23-Year-Old AI Billionaire Says Gen Z Should Avoid This Popular Career Tactic

Jul 24, 2026 01:34 AM - 6 hours ago 62

Key Takeaways

  • Brendan Foody is the CEO of Mercor, an AI talent and data-labeling platform.
  • In a station connected X, Foody said that he received “too many” occupation applications from young group who were “serial occupation hoppers.”
  • These candidates “jump to the hottest institution each year” without building “something extraordinary,” he said.

Brendan Foody, the 23-year-old CEO of AI talent and data-labeling level Mercor, thinks that young occupation candidates should enactment astatine companies for longer stretches of time. When reviewing young applicants, Foody recovered that average tenure was shorter than he expected; they were staying astatine jobs for a twelvemonth earlier jumping to the adjacent large thing. 

Earlier this week, Foody wrote connected X that he received “too many” occupation applications from young group who were “serial occupation hoppers.” These candidates “jump to the hottest institution each year” because they are nether the mistaken belief that “it looks bully connected a resume,” he said. 

“Too galore group successful my procreation underestimate really overmuch relationships, reputation, equity, and spot compound complete time,” Foody wrote. He added, “But look astatine almost anyone who’s built thing extraordinary: they weren’t serial occupation hoppers.”

I’ve been amazed by really short the mean tenure is among young group I interview.

Too galore group successful my procreation underestimate really overmuch relationships, reputation, equity, and spot compound complete time.

Instead, they jump to the hottest institution each twelvemonth because they…

— Brendan (can/do) (@BrendanFoody) July 21, 2026

Josh Elman, partner astatine Silicon Valley task superior patient Andreessen Horowitz, replied to Foody’s station connected X. 

“You are correct that going from occupation to occupation without meaningful contributions nor closure is simply a bad pattern,” Elman wrote. “But it is worthy going deeper pinch group who proceed to activity connected important things astatine important times. That position compounds.”

Foody added successful an email to Business Insider this week that labor should prosecute caller jobs for the “right reasons.” For example, they could person stopped learning astatine a peculiar job. 

“Moving because the activity is amended is very different from moving because a logo looks bully connected a resume,” he noted.

Foody is 1 of the youngest billionaires successful the world, pinch a nett worthy of $2.2 billion astatine the clip of writing, per Forbes.

Why Gen Z is prone to job-hopping

Gen Z has earned a estimation arsenic the job-hopping generation. A 2021 study from careers tract CareerBuilder recovered that Gen Z workers spent an mean of 2 years and 3 months successful a role, compared pinch 2 years and 9 months for millennials, reinforcing the thought that younger workers rhythm done jobs faster than older ones.

In a 2023 survey by consulting patient Oliver Wyman, 70% of Gen Z respondents successful the U.S. and UK who described themselves arsenic “loyal” to their employer were nevertheless actively looking for a caller role.

Why has Gen Z taken to job-hopping? For years, switching jobs was intimately linked pinch higher pay, which helped normalize predominant moves arsenic a logical strategy alternatively than a reddish flag. For example, 1 employment lawyer who said pinch Business Insider past twelvemonth grew her salary from $40,000 to $225,000 successful six years by strategically job-hopping. 

Foody said he was alert of the imaginable financial upside to job-hopping. “Switching jobs tin often beryllium the fastest measurement to get a raise aliases a title bump successful the adjacent term, truthful the inducement feels real,” he said successful the email to Business Insider.

He added that compensation was increasing quickly successful San Francisco, the metropolis he lives in, contributing to the desire to move jobs. 

“In tech, and particularly successful AI correct now, the propulsion is strong,” he wrote. “The writer ever looks greener.”

Key Takeaways

  • Brendan Foody is the CEO of Mercor, an AI talent and data-labeling platform.
  • In a station connected X, Foody said that he received “too many” occupation applications from young group who were “serial occupation hoppers.”
  • These candidates “jump to the hottest institution each year” without building “something extraordinary,” he said.

Brendan Foody, the 23-year-old CEO of AI talent and data-labeling level Mercor, thinks that young occupation candidates should enactment astatine companies for longer stretches of time. When reviewing young applicants, Foody recovered that average tenure was shorter than he expected; they were staying astatine jobs for a twelvemonth earlier jumping to the adjacent large thing. 

Earlier this week, Foody wrote connected X that he received “too many” occupation applications from young group who were “serial occupation hoppers.” These candidates “jump to the hottest institution each year” because they are nether the mistaken belief that “it looks bully connected a resume,” he said. 

“Too galore group successful my procreation underestimate really overmuch relationships, reputation, equity, and spot compound complete time,” Foody wrote. He added, “But look astatine almost anyone who’s built thing extraordinary: they weren’t serial occupation hoppers.”

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