Want a Great New Job? Ask Your Mother.
Or your father. Or, maybe, both.
Using your parents to land a new job may seem like a cheat, but it's really not, as nepo-babies Sophia Coppola, Dakota Johnson, Deacon Phillippe and West Duchovny could tell you. While Hollywood babies may be the most visible nepos, the same dynamic happens in every profession. Or so I learned from a recent article by career coach Chris Westfall for Forbes.
"A new survey of job seekers found that 70% of Gen Z asked their parents to help them find a job," the reporter reported. "About 10% said their parents completed the HR screening call for them, while 30% said their parent went into the interview with them, with about two-thirds going as far as speaking with the hiring manager."
It must be pointed out that the youngest Gen Z'ers are turning 12 this year and older GenZ'ers "still are in their late to mid-teens, where parents may be taking their children to high-school or summer jobs."
Does this mean you shouldn't take advantage of your parents in your job search? No way! Whether the gig is stocking shelves at the Piggly Wiggly or stacking code at Google, you have as much right to leverage your parents as Zoe Kravitz or Lily Rose Depp.
After all, once hired, it's you who will do the job and collect the paycheck, less whatever fee Mom and Dad charge for all those years of room and board and therapy.
You know they want to help. Here's how to use your parents to nab that great new job.
No. 1: 100% objective references
Sure, there are people you worked for and worked with who can attest to your business skills, but who can better testify that you wash behind your ears and hardly ever leave dirty clothes scattered around your bedroom? These are important life skills and show character, which is a lot more important to an employer than a knowledge of Excel or the ability to program in Python.
In addition to providing a narrative about your triumphs in the sandbox in kindergarten, your parents will be able to provide actual photographic proof of important milestones in your career development. Even the most coldhearted hiring manager will melt over that video of 3-month-old you, naked on a bearskin rug, trying to eat paperclips.
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