Based on discussions in the comments, this post was born. I hope one day people will stop confusing zoomers, boomers, and doomers, but not today. Let me remind you: zoomers according to Russian classification are citizens born in 2001 and later.

The career platform Changellenge conducted a large study Best Company Award 2026, in which they surveyed over 9,000 students from 47 universities across the country, as well as 180 companies.

The most popular industry among students remains IT, although its popularity is noticeably declining — from 39% to 31%. However, the attractiveness of the financial sector is growing: collectively it's already 50%. The least popular industry for starting a career is public service. I wonder why 🤡?

What is so important to zoomers when choosing a job? You'll be shocked, so keep women and children away from the screens. Confident first place in any survey and calculation method is... drum roll... competitive salary. Wow! Unbelievable!

Full list:

📌Competitive salary level — 43%
📌Valuable/useful experience for future career — 27%
📌Meaning and value of work — 25%
📌Interesting and ambitious projects — 23%
📌Stability and reliability of the company — 21%
📌Flexible schedule — 20%
📌International career — 20%
📌Work-life balance — 19%
📌Fast career growth — 18%
📌Social responsibility of the company (environmental, charitable initiatives, etc.) — 18%
📌 Possibility of remote work — 18%
📌 Official employment — 16%
📌 Possibility of part-time work (including combining with another job) — 16%
📌 Transparent career growth and development paths — 16%
📌 Opportunity to see the results of your work — 15%

You may notice that the sum here is much more than 100%. This is because respondents were first asked to choose up to 7 factors, and then — one most important among those selected.

Salary, although the main factor, is far from the only one. Young professionals view work as a tool for capitalizing themselves. Work should not only pay well but also increase your value in the labor market. Therefore, right after salary, the top factor when choosing a job is valuable and useful experience for future career.

"Meaning and value of work" entered the top 3 for the first time, displacing "interesting and ambitious projects".

The stereotype about "smoothie slackers" should be thrown out, and those who believe in this stereotype should be anathematized. Work-life balance is in the top 3 in importance when you need to choose 7 key factors, but when choosing only one most important, it falls to 8th place. The culture of work-life balance is losing popularity, and the trend towards work-life blend is beginning.

"Social package" with its voluntary health insurance (VHI) and nice office is not needed by anyone — it didn't even make the top 20 in importance. So your investments in VHI, office, and other stuff to attract zoomers went down the drain. VHI is rather needed by crumbling millennials and boomers (who are actually Generation X).

The conclusions are EXTREMELY unexpected, but IT TURNS OUT that to attract zoomers to work, you need to pay a normal salary. It turns out that young people want a fair deal: decent money, clear career growth, reasonable working conditions, and interesting tasks. It turns out that no one wants to slave away for pennies doing routine and boring crap without growth prospects. For such conclusions, they even had to conduct a study.

So "friendly team", "convenient office", "VHI", and "coffee with cookies" you can shove up your ass are no longer relevant.

Dear zoomer readers, what is important to you when choosing a job?