Gen Zers are tossing their graduation caps and heading into the workforce with starry six-figure salaries in their eyes. But one of the world’s most prolific entrepreneurs, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, says glitzy compensation packages shouldn’t be their aim.
In his parting words as CEO last year, the Oracle of Omaha reflected on his eight-decade career, and shared one lesson for Gen Zers kickstarting their professional lives.
“Don’t worry too much about starting salaries and be very careful who you work for because you will take on the habits of the people around you,” Buffett warned the next generation of workers during his final Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting. “There are certain jobs you shouldn’t take.”
The 95-year-old hedge fund mogul has decades worth of experience to draw upon; he’s led the iconic $1 trillion holding company for more than five decades as both CEO and chairman, before stepping down at the start of this year as Greg Abel takes the reins.
But his career didn’t start off on such a lucrative high. The billionaire’s first jobs were selling Coke bottles door-to-door, and delivering newspapers for The Washington Post at just 13. After college, Buffett stepped into the corporate world, landing a gig at his dad’s brokerage firm Buffett-Falk & Co., and working as a securities analyst for Graham-Newman Corp.
