Who would you like to work for when you grow up? That’s a question the National Society of High School Scholars, an honor society for high-achieving students, asks its members in a survey every two years or so. The rankings, unsurprisingly, tend to skew toward the types of companies most familiar to kids (among the top 100 over the years are Disney and Build-A-Bear). But beyond the big brands, the survey offers a snapshot of the aspirations of America’s most ambitious teens — students who will soon become the next generation of elite professionals.
For years, the top spots on the survey have been dominated by tech giants. In 2017, for example, the most desirable employer was Google. But this year’s rankings, based on responses from more than 10,000 Gen Zers, reflect a changing world order. Google fell to No. 7 on the list; Amazon to No. 8; and Tesla to No. 33. Instagram came in at No. 48, and Facebook barely cracked the list, falling behind Dow Chemical and 3M to No. 94. The appeal of technology, it seems, is plummeting among the best and brightest high school students.
Why has tech suddenly fallen out of favor with students? I’m guessing it’s partly due to a simple calculation of who’s hiring right now. Silicon Valley has been laying off tens of thousands of workers, making it nearly impossible to get a job in the tech sector. In a survey by Handshake, a job site for college students, the class of 2024 cited job stability as their top priority when deciding where to apply. And when it came to finding stable employment, the share of applications they submitted to tech companies dropped by 19% compared to the class of 2022.
Students also said that an important factor to consider when choosing a job was the company’s reputation as a good place to work. “They’re looking for an employer that looks out for them and is kind to their workforce,” says Christine Cruzvergara, director of education strategy at Handshake. And the tech industry didn’t do itself any favors with the harsh way it carried out its recent wave of layoffs. “You’ve seen people on social media talking about what their layoff experience was like and how the company treated them,” Cruzvergara says.
But the numbers suggest that Gen Z’s disapproval of technology is more than a selfish calculation. For more than a decade, tech has enjoyed a near-total monopoly on the country’s smartest young workers. Millennials believed they were headed to Silicon Valley in service of a noble mission. They were told that technology was going to democratize data, creating a digital bridge to a better, more equitable world. Instead, tech companies have been responsible for spreading misinformation, fueling hate speech, sowing digital addiction and exacerbating an epidemic of mental illness among teens. To Gen Z, technology no longer seems like a force for good. high school survey This year, more students said they believe artificial intelligence will have a negative effect on society than those who say it will have a positive effect.
We’ve seen this happen before. Two decades ago, when I was in college, the smartest students in my class wanted to study finance. Then, in the fall semester of our senior year, Lehman Brothers collapsed, taking the rest of the economy with it. The sharp contraction in the banking sector, combined with the new image of Wall Street as the embodiment of evil, encouraged students to start looking elsewhere for jobs. That’s when Google and Facebook came along, offering incredibly generous stock options, free meals, offices with ping-pong tables, and the chance to build world-changing products. It wasn’t long before technology supplanted finance as the ultimate dream job.
Now, the waning interest in Big Tech could pose a long-term threat to its future. After all, the industry’s rise was driven by more than just its algorithms. Part of what made Silicon Valley so dominant was the endless supply of brilliant college graduates who brought young companies the fresh ideas and mountains of code they needed to become the giants they are today. If Big Tech has lost the hearts and minds of today’s students, it has lost its ultimate edge.
If Silicon Valley is going out of style, what will take its place as the next hot destination? According to the latest survey of high school students, one contender appears to be health care. In this year’s rankings, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital was No. 1. The Mayo Clinic was No. 2. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which wasn’t even in the top 100 in 2018, was No. 14. If the pandemic taught Gen Z anything, it’s that no job is more important than that of frontline workers who risk their own lives to save the lives of others. (Students ranked their local hospital No. 4.) And with the health care industry facing severe staffing shortages, we need young people to pursue careers as doctors and nurses far more than we need them to optimize internet ads.
Another candidate to fill tech’s shoes may be — irony of ironies — the federal government. Civil service doesn’t have the pay or glamour of tech jobs, but it offers the stability that college students say they want. Perhaps that’s why the share of applications for government jobs on Handshake this year nearly doubled from 2022. And in the survey of high school students, the FBI, NASA, the CIA and the CDC all ranked in the top 20. Big Tech’s biggest titans may hate Washington, but today’s smartest teens see it as a source of meaningful work and stable employment.
But as I’ve pondered this question, I wonder if the new dream job for young people isn’t a job at all, at least not the kind where they work for someone else. Handshake surveyThree-quarters of respondents said they would be interested in pursuing entrepreneurship at some point in their career. Many, in fact, have already dabbled in a variety of side jobs, acquiring a taste for self-employment. When I talk to college students these days, I’m struck by how they lack the naiveté I suffered from when I was their age. They already know that the only company you can’t be fired from is the one you own.
That doesn’t mean they plan to go into business for themselves right away. That would be the opposite of the stability they desire, and this is a practical group. Instead, they’re still looking for regular, entry-level jobs to support themselves while they build their own business. “They’re using their full-time job as a safety net to make sure they have a steady income, can pay their bills, save,” Cruzvergara says. “Then, if things go well, they can make that transition and it won’t seem so idealistic and scary.” Today’s students may not seem all that different from the careerists of previous generations. But their North Star is no longer becoming a senior vice president at someone else’s company.
Whatever sector becomes the next hot career — health care, government, entrepreneurship or something else — Big Tech’s waning dominance is likely to be a positive thing for the rest of the economy. Many sectors have languished for years, unable to compete for the bright young minds that Silicon Valley so long hoarded. Now, like tech and finance before them, they will finally have the chance to hire the generation that will drive the innovation of the future.
Aki Ito is Business Insider’s chief correspondent.
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