“Gen Z Knows Reels, But Not Real Math? Recently, I visited a renowned campus to hire fresh graduates—bright minds from BBA, BCA, and other streams. During my interaction with 50+ students, I asked them a simple Class 5 maths question: “If a car travels the first 60 km at 30 km/h and the next 60 km at 60 km/h, what is its average speed?” Only 2 students got it right. The rest struggled,” said Ashish Gupta in a post on X.
“Yet, when I asked them how they would market our product, they had tons of ideas about Instagram reels, viral content, and digital trends. This highlights a stark reality—Gen Z is highly skilled in social media but lacks fundamental problem-solving, logical reasoning, and financial literacy. If these trends continue, we may have a generation struggling with personal finance, decision-making, and analytical skills,” added the CEO.
The CEO further added that as educators, employers, and mentors, the gap must be filled. “Critical thinking and basic numeracy are non-negotiable life skills. What are your thoughts? How do we ensure a balanced skillset for the next generation?” added the CEO.
Read the LinkedIn post here
How did people react to the post?
“Sir, you’ve raised a valid point regarding math skills, however, I would like to understand what has this question got to do with you hiring them? Are you hiring them for sales profile? Then answering this question is irrelevant. If you’re hiring for a maths tutor, then I can understand your concern. Otherwise, this post has only one interpretation – you highlighting the lack of basic maths among today’s generation. Also, I can assure you this, lot of CEO’s themselves cannot answer this question, yet they are where they are. Relevance of skills should be the main criteria, not basic aptitude tests. I also learn DST (Distance Speed Time) formula, yet nobody has ever asked me this question for an interview, because the hiring team themselves know, it is not going to matter. So, basically you’ve highlighted a solid issue amongst today’s generation, yet, it has nothing to do with skill shortage or any other hiring issue. Also, regarding “Reels”, trust me, they can make more money through Instagram, than you’ll probably be giving them,” said one user in reply to the post.
Another user said “Blame AI, not them.”
