“Nearly 50% of the workforce will be self-employed by 2020, and that is for Millenials. Those born after 2000, Generation Z, are even higher at 72%”, said Joshua Lisec in his TED Talks’ speech 2 years ago.
The world has changed very rapidly in the past 20 years, and technology has been expanding worldwide faster than ever before. Job opportunities nowadays are very hard to get. Education is no longer a piece of paper that can be used as a token for you to get a job as easy as during the baby boomers’ or Generation X era. Current employers have a very high expectation for fresh graduates by putting 4.0 CGPA and 5 years of working experience as the requirements to enter an industry as if the generation nowadays have started working at the age of 7. It sounds ridiculous because it is. This high expectation the employers have has changed how Generation Z think about work. The word ‘work’ is no longer convey the same meaning to Generation Z as it was for the traditional generations. Generation Z is the technology-savvy, they spend almost 24 hours a day with their gadgets, thus making them lazy. Being the laziest generation in society, they are even lazy to go to an interview and look for a job fully aware of the chance to be approved is as thin as an onion epidermis. Generation Z is very different to be compared with the baby boomers that value the corporations, and nine to five hours sitting in their cubicles only to earn not more than 4 figures per month, even after 10 years of working. For them, that is more than enough, but for these lazy Generation Z, that is a waste of time.
In 2019, in her TED conference, Laura Briggs predicted that freelance will become the future of Generation Z.
While the older generation spent six to eight hours doing work, the current generation spends four to five hours a day doing three to four works. Generation Z is very particular about efficiency, and they love to work alone, with a flexible working hour. Growing up amid global recession, watching their Generation X parents struggling with the financial crisis has shaped them to become more conservative, risk-averse, practical, and pragmatic. These characteristics make them great entrepreneurs. Despite the claim that their attention spans have slumped down the average, Generation Z spends a lot of time on social media. They use social media more than 7 hours per day, and as mentioned above, thus making them more technology-savvy. They are creative and innovative minded, that seeks stability in their financial life. This generation hates command and control, they prefer to see the bigger picture of everything, especially career. Therefore, most of them prefer to be self-employed, rather than working from nine to five, 24 hours per 7 days.
Generation Z want to avoid debt as much as they want to be a billionaire, which motivate them to do freelance jobs to earn money while studying so that they can have more savings when they become an adult. This generation, which is my generation, make the full use of social media to engage and to achieve financial freedom. With the vast amount of e-commerce website, and an abundance of freelance jobs to hop into, this generation tends to seek flexibility in their careers. Freelance jobs available online and offline such as trainer, writer, proofreader, website editor, IT broadcaster, modelling, trading, influencer, tutor, and ambassador program paid equally as much as full-time jobs, and sometimes higher. Therefore, they start to try anything they can to earn money and tend to juggle between two to three jobs at once.
Generation Z start learning about personal finance and are very open to financial education earlier. Generation Z even starts to open their savings accounts at a younger age than prior generations. The way Generation Z think about money management and ways to earn money using their mobile phone is very genius. The rapid growth of technology has accelerated the popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Shopee, etc. These platforms are accessible at any time, and anywhere. Most of Generation Z use these platforms to create their jobs, and some of them have earned their first RM10,000 at the age of 15 years old, only by doing freelance jobs or businesses via social medias. Some of them earned their first million dollars at the age of 22 years old. Most of the teenagers and young adults of Generation Z have self-educate themselves to earn money through these platforms by selling goods and services.
In University level itself, we can see that above 50% of the students have or might have been into business or try running their businesses. In the Malaysian context, some universities have fully acknowledged the ability of Generation Z to ace in business that they start providing free business education, and opportunities through an organization such as Centre of Entrepreneurial Development and Graduate Marketability (CEM) in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). An organization like this enable students to meet the like-minded people, in a creative and broad-mindedness atmosphere. Since most of Generation Z are currently in college or school, they probably have no working experience, with the establishment of the organization like CEM, will help them discover their job opportunities or maybe create jobs for others in the future. There are also Non-Government Organization (NGO) that enable students to enrich their skills, educate them, and bring them closer to the real industry environment. Monsta Asia is one of the NGO that provide opportunity for students or unemployed teens and young adults to enrich their skills, bring them closer to industry, provide entrepreneurial training, and broaden their networking.
In conclusion, Generation Z is very creative in creating jobs. They make a full use of the resources they have such as their smartphones, internet connections, social medias and other resources. They prefer to be in a flexible working environment that offers them higher incomes. Jack Ma believed that in the next 30 years, working only 12 hours per week will become a new norm that people have to adapt with. With the artificial intelligence that available today, it is far from impossible for our current generation to work only 12 hours per week in the nearest future. Freelance, online business, trading and online services are at the highest demanded jobs in 2020 even before the COVID19 pandemic. While a lot of businesses have to shut down their businesses, and closing stores, online business still able to sustain. With all the resources Generation Z have, if they able to grab the opportunities that knock in front of their doors, they will be able to become the richest Generation in history.
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