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Ever thought about bringing your mom or dad to an interview with you? Well, it\u2019s a bad look\u2014at least according to Shark Tank<\/em> investor Kevin O\u2019Leary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFirst question I\u2019d have to the son or daughter, I\u2019d say: \u2018Do you want me to hire your mother or you? What\u2019s she doing here? Because I\u2019m not bringing her into the business,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Leary told Fox Business <\/em>in an interview published Feb. 28.<\/p>\n As shocking as it may be to hear that the young workforce is bringing their parents along for the recruitment process, it\u2019s a very real phenomenon. O\u2019Leary said it happened to him when he was interviewing a Gen Z candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just said: \u2018This isn\u2019t going to work, guys, your mom is not going to be part of this discussion, so we\u2019re going to have to shut her down, or you\u2019re not going to be considered for this role,\u2019\u201d O\u2019Leary recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plus, the proof is in the pudding: a 2025 study by Resume Templates showed a staggering 77% of surveyed Gen Z job seekers have brought a parent to a job interview. They have even gotten them to negotiate pay raises and complete hiring tests on their behalf.\u00a0<\/p>\n O\u2019Leary argues this is a \u201chorrific signal\u201d in Gen Z hiring trends. He said it shows younger professionals can\u2019t think or make decisions on their own.<\/p>\n \u201cIf your dad or your mom, that resume goes right into the garbage,\u201d O\u2019Leary added.\u00a0<\/p>\n A mix of economic anxiety, intensive parenting, and shifting norms around independence is pushing some Gen Z workers to involve parents in interviews and the broader job process.<\/p>\n Because entry-level roles are so scarce and competitive in today\u2019s job market, early-career interviews can feel very make-it or break-it. Another 2025 report shows nearly 60% of students who graduated within the last year are still looking for their first full-time role, according to Kickresume.<\/p>\n So for Gen Z, having a parent involved in their job hunt feels like hedging against mistakes. But experts have echoed O\u2019Leary\u2019s sentiments, saying that buffer of having a parent there really isn\u2019t as beneficial as Gen Zers may like to think.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re the parent who\u2019s inserting yourself, you\u2019re going to diminish the confidence that your son or daughter has walking into interviews, thinking that they can\u2019t do it themselves,\u201d Brandi Britton, an executive director at Robert Half, previously told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n And for some Gen Zers, parental involvement expands far beyond sitting in on interviews. Some parents are \u201ccareer co-piloting,\u201d meaning Gen X and baby boomer parents are deeply involved in their kids\u2019 education and careers\u2014so much so they\u2019re editing resumes, scheduling work calls, joining interviews, and negotiating job offers.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom first applications to negotiating offers, parents are firmly in the driver\u2019s seat for many Gen-Z workers,\u201d according to a survey from resume, cover letter, and job search platform Zety.<\/p>\n O\u2019Leary also advised other business leaders to just cut interviews short if they see a parent in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cJust say: \u2018Sorry. That\u2019s not going to work for us,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt means you can\u2019t do this on your own. I think it\u2019s a horrific signal\u2014and I really think that parents that are overbearing like this think that they\u2019re going to add value.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just a curse on their children,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a really, really bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Kevin #OLeary #horrific #signal #Gen #bring #parents #job #interviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever thought about bringing yo… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[5156,304,300,14884,7879,635,2295,522,3564,7545,4205,7532,3544,2502],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\nWhy parents are crashing their Gen Z kids\u2019 job interviews<\/h2>\n