It’s not just Gen Z: This baby boomer bank CEO says his MBA was a waste—and the skills he learned have 'degraded, degraded, degraded' since college

Bill Winters, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered (Credit: Bloomberg / Getty Images)

• CEO of the $26 billion bank Standard Chartered, Bill Winters, admits that his MBA was “a waste of time,” and that the skills he learned at college have “degraded, degraded, degraded” over the last 40 years. The executive says that soft skills like communication, curiosity, and empathy are more important as AI takes over grunt technical work. A LinkedIn careers exec agrees that human touch is the new in-demand talent capability. 

Attending college has long been seen as a rite of passage for success, but now student-loan-ridden Gen Z is calling their worth into question. They’re not alone. The CEO of $26 billion bank Standard Chartered has just admitted that his time at Wharton Business School wasn’t necessary.