Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Fortune
Fortune
Bret Clement

At 55, I became a rookie teacher after 3 decades in tech PR. Gen Z is teaching me a lot — and reminding me how to trust myself

bret (Credit: courtesy of Bret Clement)

Tech hires fast and churns faster. After 30-plus years in tech PR, I made a change, recently becoming a rookie high school teacher at age 55. It was the career upgrade I needed (I hope), and it’s giving me a front-row seat to the one skill this rising generation has that I’m still learning: radical self-trust.

It’s late July, and I’m sitting in a training session with and for high school teachers and instructional coaches and I am stress sweating like a champ. I have the least amount of classroom experience and yet I’m the only greybeard in the room. Nobody here knows or cares what I’ve built over the past thirty years. Nobody knows the campaigns, the clients, the career. My journey as I built a PR agency, tore it down, and built it again. To the teachers in this training, I’m a beginner, a new teacher.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.