RADical Hope Campus Pulse Check: Fall 2025
RADical Hope conducts Campus Pulse Checks each semester to gather first-hand insights from college students nationwide. With increasing concern among campus leaders and employers about Gen Z’s workplace readiness, the Fall 2025 Pulse Checks explored how prepared students feel to enter the workforce, including the skills they’re confident in, where they need more support, and what would strengthen their transition from college to career.
Despite the challenges Gen Z believes contribute to the gap in career readiness, one message stood out: young adults want more support building critical social and emotional skills: communication, collaboration, relationship-building, and emotional intelligence.
At RADical Hope, we are committed to helping young adults strengthen the social, emotional, and practical skills they need to thrive in academic and workplace environments and beyond.
A Generational Divide: Gen Z in the Workplace
Generational Perception of Gen Z:
Gen Z is aware of being portrayed in the media as “unemployable,” “socially awkward” and “lacking work ethic.”
A Difference in Priorities & Work Styles:
While older generations often label Gen Z as entitled, lacking work ethic or unprofessional, students frame the disconnect as a difference in priorities.
Bridging the Divide: Working with Gen Z
-
Gen Z cares deeply about collaborative, respectful, and supportive workplace cultures. They want clear expectations, growth opportunities, flexibility, and work that feels purposeful. If a job doesn’t fit these priorities, they are willing to move on in order to find the right fit.
-
Gen Z wants companies to support their professional development with more mentorship and structured training. Gen Z feels like companies aren’t prioritizing their employees. As older generations often argue that Gen Z lacks loyalty to their jobs or companies, many students question this perspective, asking why they should be loyal to organizations that invest little in their employees’ growth.
-
Students emphasized that they have grown up through major societal shifts that shape how they enter the workforce. Changes in parenting style, education, technology, social media, and global events like COVID and the rise of AI have all uniquely influenced their generation. Gen Z believes employers should recognize these realities and adapt to the needs and perspectives of today’s young adults.
Gen Z Entering the Workforce: Challenges and Concerns
-
Students see the job market as highly competitive and increasingly out of reach, with entry-level roles demanding experience and job applications leading to rejections or silence. Oversaturated industries, AI, layoffs, and the advantage of personal connections deepen their uncertainty about finding a place in the workforce.
-
Students expressed anxiety about the shift from college to the “real world,” especially the demands of rigid schedules, heavier workloads, and unclear workplace norms. Gen Z also stressed about the challenges of finding new community, adapting to multigenerational work environments, and handling everyday adult responsibilities like budgeting, investing, and time management.
-
Students feel lost about their career direction and unsure of the concrete steps needed after graduation. They fear being pushed into stable but personally unfulfilling jobs and worry about working in roles that don’t align with their interests.
How Prepared is Gen Z for the Workforce?
Students were split on their readiness for the workforce. While many feel academically prepared, they also recognize a lack of hands-on experience and real-world workplace skills.
Students reported feeling academically prepared to enter the workforce.
Students believe that employers value adaptability, punctuality, problem-solving and a strong willingness to learn - skills they believe they possess.
They consistently identified interpersonal skills– such as collaboration and relationship management, communication and emotional intelligence– as the most essential skills for the workplace. These skills are the ones they feel least confident in.
Internships, community service, extracurriculars and courses with opportunities (i.e. internship requirements) for real world applications were described as most valuable in helping them build these interpersonal skills.
Students in their Own Words:
“It is very hard to go into the workplace when you already have people who are much older than you with that mindset of “I don’t know if I want to hire you because of how I see your generation.”
“We may not necessarily have all the skills when we come to a position, but we try to step up. We try to outweigh all the negative stereotypes that employers might have.”
“We’re a generation that’s been kind of pampered … they want to make things easy for us. And in that way, we are kind of being robbed of this ability to have to stand on our own two feet which is kind of a requirement in the workforce.”
“I also feel like Gen Z is good at communicating their needs and speaking up for things that matter.”
“I don’t think the workforce is just about just going to do their job, you have to relate to people, you have to connect with people.”
“I think respect also is something that this generation is really emphasizing. We understand that the person that we’re working with is expecting respect from us, but also respect goes both ways.”