This CEO of Gen X has only worked in a single company for 35 years – it says that the Z generation of employment does not put enough energy and time in their current concerts

• Gen Zers is passionate workpale,, The generation firmly believes that it is the best way to guarantee salary increases and promotions. But the CEO of the Re-READSSING ACT testing company thinks he could turn against him. Like Mary Barra by General Motors, Janet Godwin has spent her entire career in a single company – and she says Fortune Young people would better devote more time to their current concerts for long -term success.

For many secondary school students, the memory of taking the act or Sat can look like a fever dream: to wake up at dawn on a Saturday morning, head for a local high school and sit in a room full of foreigners – with nothing other than a pencil n ° 2 and a test book (or, more recently, a computer screen) on which to focus for the next three hours.

While at the time, he may have felt a precious waste of time better to sleep or spend time with friends, in reality, the test opened doors to millions of students to continue their dream schools and careers. For Act tests in the past 35 years, you may have Janet Godwin to thank.

There is a good chance that you have never heard of the Midwest Gen Xer, but she devoted her career to education. After joining Act in 1990, helping to write test questions, Godwin was appointed CEO in 2020 and was part of an exclusive group of managers, notably Mary Barra by General Motors, Doug McMillon from Walmart and Elliott Hill de Nike, for having spent all their careers working on the same scale.

“I came by thinking that I would be here for a few years, and I am here, 35 years later,” she said Fortune. And although employers of employment can consider the path of Godwin as complacent, she considers it ingenious. In fact, she remembers some of the best advice she has ever received as a young employee was to stop focusing on the next step in your career – and putting your energy in what is present.

Gen Z love for work could turn against him

Traditionally, workers have devoted their careers to a job and a business they like and to settle down to regularly climb the ranks.

But as the cost of living increased, wages have stagnated and people have lagged behind (which makes young workers more difficult to progress in higher roles), professionals are waiting for their boss today to promote. Instead, many Gen Zers in particular have taken matters into their own hands and their work – with 56% of generation Z, it is acceptable to change jobs every two to three years.

But he could turn against him.

The boss of Godwin said to him one day: “If you are so busy thinking about what you are going to do next, I guarantee that you do not put enough energy and time in what you do today.”

“You have to make sure that what you are doing today is the best,” recalls Godwin. “You have to learn and mature in your current work before you have your eyes on something else.”

Now, looking back on her own career, the 59 -year -old woman agrees.

“There is real to ripen with what you have, and not only constantly grasping the next thing on the scale,” says Godwin. “Because you may not have built the skills yet to be really ready for this next thing on the scale.”

It is a message taken up by the heads of management of the business world. Sarah Walker, British CEO of Cisco, said that young people should not expect an increase or new job title each year: “You just need to be patient on the trip.”

“Do not take your current job for granted,” added McMillion de Walmart in an interview with Stratechery last year. “The next job does not come if you do not do the one you have good.”

The power to climb the same scale, its scale

Like many graduates of generation Z, Godwin did not know where to take his career after obtaining his baccalaureate and his mastery in English from the universities of Oklahoma and Iowa, respectively. Her dream work was to be a novelist one day, but she rather estimated that it would be better to use her writing skills to earn a decent salary.

Although she does not expect to stay in the same business of her entire career, she says that to be simply curious and that the search for new challenges is much more useful than trying to map her future curriculum vitae at a young age.

“Don’t be afraid to learn new things and don’t be too rigid on your way,” said Godwin.

“This is what I mean to be curious. Because if you think you know where you’re going to be 10 years old, you probably don’t do it. ”

At Act, Godwin said that she had played a new role every two to three years, a round that helped her gain experience in almost all departments and was invaluable when she was exploited to direct the whole business during one of the biggest existential crises of the company: the cocovide-9 pandemic.

Overnight, the future of the business seemed almost dark while the test centers closed their doors and online tests were apparently far in the pipeline. But after years to write questions to which the students could answer, she found that being willing to ask questions was the key to meeting the difficult challenges.

“If you think you know everything and you have all the answers, you don’t. One of the strongest leadership skills is the ability to ask for help, to know “man, I don’t know everything,” says Godwin. “I could have a CEO title, but I guarantee you that I don’t know everything.”

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com