The Marketing Generation Gap: What Gen Z Career Aspirations Reveal About the Future of B2B

Many of us geeks got into Computer Science through gaming in the 90s, and marketers often emerged from journalism (later, blogging) and print. 🗞️

Today, “Vibe coding” converts non-technical people, and new marketers are often TikTok and Instagram influencers.

As we’re ramping up interviews for different roles at DevriX, we screen hundreds of people each month, including some Gen Z candidates for less senior roles. While we’ve grown into this age with forums or ICQ or blogging platforms, today’s experience is often radically different:

➡️ Content marketing seems foreign (who’s reading anymore?)

➡️ Google search is not a consideration (SEO is a blast of the past)

➡️ LinkedIn is not a social media (but a recruitment resume – the ones we remember from pre-2016-2017)

➡️ Emails are only used for contracts (checked once a week or so)

➡️ Getting a Snap or Instagram profile to “get back to me” is… oddly common

➡️ B2B what? Usually foreign terminology to the young generation

➡️ PPC seems like a go-to career track in marketing (ads are definitely the most relatable part of marketing in business for many 20-25 year olds

➡️ Local search is through Instagram and TikTok (and lately, some ChatGPT)

➡️ CRMs or ERPs sound “corporate,” “boring,” and “boomer territory”

Bridging this gap is a leap. Even though automations and LLMs make the job so much easier, efficient, rewarding, and faster to apply, learn, and iterate (compared to 4 years ago).

For anyone in the Gen Z bracket (or with kids in that generation) currently on a marketing/advertisement/PR track – what are the career aspirations for freshmen and interns in 2026?