Generation text baffles employers

Today’s young adults are thin on the skills required for interviewing.

Melbourne: Many school and university leavers looking for employment have been found taking things casually when it comes to applying for a job, using informal language like they do for text messaging.

These are said to be members of ‘Generation Text’, who are so used to texting and tweeting in the informal lingo that they take a laid-back attitude to just about any setting. Regardless of the cause, some experts say many of today’s young adults are thin on the skills and etiquette required for interviewing. “We call them ‘Generation Text’. Voicemail is out, email is too slow, so now they’re texting, and their spelling is awful,” the Age quoted Mary Milla, a US communications consultant and media trainer, as saying. Recruiters say rookie job seekers always have an unpolished mix of bravado and naivete, but now it extends beyond basic mistakes of etiquette and include faux pas punctuated by some modern twists. Milla’s business partner Marta Rhyner says it’s not that the kids aren’t bright enough. They have just spent most of their lives under the direction of others, including parents who took them from one organised activity to another when they were younger. “They don’t see things that can be potentially negative, like a nose ring, because everyone told them they were great,” Rhyner added. ANI