I wonder where you get these applicants. We're in Frankfurt/Germany, a reasonably famous startup with 65 people now and the best hiring strategy we've found is peer recommendations. The normal application funnel receives a flipside of what you describe, most students/young applicants are barely able to verbalise an interest in any field and use the majority of the interview to ask about benefits and home-office/remote possibilities instead of what the job entails.
The cutest response that kind of summarized the attitude I feel I get we lately heard from a school intern on his last day, age 14 in our company-wide slack:"I loved being surrounded by so many nice people... ...if I ever have to work, I would like to work for a company like yours."
He was an exception though and very diligent trying to help wherever he could, but It caused quite some chuckles.
I interviewed for two jobs there and then gave up on Frankfurt.
Management still does not realize or don't want to acknowledge how expensive this city is.
If I would keep going to interviews you can bet your ass my first question would be about money. Because after the answer I know if you are living in reality or living in a dream world and we can end it there.
The cutest response that kind of summarized the attitude I feel I get we lately heard from a school intern on his last day, age 14 in our company-wide slack:"I loved being surrounded by so many nice people... ...if I ever have to work, I would like to work for a company like yours." He was an exception though and very diligent trying to help wherever he could, but It caused quite some chuckles.