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Helicopter Parents May Ruin The Retail IT Industry
I start the interview by informing everyone that while I have allowed the parents to participate in the process, this meeting is about me determining if the candidate is a good fit and I ask the parents to hold the questions until the end. The mother pipes up and states that this meeting is also for her daughter to determine if the position is a fit for her daughter. I reluctantly agree, but state that my goals will have priority and that the candidate’s needs, if they’re not addressed today, will be addressed in follow-up conversations. That seems to appease everyone.
After an hour, I am very impressed. This candidate is extremely smart and has a great inter-personal dynamic. As we are wrapping up the conversation, I ask her for her thoughts.
“I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you today, but I have to admit that I am not interested in the position.” I am somewhat surprised by her answer and ask her why. “I am looking for a leadership position. This seems like more entry-level, data-entry work.” I inform her that she is correct, that it is indeed an entry level position, and considering she has very little experience, it seems like a great position to start.
“No thanks,” she said. “I am looking to lead an engineering team. I appreciate your interest in me, but I’m going to keep looking.”
Although the economy and the unemployment rate have us focused on this time in history as a buyer’s (employer’s) market, let’s not forget that we are on the verge of the Baby Boomers’ retirement tidal wave. By most accounts, there are not enough qualified people in the pipeline to replace all of the people who will be retiring. Most of the forecasts are worse for the IT industry. Fewer people are studying IT in college because of the impression that an IT career automatically means a poor work-life balance. Working 80 hours a week does not jive with the typical Gen-Yer.
What is going to happen when companies desperately need qualified IT people and most of the candidates want to bring their parents to the interview? What are we going to do when candidates turn down offers they don’t like because they can easily keep living with Mom and Dad until they find the perfect position? I wonder who will end up adapting to whom?
I am interested in your feedback. What do you think? Leave a comment, or E-mail me at Todd.Michaud@FranchiseIT.org.
-Marc
January 21st, 2010 at 1:43 pm
While this is interesting to a Baby Boomer on the verge of retirement from IT, it is not surprising.
My son (non-IT) was considering a promissing post-college stint in minor baseball a few years ago. He informed me, “If I don’t make the Bigs and have to take a regular job, it better not be entry-level.” My response (after the laughter) “Are you kidding me?” But he was very serious.
While I don’t think I was an overly protective parent and my kids can visit me but NOT LIVE WITH ME, the attitude of the Millenials is very much all about entitlement.
I coached my kids that they cannot expect to work for 1 company for 30 years like I did. However, on the flip side, I believe companies are going to have a hard time hanging onto those folks who they want to keep for 30 years.
We BB’s are the last of a breed.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Todd,
All I can say is God help us all if this is the case, I truely hope it is not a trend because if it is it holds the seeds of some really bads news for us all. My company as most depends heavily on competent, talented, and mature IT professionals and we look for new talent coming into the field, just because one has a degree does not make you qualified to lead.
What shocks me is the attitude of the candidate and more so that any parent would expect a company to comply to such a request (not sure what disturbs me more the fact that a condidate would expect such a thing or that a parent would actually think this is normal), if I had not read it from Storefront I would have thought it was a made up story, what is this next generation thinking. What arrogance, they need to learn that one has to learn to walk before one can run, and to expect a leadership position before you know how to follow orders/ rules, give us all a break here, guess that is now old school.
As the president of my company I will be making sure that any new applicant is not allowed to bring parents to any interview (this has not happen or come up, YET)
Thank you for the heads up this is very disturbing.
Wayne Steiger
January 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Editor’s Note: I can report, with sadness, that after Todd mentioned this trend, I have spoken with quite a few IT execs. Alas, it is indeed a trend. I told my 12-year-old daughter yesterday that if I ever ask to go on a job interview with her, she has my full backing to place me in the cheapest nursing home she can find.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Mr. Michaud’s response to the candidate who brought her parents to the interview, after she indicated that she was looking for a leadership position, should have been, “No one qualified for a leadership position in this–or any other–company would bring their parents to an interview.”
January 29th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
To paraphrase Gene Wilder in “Blazing Saddles”,
‘You have to understand, these are simple folk, new college graduates, proud and contemptuous, the common clay of the modern economy. You know, MORONS!’
I like Bob LeMay’s answer, but it needs to go a step furhter. When asked if they can bring their parents, just tell them : “If you need to bring Mommy and Daddy with you to an internview, you’re too needy to work here. I don’t have time to manage you AND parent you. Perhaps after you’re potty trained, or once you’ve made the big move to solid food….”
January 30th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Appalling.
Agreed with others. I think people like this need to be quite LITERALLY laughed out of the office.
Look them straight in the eyes, and tell them “I dont care if you are the president of MENSA and Fulbright Scholar with two PhD’s from MIT, entry level kids with their parents in tow, do not, can not, and will not, EVER be qualified to lead an engineering team without the work experience to empirically demonstrate ability and competence. That you DON’T know that is perfectly evidential of the fact that you are far below are hiring standards. Sorry, we’re looking for a professional; which you are not.”
Maybe that will sink in.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Please someone tell me this will appear on an episode of Punked!
February 12th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Given that IT people are stereotypically less socially aware, perhaps this trend makes sense. The parent (seems to usually be the mother?) knows that their technically gifted son/daughter has some people issues and wants to help compensate? While the trend might make some sense, I certainly agree with others that this is not a good sign.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
True, but it also simply be that the parents want to advocate for their children, the same way they’ve advocated for better grades since the earliest school days. The “throw ’em in and let them learn to fend for themselves” school of parenting seems to be in short supply these days. As a parent myself, not sure when–and how far–to go with this approach, but if you’re even THINKING about still being there with them post-college at a job interview, you’re way past the line.