?

A market economy with socialistic characteristics is the basic economic attribute of China, so the pursuit of money is nothing to be shameful about, and Gen. Z is not hiding their desire for wealth. However, we can also find that compared with the post-80s and post-90s generation, the pursuit of Gen. Z is more diversified, and the pursuit of spiritual prosperity is also included in their life goals, such as "gaining respect from others", "providing financial support for hobbies", "contributing to the society/country", etc. Among them, the willingness of Gen. Z’s desire to "gain respect" is 8 points higher than that of the post-90s, and the willingness to "contribute to the society/country" is 6 points higher than that of the post-80s.?

To Define A Good Career

Since the goal of life is "richness in both wealth and spirit", the ideal job for Gen. Z can not only be dominated by "high salary". A good job should be a combination of good benefits, stable income, and a series of spiritual needs, such as work environment, skills enhancement, match of work and interest, humanization, the culture of openness and tolerance... HR leaders of all companies, please take note!

Interestingly, Gen. Z shows a much higher demand for income stability, compared to their post-90s peers; they also want more freedom, more growing space, and more meaning of work. Fairness in pay is very important for Gen. Z who is growing up in a period of rapid economic growth. Jobs that are close to your home, highly paid with a very low workload, which might be considered ideal for post-80s, are not realistic or rational for Gen. Z.

What’s Workplace Like? Gen. Z says…

As a generation that has just left school or will leave school soon, Gen. Z’s knowledge of workplace culture mostly comes from word of mouth from their families and friends, the influence of pop culture such as workplace dramas, and the content shared on various media and social platforms. Their perceptions of the workplace will largely influence their future attitudes and performance in the workplace. We invited respondents to rate a series of workplace keywords, and here are what we found out:

As the " indigenous" of the Internet era, the young and energetic atmosphere, flat management, and open and inclusive workplace culture of the Internet and other emerging industries make the Gen. Z have pretty high expectations and enthusiasm for work and consider the workplace challenging while fulfilling. At the same time, they sensibly understand that work is necessary for life.

At the same time, just as the older generation often lament that children are like "small adults", Gen. Z has a good sense of reality beyond their own age about the workplace, and they have given themselves early precautions against some negative factors in the workplace, such as involution, overtime, falsehood, and rivalry. But in general, Gen. Zs value diversity, fairness, openness, and inclusive workplace culture more than post-80s. This is especially important for companies looking for and tapping talents for the future, and also gives a wake-up call to the older generation of leaders who are leading now or will lead the Gen. Zs.

Where to Work?

No other country has experienced such a massive scale of urbanization, industrial transformation, along with the consequent significant movement of population and talent in recent decades, as China has. First-tier cities are stronger than ever, second-tier cities have made long-term efforts to become the "new first-tier", and many unfamiliar medium-sized cities have become new choices for living, business, and employment during the growth of the Gen. Zs. So, on the question of "where do you want to work after graduation", the Gen. Zs have even more choices than their predecessors:

Compared with the post-80s and post-90s, more Gen. Zs are considering fleeing from the costly, stressful, work-not-life first-tier cities; this coincides with many excellent companies and employers turning their attention to the so-called "new first-tier" cities where costs are lower and livability is better. At the same time, we also found that Gen. Zs from first-tier cities pursue more independence and freedom: many of them who are born, raised, and educated in first-tier cities are willing to work in new first-tier cities. With their parents still young and little family burden on the shoulder, "choosing a job nearby you" is not the most preferable choice. Getting a little farther away from the comfort zone will give them more chances to try out new possibilities.

So you got the tickets to the cities you like, what about the companies?

We found that similar to the post-80s and post-90s, the Gen. Zs still have high requirements for platforms: they want to enter the mid-to-top companies, but hardly consider startups and SMBs. The Gen. Zs mostly have very clear plans for their early career goals: they want to learn the standardized process and improve their ability in big companies and big platforms, and make good use of the mature mechanisms and fair promotion opportunities to add more shine to their resumes.

This is interesting: compared with their predecessors, the Gen. Zs are more interested in the so-called "in-system jobs", and their preferred types of enterprises are state-owned enterprises and MNCs, and their preference for government institutions is comparable to that of private enterprises. No surprise here: the post-80s have experienced the period when state-owned enterprises were suffering from painful reforms, foreign enterprises had made great inroads, and private enterprises were still out of radar; the post-90s have caught up with private enterprises, especially the outbreak of Internet companies, while state-owned enterprises have shifted from full control of the national economy to a shrunk range of key industries; while the Gen. Zs are live in an era when the Internet dividend is gradually running out, the involution has become mainstream, and the disadvantages of the high growth are emerging. 996 and other sickening work models are facing national-wide criticism. All these make Gen. Z look forward to a stable and secure working environment. The state-owned enterprises and government institutions, with way less overtime, have naturally become their favorite. And the hidden benefits of working in the “system” have become more attractive as well.

Work Should Be Well-paid and Fun

In terms of preference, the proportion of Gen. Zs choosing "either emerging or traditional industries" is the highest, and the acceptance of "traditional industries" is not as high as that of post-80s/the 90s.

The industries that the Gen. Zs are most interested in are high-tech, new information technology, green energy, and game creativity. Compared with their predecessors, the Gen. Zs are more willing to try gaming, creative and online education industries than the post-80s.

Of course, traditional industries have not completely lost the favor of the Gen. Zs. IT, education, finance/insurance, and design are the traditional industries preferred by the Gen. Zs, and they are more interested in education, design, and media/communication/advertising than the post-80s/90s.

Shout Out To Your Career Idols

From a young age, we are taught to aspire to be "useful", and one of the ways to become such a person is to "benchmark": find the idols you admire. In a previous poll, more than 240 of my friends shared with me their career idols: 45% of my friends identified entrepreneurs and other industry leaders as their idols, 22% pick top professionals as worthy of admiration, 18% focused on historical figures, and 14% chose no idols or others.

From our current study, we can see that the workplace idols of the Gen. Zs have the characteristic of the Internet era: high growth, business skills excellence, charisma...... At the same time, for those figures with a practical spirit and a sense of patriotism, the Gen. Zs will not hesitate to show their big hands.

What kind of people can be considered career idols? The Gen. Zs have a clear picture: people with great ideas, inspiring drive, professional ability, good vision, and the spirit of practical work are most well-recognized by them. Meanwhile, the Gen. Zs appreciate people who are good at interpersonal relationships and have an affinity. Attention, team leaders: to make the Gen. Z subordinates respect you, the threshold is not low.

Anxiety? Why?

We all feel anxious inside. As newcomers in the workplace, the source of anxiety of Gen. Zs is not the same as their predecessors. The following chart shows the most frequently mentioned reasons for anxiety in the survey of Gen. Zs:

It can be seen that Gen. Z’s' anxiety actually comes more from "thinking", such as worrying about the lack of work experience, competitors being too good, or "not being able to balance work and life", "requirement to stand in line with bosses", etc. And workplace anxiety will change significantly with the growth of age and experience.?

For example, the experience problem that Gen. Z worry about is not the key source in the eyes of the post-80s and post-90s who already have their own achievements; and the "age anxiety" that the post-80s and post-90s are most worried about is not in the eyes of the Gen. Zs at all. At the same time, Gen. Z? is also divided into two "camps" of students and working people. In contrast, students' anxiety level is higher than that of their peers who have worked for some time. This may be the difference between "new recruits" and "veterans".

What can you do with anxiety? You can't just carry it on your own. You need to find someone to talk to and seek guidance from seniors. Research shows that professional skills improvement is the most important workplace topic for Gen. Zs, followed by career development prospects, workplace experience, and tips on interpersonal relationships. Compared with the post-80/90s seniors, the Gen. Zs pay more attention to the topics of workplace experience, interpersonal relationships, salary, and general work content. Behold, content creators: if you want to create workplace content that appeals to the younger generation, you can start from here.

From the research results, the Gen. Zs are most interested in getting help in the following topics: work tips, new techs and techniques recommendations, hand-on guidance from seniors, and skills training, which are all worthy of future employers' efforts and resources. In terms of generational differences, more Gen. Zs are seeking help and guidance on work methods, interpersonal relationships, workplace taboos, etc. As mentioned above, "involution", competitions and being the scapegoat are among the Top 5 sources of Gen. Zs’ workplace anxieties. The more they have access to advice and guidance from seniors, the fewer detours they will have to take.

This is the Gen. Z of China, just like the sun at eight or nine o'clock in the morning. They love money while pursuing poetry in life, they are optimistic, eager for inclusion and diversity, full of idealism while also embracing realism. They are eager to explore the world and expand the possibilities in the workplace.

They may be different from the '80s and '90s, may seem weird occasionally, speaks strange slang from time to time... but they have the shadow of our body, they also face contradictions and confusion. How can we help them do better and go farther? How can we learn from them about new things, and remind us of our initial goals? These are important issues left to the 80s and 90s as seniors, too.

Oh, youth!

What else do you want to say about Gen.Z that you know? Feel free to comment. The newsletter is still in the process of improvement. Feel free to send me a private message about a topic you care about, and maybe it will be the topic of the next #TWIC.

See you next time!