What does it mean to have a prestigious job in today’s world? This question has been on my mind for a while now. For context: I’m Brazilian, writing from São Paulo. Nationally, a few social and cultural phenomena have caught my attention – child coaching influencers, teenagers mocking formal employment, and the rise of far-right politics that often promote the dream of “owning your own business” as the ultimate career goal.

For my parents’ generation, prestige meant being a public servant – stable, respectable, a 9-to-5 schedule, a guaranteed pension upon retirement. For many millennials, that model sounded stifling, even suffocating. We were sold the idea of chasing dreams and pursuing careers we loved – as if that were even possible.

Now, Gen Z seems to be embracing the idea of entrepreneurship – not necessarily out of passion, but perhaps out of necessity. Is this shift a genuine desire, or is it the only option left?