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Kevin O'Leary Flips the Script: Creative Storytellers Now Outpace Engineers in the Wage Race

MarketDash Editorial Team
10 days ago
The Shark Tank investor who once championed engineering as the only worthwhile master's degree now says content creators command the fastest wage growth, with top talent pulling $250K to $800K across multiple companies.

Kevin O'Leary has officially walked back one of his most famous pieces of career advice. The Shark Tank star spent years telling anyone who would listen that engineering was the only master's degree worth the paper it was printed on. Now? He's singing a very different tune.

When the Numbers Tell a New Story

In a Wednesday post on X, O'Leary made it official: "Ten years ago I said engineering was the only master's degree worth pursuing. Not anymore. The fastest wage growth today is in creative storytelling across social media, people who can lower customer acquisition costs and increase ROAS every single week."

He didn't stop there. "Those creators aren't making $25K… they're making $250K or $800K across multiple companies. Why? Because they're measurable. Content is king, and the storytellers are winning."

For an investor known for following the money wherever it leads, this represents a pretty dramatic pivot. O'Leary built his reputation steering students toward STEM fields as the surest path to financial success. Back in 2018, he told CNBC that engineering should be students' top three career choices, praising engineering graduates who spun patents into companies as models of turning technical training into entrepreneurial gold.

What Changed His Mind

The shift started becoming visible around 2020, when O'Leary appeared on Evan Carmichael's podcast and revealed that social media content had become the fastest-growing cost center across his portfolio of more than 50 companies. That's when the light bulb went on: if every company he owned was pouring resources into content creation, maybe that's where the smart money was heading.

Over recent years, O'Leary has hammered home a new thesis: every business needs an in-house media machine to tell its story online and drive down customer acquisition costs through targeted campaigns. It's not about vanity metrics or going viral. It's about measurable returns on ad spend, week after week.

The investor has remained skeptical about traditional postgraduate business education throughout this evolution, maintaining that an MBA's real value lies in the network and work ethic it builds rather than the credential itself. But creative storytelling that moves product? That's a different calculation entirely.

Back to News

Kevin O'Leary Flips the Script: Creative Storytellers Now Outpace Engineers in the Wage Race

MarketDash Editorial Team
10 days ago
The Shark Tank investor who once championed engineering as the only worthwhile master's degree now says content creators command the fastest wage growth, with top talent pulling $250K to $800K across multiple companies.

Kevin O'Leary has officially walked back one of his most famous pieces of career advice. The Shark Tank star spent years telling anyone who would listen that engineering was the only master's degree worth the paper it was printed on. Now? He's singing a very different tune.

When the Numbers Tell a New Story

In a Wednesday post on X, O'Leary made it official: "Ten years ago I said engineering was the only master's degree worth pursuing. Not anymore. The fastest wage growth today is in creative storytelling across social media, people who can lower customer acquisition costs and increase ROAS every single week."

He didn't stop there. "Those creators aren't making $25K… they're making $250K or $800K across multiple companies. Why? Because they're measurable. Content is king, and the storytellers are winning."

For an investor known for following the money wherever it leads, this represents a pretty dramatic pivot. O'Leary built his reputation steering students toward STEM fields as the surest path to financial success. Back in 2018, he told CNBC that engineering should be students' top three career choices, praising engineering graduates who spun patents into companies as models of turning technical training into entrepreneurial gold.

What Changed His Mind

The shift started becoming visible around 2020, when O'Leary appeared on Evan Carmichael's podcast and revealed that social media content had become the fastest-growing cost center across his portfolio of more than 50 companies. That's when the light bulb went on: if every company he owned was pouring resources into content creation, maybe that's where the smart money was heading.

Over recent years, O'Leary has hammered home a new thesis: every business needs an in-house media machine to tell its story online and drive down customer acquisition costs through targeted campaigns. It's not about vanity metrics or going viral. It's about measurable returns on ad spend, week after week.

The investor has remained skeptical about traditional postgraduate business education throughout this evolution, maintaining that an MBA's real value lies in the network and work ethic it builds rather than the credential itself. But creative storytelling that moves product? That's a different calculation entirely.