Welcome to the Gen Z career squeeze

• Managers are taking on broader responsibilities amid organizational flattening and efficiency pushes.
• This means less time for training junior employees — and an emphasis on hiring those with greater experience.
• These shifts are creating challenges for Gen Zers looking to jumpstart their careers.

In 2022, Meredith Meyer was promoted from software engineer to engineering manager at Apple. But her promotion came with a catch.

The role came with new responsibilities, like overseeing a team of three engineers, but Meyer said she was never relieved of her prior individual contributor work. She said her team of less experienced staffers wasn't ready to take on the complex tasks she'd been handling, and that management rejected her request for a larger team to distribute that work. Plus, her own responsibilities left her with less time to manage and train her team.

"It just felt like there was more and more work, but nowhere for it to go," said Meyer, 30, who is based in the Bay Area.

Eventually, Meyer said she felt burned out and unfulfilled. Last October, she quit and budgeted six months off to reset.

The pressures Meyer described reflect a broader shift across corporate America. As companies cut costs, flatten management layers, and push employees to do more with less, many managers are overseeing more work with fewer resources, leaving less time to train and support Gen Z employees.

A January Gallup survey found that 97% of managers had taken on individual contributor work outside of their leadership purview, and that the average manager had 12.1 direct reports in 2025 — up from 10.9 the year before.

This shift doesn't just mean less time with young employees — it can also shape who gets hired in the first place. Four recruiters across tech, finance, and logistics told Business Insider that many managers at their client companies have taken on larger teams and broader responsibilities, leaving them with less incentive to hire junior employees who need training, especially when a more experienced candidate is an option.

"When a manager is already at 110% capacity, they view a junior hire as a 'time debt' — someone who requires an upfront investment of coaching they simply don't have," said Lindsay Myketey, a recruiter at Sella by Randstad Digital who focuses on marketing and tech roles.

Overworked managers are prioritizing experience over recent grads

The trend of overextended managers is unfolding alongside a more cautious hiring environment — shaped in part by investments in artificial intelligence — that is raising the bar for new hires, with some employers prioritizing experienced candidates who can hit the ground running with minimal supervision. According to the latest December data, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 5.6%, up from as low as 3.9% in 2022.

Den Mendejar, director of DEI enterprise and talent solutions at staffing company Aquent, said the shift toward experience is changing what qualifies as an entry-level job at some companies, and leaving fewer entry points for new grads.

"Roles that used to be true early career opportunities now ask for several years of experience because managers want someone who requires less ramp up time," he said.

When managers are stretched thin, young workers may have a harder time getting up to speed.

An early-career Microsoft employee said that when she started at the company, regular check-ins with her manager helped her learn the role. But by last year, her manager had taken on more reports — part of a broader trend of reducing management layers across the company — and they were meeting about half as often.

She said she had enough experience to work independently and that taking on that responsibility helped build her confidence. But for a newer, more junior team member, the lack of support was more challenging, so she stepped in to help.

"I wanted to make sure they had a good experience after joining and felt supported," she told Business Insider last June.

Why experience is winning out

Employers have always valued experience, but there's been a shift in recent years at many companies — one that isn't just about managers having less time to train new grads.

Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio Labs, said a volatile economic environment has led some employers to favor more experienced workers.

"In uncertain times, employers don't want to take risks," she said. "And someone who knows how things already work is a safer bet."

Finding those workers has become easier as hiring has slowed across the economy. With more job seekers competing for fewer openings, companies can attract experienced candidates — including some willing to take roles below their experience level.

Simon added that AI may be allowing some companies to get by with fewer employees, leaving fewer roles to fill. When these companies do hire, she said, experienced workers — who are better positioned to use and oversee these tools — may be prioritized.

In this environment, young workers with little experience may need to find other ways to demonstrate their value.

A senior engineering manager at a Fortune 500 company who oversees six direct reports said his workload depends less on the number of people he manages and more on how independently they operate. While recent grads may require more training, he said, they can also bring energy and adaptability that more experienced workers sometimes lack.

"If they have the hunger to learn, to work and explore, then I have no issue hiring those people," he said.

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