Ten years from studying Gen Z to being graded by them.

In 2016, we brought a generational researcher into a room full of College Works leaders and asked him to explain a generation most of us had never managed.

His name was David Stillman. He came in with research he and his son Jonah, a Gen Zer himself, were turning into a book. A year later it was published as Gen Z @ Work, one of the first serious looks at how this generation would show up on the job. At the time, the oldest members of Gen Z were just old enough to apply for our internship.

He walked us through what made this generation different. Four ideas from that session stuck with me: Gen Z is hyper-custom, realistic, wired with FOMO, and driven. Every season since has proved him right.

Ten years later, Newsweek named College Works one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Entry Level. It was our second straight year on the list, which in 2025 went by a more pointed name: America’s Greatest Workplaces for Gen Z.

The distance between those two moments is the whole story. In 2016, we studied Gen Z. In 2026, Gen Z graded us.

The grade came from them

That second part matters more than the award itself. Newsweek and Plant-A Insights build the ranking largely from a national survey of employees aged 18 to 28, more than 610,000 company reviews in the 2026 study, along with interviews and public data. The name on the list changed. The people grading it didn’t. The opinion that counts most belongs to the people doing the work.

You can’t buy that score, and you can’t market your way into it. You earn it one season, one intern, and one hard week in June at a time.

Four traits, and what we changed

We didn’t just take notes. After that session, we rebuilt how we interview, coach, and reward interns around what he told us. Here’s what each trait turned into.

Hyper-custom. This generation grew up with playlists, feeds, and products built around them, and they expect work to fit them too. Gen Guru’s research finds 62 percent want to customize their career path. So we built the role around what we call structured flexibility: we help you build the structure, and the flexibility is yours as long as you put in the effort. Interns shape their own week around school, and we teach them how to do it, because every career after this one will ask the same of them.

Realistic. Stillman described a generation raised by Gen X and shaped by watching the adults around them get through a recession. They don’t want a pitch. They want the honest version. So we got more honest, especially with freshmen and sophomores weighing us against big-name internships. Would a Fortune 500 company put a 19-year-old in charge of a project? No. Why not? Because it pays an experienced professional to do that job. So what does that intern actually do all summer? That question does more work than any brochure. We’re just as straight about the hard part: this internship is tough, and not everyone who starts it finishes strong.

FOMO. Gen Z hates being out of the loop, and they’ll quit a job long before they quit a career. So we framed College Works as a career with multiple paths forward, not a summer job. We pay as early as we can and tie it directly to results, so effort shows up fast. And we’re honest about the trade: the friends on spring break are having fun, but they’re missing the experience that will matter most later.

Driven. This was the trait most people missed in 2016. Gen Z wants to win, and they want to fight for it. So we made the internship hard to get on purpose, with a multi-step interview process that only a small slice of applicants make it through. We keep a ranking all year long, so everyone knows where they stand and the best push the best. And we set contests to a level instead of crowning one winner, so everyone who hits the bar wins. Competition that only rewards first place loses most of the room. Competition with a clear bar pulls everyone up.

One more note: their parents. Stillman’s research showed a generation unusually close to mom and dad, so we treat parents as partners in the decision, with one rule. We tell every candidate to go home, do their research, and talk it through with their parents, then make their own call. Why does that matter? Because we want people who can make decisions. Mom and dad won’t be there in June to hold their hand.

What leaders still get wrong

Much of the Gen Z conversation in 2016 read like a warning label. Entitled. Distracted. Can’t take feedback. A decade of coaching college students tells me the opposite. When you give young people real responsibility and real coaching, they rise to it. Gen Guru’s research even finds 86 percent of Gen Z prefer face-to-face communication at work. They don’t want less coaching. They want more of it, in person.

If you are hiring your first wave of Gen Z talent, here is where I would start.

Raise both sides of the equation. Ability x Motivation = Performance. A zero on either side means zero output. Demanding results without building skill gets you nothing, and neither does training someone who doesn’t care. Your job is to raise both.

Show them their hand. People go all in when they believe they’re holding a strong hand. Most 20-year-olds underestimate theirs. Coaching is helping them see how good it really is.

Make it us vs. the goal. Hard feedback lands differently when it’s you and them against a number instead of you against them. This generation will take tough coaching from someone who is clearly on their side.

Don’t underestimate them

The biggest lesson of the last ten years fits in one sentence. Young people are capable of greatness, and most organizations never give them the chance to prove it.

Stillman helped us understand the generation walking through our door. Our interns did the rest.

If you lead young people, try one move this week. Give one of them a real piece of ownership, then coach them through it face to face. Watch what happens.