Recent news stories have suggested that younger workers are opting out of work ambition. Coverage documents their frustration with a limiting job market, dehumanizing hiring processes, and the expectations set by hustle culture.
Those frustrations are real, but the constant negative narrative doesn’t help. What we read can amplify our worries, and media coverage claiming a generation is disengaging from work makes it seem like that’s the expected response. And these stories can make us think we have no agency, which isn’t true.
Some in this generation are rejecting the status quo, which isn’t the same as abandoning ambition. Abandon that, and we relinquish our agency to shape the life and work we want. Because what is ambition but having desires and goals that matter enough to us to pursue? By that definition, we are all ambitious. The only question is what kind of life and work we want to build.
We all have to operate within the world’s external structures, but there are degrees of freedom within them to act, build options, and move toward a version of success you actually want. Here’s a place to start.
KNOW WHAT YOU NEED FROM WORK
What we need from work varies by person and changes across life and career stages as our objectives, responsibilities, and priorities evolve.
To better understand your ambition at this stage, ask yourself: What do I need from my work right now? Is it skill development and a chance to lead? Predictable income? Flexibility and less travel?
Your answer doesn’t have to match the common societal script that says striving means landing the right job, constant drive, and earning fast promotions. You can choose a different approach and goalpost, as some in Gen Z already have, opting instead for learning, growth, and paced advancement. Redefined, ambition is about whether your work supports who you want to become and the life you want.
Then, set your own measures of success. Your organization will evaluate you by its own standards, and you’ll need to perform to them. But don’t let those metrics be your only scorecard. As philosopher C. Thi Nguyen writes in The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, we can fall into the trap of “value capture,” letting institutional metrics drive our behavior even when they have little to do with what matters to us.
Add metrics that are personally rewarding: how many times someone asked for your input on a decision that mattered; days you leave work with energy; how many nights a week you eat dinner at home or maintain your commitment to a hobby.
As you move through inflection points in your life and work, revisit what you need from work and the metrics that align with it.
SEARCH AND DESIGN FOR WORK SATISFACTION
Learning about yourself is completely within your control and pays lasting dividends. Pay attention to what satisfies you in the work itself. With that knowledge, you can go hunting for what economists call match quality: the alignment between your skills and interests and your job prospects. This search for congruence—uncovering what truly energizes you and finding the right fit—can take time. Expect that, and treat what you learn along the way as progress.
As you get to know your preferences, you are also in a better position to start job crafting. Experiment within the bounds of your job—with the tasks you take on, the relationships you build, how you think about the work’s impact—to better align with your motivations, strengths, and interests. This is a way to reclaim your agency and build satisfaction into the work itself.
INVEST IN OPTIONALITY
Job market uncertainty is real and ever-present. Hedge against it by investing in optionality.
Start by building personal assets. Get curious about your talents, hone what you excel at, and add transferable skills. Doing so serves as an insurance policy, as these move with you wherever you go.
Let go of the assumption there’s one correct path. Research on the concept of “possible selves” holds that there are multiple versions of who you might become. You benefit from proactively exploring these identities. London Business School professor Herminia Ibarra’s work on career transitions found that people move into new roles more successfully when they try on several such working identities. Don’t wait until you hit a career inflection point to start exploring different sides of yourself. Take a class on a topic of interest. Volunteer for a project in a new space. Talk to people doing adjacent work.
CULTIVATE YOUR COMMUNITY
Who we surround ourselves with matters—for expanding our sense of what’s possible, building confidence as we pursue goals, and gaining access to opportunities.
First, the people around us shape what we see as normal and attainable. Role models serve as examples of both behaviors and possible paths, and as sources of inspiration. To take ownership of who you want to become, build relationships with people who embody qualities, behaviors, or paths you want for yourself.
Second, we benefit from having people around us who see our potential and expect more from us than we might see in ourselves. A manager or mentor who backs you with support, developmental feedback, and visible confidence in your abilities can be the reason you step up.
Finally, relationships are important for access to job prospects. Research on professional networks finds that moderately weak ties do more for job mobility than close ones, because they bridge people to information and opportunities beyond their immediate circle. But you can’t tap into an extended network when you need it if you haven’t invested in sustaining relationships over time.
To be sure, work environments feel broken and need to evolve and improve. Disengaging can feel like self-protection, but staying there narrows the future you can build. Refusing old paradigms shouldn’t require that you give up on what you want for yourself.
Your frustration is real. Honor it, but don’t get mired in inaction. Decide what you want from your work and for your life, because you still have the power to shape your future. Define what ambition means to you, then go and reclaim it.
