After quiet quitting, quiet hiring and loud leaving, there is already a new trend among working young people: rage applying. If they are dissatisfied with their job, salary or promotion opportunities, they apply to as many new employers at the same time, with or without the help of AI.
The term has been going around in large numbers since late last year on Tiktok, the video app that is especially popular among Gen Z, say young working people born after 1995. Intensive job searching is nothing new, of course, but thanks to AI applications like ChatGPT, which can, for example, draft cover letters for you, young people can search for another job very easily.
No nonsense
CBS News, for example, writes about the trend. What is usually behind it is frustration because young people feel that they are paid too poorly, are not given opportunities or have so much work on their plate that they are nearing burnout. Speaking to the US Medium, financial journalist Nathan Kennedy analyses that the youngest generation simply has a “low tolerance for bullshit”. “And they are right, a job should not come at the expense of your dignity,” he says.
Kennedy does warn against the idea that really any other job would be better than your current one, which you are frustrated about. “Soon you will leave a job you hate, and get another job you hate in return.”
Recent graduate
Sending hundreds of applications out of frustration is also common among recent graduates, who rarely get a foot in the door with companies. They are invited for one or two interviews after these hundreds of attempts, and then often not selected because of their lack of experience. The US has been experiencing large rounds of layoffs lately, so it is difficult for people just entering the job market.
In the Netherlands, by the way, the job market still looks a lot sunnier.