Seventy-nine percent of Gen Z want a job mainly focused on helping people or making a positive difference in others’ lives. But only about half of workers in that 18-29 age bracket who want such a position say they have one.
Those are the findings of a new report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Making Caring Common project, in collaboration with Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. The survey examines what members of Gen Z want from their work and how it affects their emotional well-being.
The data, taken from a representative sample of 2,436 people born 1997-2012, goes against popular stereotypes, according to Richard Weissbourd, faculty director of Making Caring Common and a senior lecturer at HGSE.
“Gen Z is often characterized — in my mind, cartooned — as selfish and lazy, as not wanting to really invest in anything deeply. So I was really surprised, partly because of this misconception, to see that 79 percent of our respondents report that they wanted to have a job in the future that was mainly focused on helping other people,” Weissbourd said. “It was just a very high percentage. And it’s not just talk. Many Gen Zers are taking concrete actions based on their desire to do good, according to Deloitte surveys, such as choosing companies based on their social impact.”
