TAKEAWAYS
What does the newest generation of finance professionals actually want from work?
In a recent episode of CA Listen Sparkling Conversations, host Tshepang Lesufi, an undergraduate from the University of the Free State, South Africa, put the question to a group of ISCA Global Talent Programme (GTP) 2026 participants. Over the course of the discussion, the topics moved from workplace culture and mentorship to money, meaning, and one of the more loaded questions employers ask about Gen Z, “Are you entitled, or do you just know what you want?”
The featured ISCA #CAStars comprised:
Asked what they looked for in a company’s work culture, the students converged quickly on one idea: growth, not just performance. Shay Jun would like an environment that nurtured talent and allowed room for mistakes, from which she could learn. Chinmayi drew from her previous internship experience, and shared that it was of utmost importance that leaders were “ready to be supportive and nurture you”. The leaders should “teach you when you make mistakes, and not just be there to scold you when you didn’t get the work done”. Bảo Ngọc named continuous learning and a collaborative environment as the deciding factors.
The discussion thread carried straight into the topic of mentorship. A good mentor, according to the students, would give timely, honest feedback rather than let new hires guess whether they were doing things right; the mentor would also build a relationship that felt flexible and approachable – not rigid or hierarchical. Asked to sum up the ideal mentor in one word or phrase, the answers came quickly: patient, amiable, approachable, good listener, open-minded, and caring.
Pushed to prioritise among a higher salary, work-life balance, or meaningful work, the students largely resisted picking just one and instead, reframed the question around career.
Shay Jun said that early in the career, higher pay and meaningful work would both matter most, as fresh graduates had the energy to push themselves; work-life balance would become more of a priority later on. Chinmayi invoked the concept of ikigai, finding the overlap between what you’re good at, what pays, and what makes an impact, while admitting that realistically, everyone would want all three.
Regardless of career stage, the ISCA GTP 2026 group agreed that meaningful work was the one constant that everyone desired. While Jialin opined that a job without purpose is “quite meaningless”, even with high pay and work-life balance, Jasmine proposed that meaningful work and work-life balance aren’t distinct goals at all, because when you find the former, the latter tends to follow.
Wesley Lye, CFO of Commerzbank AG, provided the students with food for thought when they met for dinner. He shared that there was no such thing as work-life balance; there was only work, and life. Meaningful work simply became part of life instead of being a separate consideration.
Asked whether graduates should have their career path fully mapped out by the time they leave university, the students’ answers were a near-unanimous “no”. Shay Jun compared trying to chart an entire life in advance to buying a lottery ticket (one-in-a-million chance of striking it big), given how quickly circumstances changed. He suggested flexible, milestone-based goals instead of a fixed plan. Chinmayi referred to conversations with CEOs and CFOs during the GTP, all of whom stressed that success looked different to everyone, and constraining yourself to a single path only limited your experiences.
Bảo Ngọc’s story reinforced the same message. She related how a university lecturer dabbled in entrepreneurship, failed several times, and later became one of her school’s youngest associate professors.
In the final analysis, what mattered wasn’t having it all figured out. Instead, it lay in what you got to learn, while staying grateful for all the opportunities and lessons along the way. Tshepang offered a middle ground, where some sense of direction was useful so you were working toward something, though it should be held loosely enough to adapt as circumstances changed.
Networking, the ISCA #CAStars agreed, was one of the best ways to shape one’s career direction. It could even function as a “process of elimination” that helped you learn what you did not want, as much as what you did want.
When they were asked for networking tips for first-year students, they separated genuine curiosity from transactional job-hunting.
Chinmayi said networking, for her, was about hearing people’s unconventional career stories and not just finding a role. Shay Jun highlighted a practical edge: people who regularly networked stayed closer to industry trends, and this knowledge showed up in interviews. A recurring piece of advice, credited to a CEO Bảo Ngọc had spoken with previously, was to keep intentions genuine rather than purely instrumental. The advice broadly sounded like this, “You network because you genuinely want to, and you will receive what you put in.” The host’s own tip was simpler – just take the initiative to start the conversation; most senior professionals are very open to sharing their stories.
The liveliest exchange came toward the end of the vodcast and centred around whether Gen Z was “entitled” at the workplace. The group’s answer was a resounding “no” – Gen Z simply knew what it wanted and was willing to say so, including speaking up about issues like workplace harassment that previous generations may have stayed quiet about. Rather than framing generational differences as friction, they contended that each generation brought something the other may lack. It could be depth of experience on one side, versus fresh perspectives and a willingness to challenge convention on the other. Blending both could lead to better decisions than any one generation working alone.
The takeaway, as the host put it in closing, was that change was inevitable. The organisations that last would be the ones able to adapt to change, and this included listening to the generation that was arriving with fresh eyes, instead of dismissing them.
