AT&T CEO says that young people should think about their careers in 4- to 5-year chapters

• AT&T's CEO urges young people to view their careers in four- to five-year chapters.
• John Stankey highlighted rapid technology changes and the need for ongoing self-education.
• Tech leaders agree that self-driven learning and AI skills are key in today's job market.

Young people should redesign their careers every few years, says AT&T's CEO.

On an episode of the "In Good Company" podcast released on Wednesday, John Stankey said that the idea that you get a relevant college education is "quickly fading," so young people should own their learning.

"You think about how fast technology is moving, how fast business models are moving," he said. "You have to think about your career in chapters that are four or five years."

Stankey has worked at the telecom giant for over 41 years and has been leading the company since 2020.

Every few years, he said people should build a new foundation and set of skills.

"The only way you're going to be able to do that over the course of a life that may be 80 or 90 years is if you are really, really good about being the dean of your own education and having a process," he said.

Stankey added that people have an unlimited amount of information at their fingertips, and AI has only raised the stakes by making information more accessible.

"People who master that are going to probably be the ones who come out on top over time," he said.

The AT&T CEO echoed advice given by other tech leaders such as Reid Hoffman and Naval Ravikant.

LinkedIn cofounder Hoffman popularized the concept of becoming the CEO of your own career, saying that people must take responsibility for their own learning to thrive in a rapidly changing job market.

On a June podcast, he said that young people should use their familiarity with AI as an advantage when seeking work.

"You are generation AI. You are AI native. So bringing the fact that you have AI in your tool set is one of the things that makes you enormously attractive," Hoffman said.

Ravikant, a tech investor who cofounded AngelList, advocates for the idea that formal education is a source of career opportunities, but true learning must be self-driven.

Even before the explosion of AI, he called formal education "completely obsolete" because of the internet and compared it to a day care.

"There used to be no such thing as self-guided learning. Now, if you actually have the desire to learn, everything is on the internet. You can go on Khan Academy. You can get MIT and Yale lectures online," he wrote in a 2020 blog post.