There’s a gap opening up between what an entire generation was promised and what they’re actually finding when they enter the workforce — and almost nobody is naming it clearly.

In this episode of the Gen Z Launch Gap series, I sit down with Shirish Agarwal, author of Gen Z to Gen Zero, to examine a difficult reality: the entry-level job market wasn’t simply disrupted by AI. It was redesigned. And in many industries, the first rung of the career ladder that young adults were told to expect is no longer there.

We talk about what parents still believe about careers that may no longer be true, why the traditional path from degree to first job is breaking down, and where the “new first rung” actually exists. Shirish also breaks down the four things increasingly separating candidates from the crowd: skills, projects, distribution, and reputation.

But this isn’t just a story about what Gen Z has lost. We also look at where this generation has a genuine advantage — one that employers may be overlooking — and which industries are still hiring in more traditional ways.

This is the anchor conversation in The Gen Z Launch Gap, an ongoing series about the widening distance between how young adults were told the transition to work would happen and what they’re actually encountering.

It’s for Gen Z trying to understand the new rules — and for the parents trying to understand what changed.

If you listened to our previous installment with Kim Steiner and Amy Krause of Fource Recruiting, this conversation takes the issue one step further: if the first rung has moved, where did it go — and how do you get there?

More conversations are coming.