- Despite receiving 5,000 job applications daily, the $7.2 billion AI firm Glean struggles to find candidates with a strong work ethic.
- The hiring crisis at Glean is a paradox, as applicants often have technical skills but lack essential qualities like ownership and resilience.
- CEO Aravind Srinivas attributes the mismatch to a cultural gap between employer expectations and workforce readiness.
- Glean’s hiring woes highlight the need for education and workplace culture to prioritize qualities beyond technical skills.
- In a high-stakes tech economy, being employable requires more than just coding skills but also a strong work ethic and initiative.
Aravind Srinivas, the ex-Google engineer turned CEO of $7.2 billion AI startup Glean, receives thousands of job applications every day—but says he still can’t find candidates with a strong work ethic. Despite a flood of interest, especially from Gen Z graduates, Srinivas argues that dedication, accountability, and initiative are increasingly rare in today’s job market. This mismatch between employer expectations and workforce readiness has turned into a hiring crisis at one of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing AI companies, raising urgent questions about education, workplace culture, and what it means to be employable in a high-stakes tech economy.
Why Can’t a Billion-Dollar AI Company Find Skilled Workers?
The paradox at Glean—massive applicant volume paired with chronic underfilling of key roles—stems not from technical deficiencies but from a perceived cultural gap. Srinivas, who previously led AI research at Google and founded Glean in 2021, says most applicants can code or list AI tools on their résumés, but few demonstrate ownership, resilience, or follow-through. In interviews, he often asks candidates to describe a project they completed independently or a time they fixed a problem without being told. Responses, he claims, are frequently vague or reliant on team-based examples. “We’re not asking for perfection,” Srinivas told Fortune, “We’re asking for the instinct to push through obstacles.” As Glean scales to meet demand for enterprise AI search tools, this soft skills deficit threatens to slow innovation and deployment.
What Evidence Supports the Claim of a Work Ethic Gap?
Glean’s hiring data reveals that while over 5,000 applications pour in weekly, fewer than 2% advance past initial behavioral screenings. Internal assessments prioritize problem-solving autonomy and responsiveness over technical test scores. This aligns with broader industry trends: a 2025 BBC Worklife report found that 43% of tech managers believe younger hires require more hand-holding than previous generations. Meanwhile, LinkedIn data shows a 68% increase in Gen Z users listing “AI prompt engineering” on profiles since 2023, though few can demonstrate applied results. Srinivas argues that educational systems now emphasize credentialing over craftsmanship. “We see portfolios full of tutorial projects,” he said. “Where are the side hustles, the debugged failures, the self-driven builds?” At Glean, engineers are expected to ship features rapidly, monitor user feedback, and iterate overnight—a pace that demands intrinsic motivation.
Are Gen Z Workers Really Lacking Work Ethic—or Are Expectations Outdated?
Critics argue that labeling an entire generation as lacking work ethic oversimplifies structural issues. Labor economists point out that Gen Z entered adulthood amid pandemic disruptions, soaring student debt, and a gig economy that devalues long-term commitment. “Calling young workers ‘lazy’ ignores how job insecurity and burnout have reshaped work attitudes,” said Dr. Lena Chen, a sociologist at UC Berkeley. Others suggest that Srinivas’s ideal employee—a self-starter working long hours without supervision—reflects a Silicon Valley culture that glorifies overwork under the guise of passion. Some also note that Glean’s hiring bar may be unrealistically high: demanding both elite technical skill and relentless drive in a competitive market. Rather than a moral failing, the gap may reflect a mismatch between startup intensity and broader workforce norms, especially as younger workers prioritize work-life balance and meaningful impact over hustle culture.
What Are the Real-World Consequences of This Hiring Gap?
The stakes are high for both companies and job seekers. Glean, which serves clients like Salesforce and Dropbox, has delayed product rollouts due to staffing shortages in its AI training and UX teams. To compensate, the company now invests heavily in onboarding programs that simulate real-world problem-solving, but retention remains a challenge. Meanwhile, thousands of qualified-seeming applicants remain unemployed or underemployed, stuck in a loop of rejected applications. This dynamic exacerbates economic inequality: those without elite internships or personal networks struggle to prove their initiative. Other AI firms, including Anthropic and Cohere, report similar hiring frustrations. The result is a two-tier labor market—where a small pool of proven builders commands top salaries, while many others, despite credentials, can’t break in.
What This Means For You
If you’re job hunting in tech, technical skills alone may not be enough. Employers like Glean are filtering for demonstrated initiative, resilience, and ownership—traits shown through real projects, not just coursework. Building a public portfolio of independent work, contributing to open-source tools, or launching a micro-project can signal the kind of self-driven mindset top firms seek. For employers, reevaluating what “work ethic” means—and whether it rewards privilege over potential—could unlock a wider talent pool. The future of hiring may depend not on more applications, but on better ways to identify grit and growth.
As AI automates routine tasks, will human value shift entirely to creativity and perseverance? And if so, how should schools, companies, and job seekers adapt to a labor market that increasingly rewards not just what you know, but how hard you’re willing to push?
Source: Fortune