Gen Z – A CEO who mentors hundreds of students says “What’s your number?” is becoming a hiring reality—especially for Generation Z facing crushing loan bills. In one candid exchange, a recent college graduate with $200,000 in debt priced her life at $130,000, then exp
The first question June asks when reviewing a new hire isn’t about skills or a resume bullet. It’s about money—specifically, what it costs the person to live.
“For me,” June says, “it gives me a chance to understand a prospective employee’s expectations and needs.” She expects the answer to go beyond surviving. It’s about thriving.
June has been working with close to 2,000 high school students since 2018, offering them paid summer work experience. She also mentors many young Gen Zers who are finishing college and preparing for their first full-time job. For most of them, she says the concept of their “number” has rarely come up before.
That changed in one conversation with Sophia Castellanos. who recently graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a degree in international relations. Sophia asked June if there were opportunities for her. and June was surprised by how ready Sophia was—because Sophia’s “number” isn’t a guessing game.
Sophia is facing $200,000 in college loans at a 6% interest rate. Just the payments add up to $3,000 a month, and Sophia is working to pay off the debt in less than 10 years.
Sophia’s number is $130,000. A small company like June’s doesn’t have the budget to pay that salary for an entry-level position—but the two didn’t walk away. Sophia gave June permission to share the crux of their discussion. and agreed to make her number public so other college graduates and employers could approach negotiations more creatively with that reality in mind.
Their exchange reads like a financial spreadsheet—until it turns into something more personal.
June started with what she could offer right now: $65,000 a year, remote work, full benefits, and many weeks off each year that wouldn’t count toward PTO.
Sophia’s response was blunt. At $65,000, she’d likely need to live at home to get financial stability. She also pointed out the other side of that arrangement—living with parents can bring its own stressors. Not living with her parents would mean hunting for an apartment and likely finding two to three roommates.
June framed the offer around remote work as more than a perk. Because everyone she hires works remotely. she has been able to hire people at less than their “number” by allowing them to live in a less expensive area. She also tied the economics to time: transportation costs drop, and time becomes another savings lever.
Sophia said she could see how that might shift her own calculations. If she took a lower salary while relying on the flexibility of working from home—along with not having to request PTO for the holidays—her cost needs would shrink. Without a daily commute. she would have fewer expenses like gas for commuting. food. and rent. bringing her number closer to $100. 000.
Even then, Sophia’s point wasn’t just that the math changes. It was about priorities. She said that while she’d be making $65. 000 instead of $130. 000. the payoff could be more personal time and better work-life balance. For her generation, Generation Z, she said, time is the focus. A job should be part of life, not the whole thing.
As someone who is “22 and $200,000 in debt,” Sophia also made clear that the stakes feel immediate. She said she’s hungry for opportunity, hungry for money, hungry for employment—and hungry to prove herself. She added that she didn’t take on that much debt just to end up with a lifestyle that doesn’t feel fulfilling.
June agreed on what motivates the candidate she wants to bet on. Her ideal person, she said, would have “that fire in the belly.”
Sophia, in turn, described her motivation as inseparable from the conversation itself. If she’s asking for an honest discussion with an employer. it’s because she expects to deliver strong work—work she wants to back up with effort and to reflect the company she joins. She also pushed back on a common label applied to Gen Z: she said her generation is often called “too green. ” as if they lack the experience or the right degree.
Yet she argued that she’s arriving from college with new eyes, new opinions, and new expectations about how she wants to pursue a career—one that’s fulfilling, thoughtful, and aims to make a difference. And if a company is willing to take a risk on her, she said, she will make sure she’s worth it.
For June, the decision is personal, too. She said the work she does is built around the “leap of faith”—investing in younger people as a mentor who has been successful in her own company. Then she reduced the whole situation to one line: “It’s just a number.” If she can afford it. she said. she will pay it—because she believes it’s worth it.
June Bayha is CEO of Bayha Group. Sophia Castellanos is an alumna from Claremont McKenna College currently interning at Talos Energy.
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