Ken Griffin says young grads who are not interested in reading books about their field have 'picked the wrong career'
In an interview with S&P Global released on Tuesday, Citadel's founder and CEO said that young graduates need to read about the domains they are in and change careers if they don't find those books interesting.
"Stay current in the body of knowledge that represents the career you've chosen," Griffin said. "And by the way, if it's not interesting to you, you picked the wrong career. It's that simple."
Griffin, who founded Citadel in 1990 — a year after graduating from college — added that it's OK to experiment with your career early on.
"In America in particular, that's totally fine," he said. "No one will judge you for going from one career to a radically different field throughout your 20s."
Not everyone at his own investment firm enters with this mindset, Griffin said.
"We hire endless numbers of really bright undergraduates. Some of them have this belief that when you graduate from college, you're done reading textbooks, and nothing can be further from the truth," he said.
Citadel has $66 billion in assets under management and is among the world's largest and most successful hedge funds. The firm did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The CEO said that his book recommendation for anyone starting their career is Jim Collins' "Good to Great" because it outlines the keys to running a business, such as how to build a good team.
Business leaders across the industry have been vocal about the importance of reading intensely and have recommended several books, many specifically for those early in their careers.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett suggest reading " Business Adventures" by John Brooks, a collection of 12 essays about financial and corporate life in the US.
Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and LinkedIn's founder, Reid Hoffman, recommend Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup," a book about entrepreneurship and iterating quickly.
Bumble's CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, has suggested reading Adam Grant's "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World," a book about how people can drive change without conforming to the status quo.
Airbnb's Brian Chesky has spoken about "High Output Management" by Andy Grove, a handbook where the former CEO of Intel shares his take on how to build and run a company.
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