Ken Griffin Says If You Think You're Done With Textbooks After College, You Need 'A New Career'

Citadel LLC founder Ken Griffin says the quickest way to know whether you're in the right job is to ask if you still crack open the textbooks.

What Happened: "Stay current in the body of knowledge that represents the career you've chosen," he told S&P Global's Leaders podcast, released this week. "And by the way, if it's not interesting to you, you picked the wrong career. It's that simple."

Griffin, whose net worth Forbes pegs at about $42 billion, still carves out time to study credit research 35 years into running the hedge-fund giant. “We hire endless numbers of really bright undergraduates. Some of them have this belief that when you graduate from college, you’re done reading textbooks, and nothing can be further from the truth,” he said.

He pointed listeners to “published literature” or other academic literature accessed via Google Scholar, highlighting his call to "always, always be immersing yourself in the literature."

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“I can't tell you how many S&P books I've read over the years and how to think about credit risk because we've invested in credit for 35 years,” explained Griffin.

Why It Matters: The 56-year-old urged young professionals to "read books that speak to the domain knowledge of the job you have" and switch fields early if that reading feels like drudgery. Moving across industries, he added, signals the "agility and flexibility to take on new challenges" that future bosses prize.

Griffin in a previous interview told Stanford Business students that they’ve very liked “screwed up” their degrees if they end up “the smartest person in the room.” Griffin urged students to keep surrounding themselves with the sharpest minds to ensure there’s always more to learn.

Citadel’s own culture of constant learning has paid off, as evidenced by its flagship Wellington fund’s progress. The fund gained 1.3% in April despite volatile markets, reveals a WSJ report, lifting year‑to‑date returns back into positive territory.

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