From Ladder To Launchpad: How Gen Z Is Rethinking Careers

Forbes

a day ago

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - 2025/01/24: Tourists play a game of Snakes and Ladders at a Chinese temple ... More ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Snake celebrations. Lunar New Year which falls on January 29, 2025, welcomes the year of the Snake, which will be celebrated by the Chinese around the world. (Photo by Wong Fok Loy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Snakes and Ladders (Chutes and Ladders for American readers) was the game I grew up with. A roll of the dice could catapult you up or send you sliding down. One lucky number and you were ahead. One unlucky square and you were back at the beginning. It was a game of chance—no strategy, no control.
My Gen Z kids don't play it. Their world is Minecraft. They build. They create. They engineer landscapes from scratch. There's no dice. No shortcuts. Just trial, design and iteration. And that contrast says a lot about how Gen Z thinks about careers too. They don't want to climb someone else's ladder.
They want to craft their own space, shape their own path and know that the work they do today builds toward something that's theirs. But that's hard to do when the systems they enter are still wired for a different game. If we want to help Gen Z grow, we can't leave it to luck. We have to help them build.
It makes you wonder: is there a Minecraft: Career Edition?
Even if there were, we'd still need to name the gap between building virtual worlds and navigating real ones. One lets you break blocks and build castles with a click. The other requires you to face uncertainty, figure out what matters, and make calls when no playbook is handed to you.
Careers don't come with a tutorial. There's no sandbox mode for real life.
That's what makes early career so complicated right now. Gen Z is often learning through simulations, digital experiences and secondhand stories. But what they need are real-world repetitions. Moments of stretch, ambiguity and contribution. Not in theory. In context. In the workplace. On teams that expect something of them.
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And that means leaders need to stop asking if Gen Z is prepared—and start creating the conditions that help them prepare.
Trying To Build With Missing Blocks
Many young professionals are ambitious, creative and eager to grow—but they're also navigating fog. Career guidance feels out of sync with what they're experiencing. The job they trained for might be evolving. The path they imagined might not exist. And the advice they're getting often comes from influencers, not insiders.
CareerTok is full of well-meaning guidance, but much of it misses a deeper truth: growth isn't a formula. And belief in yourself, while important, needs to be anchored in something more durable than algorithms, AI prompts or viral social media tips.
A Deloitte study found that just 6% of Gen Z say their top career goal is to reach a leadership role. But that doesn't mean they lack ambition. Learning and development rank among their top three reasons for choosing an employer. Nearly nine in ten say a sense of purpose is critical to their well-being. And many feel their managers are falling short—not on performance management, but on inspiration and mentorship.
Gallup research reveals similar gaps. Younger employees report drops in clarity, recognition, and development—fundamental ingredients for growth. These aren't soft needs. They're the scaffolding for long-term success.
The biggest challenge? Most of our systems still reward the straight line. But Gen Z grew up in a world that glitched and rebooted. They've watched careers evaporate, industries reinvent, and skills go obsolete before graduation. They aren't lost. They're living in a different context. One that doesn't promise certainty—but does demand adaptability.
And they're not waiting to be told what to do. They're asking the right questions:
What am I building here?
What matters to me?
How can I grow and still be myself?
What Leaders Must Do
Many leaders still expect younger employees to prove themselves the same way they did: stay put, follow instructions, pay dues. But Gen Z is responding to a different economy and different signals. They want growth, not grind. They want learning, not ladder-climbing for its own sake. And they want to feel seen as whole people, not just future high potentials.
So what should leaders do?
Most young professionals are used to being evaluated on what they lack. Flip the script. Start with what they naturally do best. Help them understand their true strengths not bemoan their weaknesses. Help them see how they think, relate and contribute. You're not just coaching a job. You're shaping a personal journey.
Gen Z doesn't expect to have all the answers. But they want chances to explore. That means offering project work across teams, learning experiences outside their job family and mentorship that spans disciplines.
Many leaders hide the zigzags in their own careers. That's a missed opportunity. Share your detours. Your failures. The moments that didn't make sense until later. Gen Z wants transparency over polish. Vulnerability builds trust.
Instead of asking, 'Where do you want to be in five years?' try, 'What kind of work makes you feel alive?' or 'What problems are you curious about?' Let their questions shape the path, not your expectations.
A role that doesn't fit isn't failure. It's data. Help them see how skills transfer, how to reframe setbacks and how to pivot without shame. Especially in a fast-moving world where AI and automation are redrawing the lines every week.
From Ladders To Landscapes
Many Gen Z employees are being called idealistic. Entitled. Too quick to leave. But they are not quitting growth. They are quitting environments that don't make space for it. The sooner we adjust our systems, the sooner we unlock their potential.
Because they're not playing the old game. If their world is more Minecraft than Monopoly, our systems need to shift too. Minecraft doesn't reward luck or hierarchy. It rewards intention. Curiosity. Rebuilding when something breaks. Careers today need the same mindset. Not a fixed track but an evolving world built through trial, stretch, and imagination.
You don't build a castle in Minecraft by rolling dice. You build it block by block—mistake by mistake, lesson by lesson. That's the kind of resilience and creativity Gen Z is already practicing. And it's time we helped them bring it into the workplace.
The game Gen Z is playing isn't about reaching the top. It's about learning how to move with change. How to build range. And how to grow in ways that matter. The leaders who will shape the future are the ones who know this. And who are willing to change the gameboard.