94% of companies expect Gen Z to show up with professional etiquette. Only 54% actually help develop those skills.
That gap isn’t a Gen Z problem. It’s a system failure. And two people we deeply respect are doing something about it.
On this episode of Run The Play, David Hampian sat down with Marta Riggins and Cam Moore — two of the sharpest employer brand and talent strategy leaders in the game — to talk about what’s actually going on with Gen Z in the workforce, and what companies, hiring managers, and young professionals can do about it. This conversation sits at the intersection of org process design and workforce readiness.
The skills that move careers forward — networking, personal storytelling, knowing how to show up — live in a gap that almost nobody is filling. Colleges don’t teach them. Most employers don’t develop them. And then the world has the audacity to call an entire generation unprepared.
Marta and Cam are building the bridge.
The story that got a 25-year-old the job
One moment from the conversation captures everything. Cam shared the story of a 25-year-old who walked into a job interview and almost didn’t realize that playing college sports had given him the exact skills the role required — loyalty, resilience, determination, the ability to perform under pressure. It wasn’t on his resume. It wasn’t in his cover letter. It took a hiring manager to point it out mid-interview. This is exactly what the PLOT framework teaches: how to structure a narrative that reveals your value.
His story got him the job. Not his resume.
That’s not an edge case. That’s the norm. Most young professionals are sitting on experiences they’ve never learned to articulate as professional value — the COVID year that upended their education, the side hustle they ran in college, the volunteer work, the failures they recovered from.
Why personal storytelling is the career skill AI can’t replace
In a world flooded with AI-generated resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles, your story is the one thing nobody can replicate. The path you walked. The detours you took. The mess that became your turning point. This principle applies to brands as much as it does to people—we’ve seen it work in the Twitch case study, where authenticity built culture.
That’s not a liability. That’s your edge — if you know how to tell it.
This episode digs into what makes a career story stick, how hiring managers actually evaluate candidates, and why the traditional resume-first approach to job searching is increasingly failing the generation that needs it most.
What employers are getting wrong about Gen Z readiness
Marta and Cam also challenge the employer side of the equation. If companies expect a certain standard of professionalism, communication, and career awareness, then employer branding and talent acquisition strategies need to account for the fact that these skills aren’t being taught anywhere else. The best employers are the ones investing in workforce readiness — not just expecting it to show up on day one. For more on how to build these strategies, check out my advice to new marketers, which covers how to develop these foundational skills.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why the Gen Z professional skills gap is a system failure, not a generational failure
- How to identify and articulate career experiences that don’t show up on a resume
- What hiring managers actually look for beyond credentials and keywords
- Why personal storytelling is the most durable career advantage in an AI-saturated job market
- What companies can do to close the employer branding and workforce readiness gap
- How career coaches, talent leaders, and hiring managers can better serve Gen Z candidates
Listen to the full episode above, or find Run The Play on YouTube.
About Run The Play
Run The Play is a podcast from Field Vision, a fractional CMO and growth marketing firm for digital media, entertainment, and creator economy startups (seed to Series D). Hosted by David Hampian — former Global Head of Audience Development at Amazon and Senior Director of Global Integrated Marketing at Twitch — each episode features conversations with senior marketing, brand, and talent leaders on the strategies behind the world’s biggest brands and boldest ideas.