GenZ is traditionally branded the lazy TikTok generation and they’ve had enough. They’re fighting back…with the side hustle.
Recent data from Kantar revealed that although the side hustle trend spans the generations (36% of Millennials, 30% of Gen X, and 21% of Baby Boomers), Gen Z – the ones purported to be so lazy – work more than the others, accounting for an remarkable 40% of Gen Z.
Shriya Boppana is a 24-year-old Carnegie Mellon graduate who works at Accenture/Google within consulting as a technical project manager.
Her side hustle? Becoming a Voice.
Becoming a Voice is an anti sex-trafficking organization that Boppana started in high school at the age of 15 after getting involved in social justice projects with some friends. Chatting enthusiastically from her hotel room, she explained:
“I started fundraising for an HIV AIDS clinic in Nepal, and from there, my work has opened up multiple doors. I’ve worked with organizations like GirlUp for the UN and She’s the First. In 2021 I decided to put all my projects into one project—Becoming a Voice.”
This led to being approached in 2021 by Fox producers to host her own talk show because they noticed she was a “visionary leader of tomorrow” in the social justice space. After the first season and her internship at Nickelodeon, they invited her back to record season 2.
Boppana has clearly defined goals for her career future. The atmosphere in the room was palpably electrifying as she excitedly announced that she is also pursuing her MBA, and just had an MBA interview with her preferred university that very morning, hence her hotel stay.
I asked her, “How do you manage to juggle being an entrepreneur, working full-time at Google, and now pursuing your master’s degree at the same time?”, to which she responded, “I’ve always had to fit things in between the cracks; first meeting starts 7:30am, so I wake up earlier to set out meeting notes, catch up on emails, slide decks, etc. When you have a passion for something and you truly enjoy it, you put so much energy and interest into it, knowing it makes a tangible difference to people out there, and seeing the results keeps you going.” I could tell that her passion and commitment was truly contagious.
Buppana doesn’t mind being the youngest in a team of four, some of whom are approximately twice her age. “I think youth perspective is so important. People will say you haven’t been at this company long enough or you’ve only been in the industry for so long, but I tell them, ‘Well, my experience outside of this space is something that people at your company haven’t even done in 10 years,” she quipped sassily.
Sometimes Buppana, who is US-based, holds virtual workshops to coordinate with Indian time, so there’s a significant time difference. But she manages it all like a pro.
“I eat while working, I don’t like to play games or watch TV, and I use my downtime or gaps in the day to design posters, or attend and conduct planning meetings for my next workshop.”
However, being a hard-working GenZ professional isn’t always easy. The very audacity to resist the “lazy” stereotype has its setbacks.
“I face discrimination all the time in tech. I receive ageist comments like ‘You weren’t born yet,’ or other underhanded remarks. In addition I’m a woman of colour so I get it worse,” shares 26-year-old Basant Shenouda, an Egyptian-born and UK-based implementation manager at LinkedIn/Microsoft.
She is most known for her personal brand and side hustle, Basant Blast, a career consulting business focused on helping millions of jobseekers who identify as minorities or immigrants. “Agism is viewed as something only older generations experience,” she keenly notes, “but it’s also about younger people too.”
Reflecting back to how she became fortunate enough to join one of the most envied employers, Shenouda says, “I came in on a graduate scheme. My job is amazing because I get to work with enterprise clients which are the biggest clients in the world. It always amazes me, even to this day, that I’ve got this job. LinkedIn does not care about entry-level workers having experience, which is how it should be. You can learn on the job. I’m in my dream job so am very happy.”
But the implementation manager, who is also working towards her part-time Master’s, faced career challenges before joining LinkedIn.
“Because I was an international student, I found it hard to get a role.” So, Shenouda started posting on LinkedIn about how to land a role in the UK if one is based internationally or has no experience. She created her personal brand to coach and support students to secure their dream job, in 2021.
Because of her consistency posting valuable content on LinkedIn for her peers, she was invited to speak at an event at the European Commission. She has also grown her community on LinkedIn to 100K+ with 40 million total views while working with organizations such as Stanford University, YearUp, Vodafone, AIESEC, Washington Ireland Programme, and WomenTech Network.
Her advice to GenZ professionals?
“Find where there’s a gap in the market. If you’re Googling something and you’re not finding answers, that’s an opportunity you can start filling. And if you don’t believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to have confidence in you as well.”
What’s interesting to note about GenZ is that they’re not just building side hustles to make ends meet.
They’re forging ahead, shattering boundaries, and paving the way for others who are traditionally marginalized and disadvantaged.
For example, Christina Ernst, Chicago-based 26-year-old senior software engineer on Google’s Consumer Trust Team, started She Builds Robots at the age of 21, a year before joining Google.
“I participated in a hackathon at university and created a unique Bluetooth dress project. Girls came up to me and then I realized there was a market for women in coding. I coded my own website and I now share educational resources on how to create projects I might have wanted when I was younger, such as cupcake toppers that sing happy birthday. Two years ago I started shipping kits to schools.”
The software engineer hopes to expand her side hustle, while continuing to work full-time at Google so she can keep an eye on trends to continue providing tech education.
Ernst agrees with Basant’s view on filling a gap in the market. She believes GenZ are uniquely positioned to fill gaps because they are keenly aware of problems in the world, and recommends GenZ professionals stay aware and leverage this.
“What advice would you give to GenZ today?”, I questioned Buppana towards the close of our interview.
“You can do it all. People have built this one-track concept of security, for example, my parents went to this university and followed this career path, so I have to as well. These are societal expectations. Make choices based on emotional stability, what makes you happy. Just do a little bit of everything you love every day. For example, I do plenty of fun and random things, I’ve even won a beauty pageant! So yes, you can be great, you can be beautiful, you can be educated, all of the above.
“But don’t ever let people push you into a box.”
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