Gen Z Is Playing the Long Game
The stereotype of the work-life-balance-obsessed Gen Z worker is taking a hit. A new KPMG survey of more than 900 summer interns at the accounting firm finds that career growth ranked as the No. 1 priority when choosing a full-time employer — outpacing work-life balance, salary, workplace culture, and staying ahead of technology.
The ambitions run deep. Nearly all respondents — 93% — said they aspire to reach the C-suite or senior executive ranks during their careers. That is not a generation asking to coast.
The stakes are real. KPMG partners in the United Kingdom earned roughly £880,000 (about $1.2 million) during fiscal year 2025, an 11% rise year-over-year, according to Business Insider. Beyond KPMG, the average S&P 500 CEO earned $18.9 million in 2024, up 7% from the prior year, according to AFL-CIO data. The ladder is worth climbing — if you can climb it.
The AI Equation
No generation has entered the workforce more directly in AI's crossfire. Companies across industries have pulled back on entry-level hiring, and leaders have signaled they want highly skilled, ambitious young workers — not prompt-dependent order-takers.
Gen Z appears to have absorbed that message. Critical thinking ranked as the No. 1 skill intern respondents believe will distinguish entry-level employees over the next five years. Seventy-six percent said long-term career success will require both strong human skills and the ability to direct AI agents effectively.
More than four in ten respondents said their biggest concern is that overreliance on AI could weaken critical thinking — a striking admission from what KPMG calls the most digitally native generation it has ever hired.
'You'd expect the most digitally native generation we've ever hired to say the technology is their edge,' said Derek Thomas, KPMG U.S.'s national partner-in-charge of university talent acquisition. 'Instead, they're telling us that critical thinking, judgment, and communication are what will set them apart.'
Thomas added in an email to Fortune: 'For early-career professionals who aspire to leadership roles, the ability to evaluate information, apply context, exercise sound judgment and explain the 'why' behind a recommendation will be critical.'
Leaders Are Saying the Same Thing
The intern data aligns with what some of the country's most prominent business figures have been preaching. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told Fox News: 'My advice to people would be critical thinking, learn skills, learn your EQ, learn how to be good in a meeting, how to communicate, how to write. You'll have plenty of jobs.'
KIND bar founder and Shark Tank star Daniel Lubetzky put it plainly to Fortune: 'Being a critical thinker is in high demand, and they're going to become greater demand. AI is real, but it doesn't have the creativity that humans have.'
The Takeaway
The numbers tell a story that free-market optimists should find encouraging: a rising generation of workers is not waiting for government programs or corporate DEI pipelines to hand them a career. They are reading the competitive landscape clearly, identifying the skills that command premium wages, and positioning themselves accordingly.
For employers, the implication is equally direct. The interns who guard their 'reps' — the hands-on, judgment-building work that AI cannot replicate — are the ones worth developing and investing in. Capital rewards clear rules, and in the talent market, the rule is becoming unmistakable: human judgment is the scarce input. The market has already voted.
