Michael Bloomberg says young people tend to make the same mistake when choosing a job

• Michael Bloomberg said he opted for a lower-paying job when he started his banking career.
• Bloomberg said young people are "looking at the wrong thing" and are too focused on pay and titles.
• Gen Zers in particular value work-life balance and flexibility, sometimes more so than pay.

Michael Bloomberg may be worth more than $100 billion, but he doesn't think that salary is everything when it comes to early jobs.

"People make the mistake of going to work for a place where they get paid the most. Particularly when you're young, that's not what life is about," Bloomberg said in an interview with Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, that aired on January 7.

Job-seekers in their mid-twenties, fresh out of school, need to focus on accumulating a range of experiences and building friendships, he said.

"All of these young people are just looking at the wrong thing," Bloomberg added. "What is my position? What am I going to be called? Do I have a title or what?"

When he was first starting his career in banking, Bloomberg said he opted to work at a firm with a starting salary of $9,000 because he "liked the people" more than at a company offering $14,000.

Bloomberg is still working at age 83 — he said he wakes up at 5:15 and arrives at the office around 7 am every day, except Fridays — and credits part of his lasting work ethic to balance.

"You still want to be able to go out and have a life, a family. It's balancing hard work with enough time off to not get worn out," he said. (Other entrepreneurs, like Mark Cuban, have said work-life balance isn't compatible with extreme success.)

Bloomberg employs 26,000 people around the world, and the namesake said in the interview that the company has low attrition rates. He said he wants to make sure employees know there's room for upward mobility.

Gen Zers in particular value job flexibility and work-life balance nearly as much as, if not more than, salary.

The internet recently blew up with a debate about whether people would prefer $240,000 for an in-office job or $120,000 for a remote gig. A Business Insider survey revealed that readers are as torn as social media: 183 respondents said they'd choose the work-from-home option, and 182 opted for the doubled salary.