How Do Generation Z Choose Their First Job? A Study on Important Job Attributes

Abstract

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This study examines senior students’ perspectives about important job attributes for their first full-time job. Generation Z students majoring in humanity and social sciences field in universities and graduate schools are targeted as the sample. The researcher adopted a mixed method approach which included both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect the data. From the semi-structured interviews, regarding the most significant job attributes, the top three answers mentioned by the participants were job content, salary, opportunities of self-development. These three attributes were included in the design of a survey based on the Discrete Choice Experiment approach and the ranking method. The result of the conjointanalysis of 250 valid responses shows that the utility order of the overall job attributes is salary, opportunities of self-development, and job content. Specifically, the Generation Z students preferred job content with 25% of challenging and diverse tasks plus 75% of daily routine work, $3,000 above the market salary, and lots of opportunities of self-development. The ranking method also confirmed salary as the most significant job attribute, followed by opportunities of self-development and job content in the same order of preference. To sum up, the findings of this study make up the deficiency in the literature on Generation Z job preferences and give suggestions for future researchers. Furthermore, some practical implications are also provided for the organizations and HR practitioners to improve their job design to attract more job applicants.