tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/elite-jobs-16682/articlesElite jobs – The Conversation2020-01-10T11:22:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1295212020-01-10T11:22:39Z2020-01-10T11:22:39ZDominic Cummings may be right about ‘weirdos and misfits’ – Britain’s top graduate jobs go to corporate clones<p>Dominic Cummings caused a stir with his <a href="https://dominiccummings.com/2020/01/02/two-hands-are-a-lot-were-hiring-data-scientists-project-managers-policy-experts-assorted-weirdos">recent blog</a> post about shaking up Britain’s civil service. The prime minister’s special adviser argued that there is a lack of “cognitive diversity” in Downing Street and emphasised a need to hire “weirdos and misfits”. </p>
<p>In some respects, Cummings is right. Many of Britain’s elite employers don’t perform well when it comes to cognitive diversity (thinking differently). I’ve seen this first hand in <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AAAJ-11-2017-3250/full/html">my research</a> on the so-called big four professional service firms, which shows that their employees offer little variety in terms of ideas, personalities and character traits.</p>
<p>My research suggests that this lack of cognitive diversity at least partly stems from graduate recruitment. Big four firms like to hire a specific type of graduate. They need to be committed, hard working and commercially minded. They need to be confident communicators, who have leadership and team-working skills. They also need to fit in with the culture of these organisations. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309407/original/file-20200110-97171-2ri1zo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Top companies tend to hire people that think the same.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/two-heads-person-opposite-mindset-concept-1323200312">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Big four recruitment practices compel ambitious students to undergo an elaborate socialisation process to transform them into this type of person. As part of this process, these students spend enormous amounts of their free time studying the largely similar recruitment literature of their prospective employers, attending largely similar campus recruitment events, joining largely similar societies and carefully studying and imitating the largely similar behaviour of big four professionals.</p>
<h2>Corporate clones</h2>
<p>Aspiring big four professionals begin to transform into corporate clones who speak, dress, behave and think like employees of these firms sometimes even before being hired. In the words of one of my interviewees, her fellow aspiring big four professionals “were all the same, they all have the same mindset”. Of course, the big four attract many intelligent, highly committed and hard-working graduates. But they tend to be largely like-minded and uncritical of the way things are done. </p>
<p>The graduate intakes of these firms have become more diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity. This is an important and positive development. But recent <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-more-cognitively-diverse">research</a> has shown that gender and ethnic diversity don’t necessarily result in cognitive diversity. That is, they don’t guarantee that a wide range of ideas, attitudes and perspectives are represented in a group. My study indicates that although the big four now hire more female and minority ethnic students, their graduate intakes feature relatively little cognitive diversity. </p>
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<span class="caption">Spot the difference: diversity doesn’t just apply to gender and race.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elevated-view-large-group-multiethnic-business-145281649">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Graduate intakes dominated by highly committed but uncritical corporate clones may be ideally suited to successfully navigate the professional exams, long hours and often monotonous work characteristic of big four traineeships. But a lack of cognitive diversity among graduates may come at a cost. For example, it may lead to groupthink and limit the range of new ideas and innovations generated by these organisations. It may also blind them to certain opportunities as well as threats. </p>
<p>From a broader societal standpoint, these seemingly like-minded and uncritical graduate intakes could also be problematic. Corporate clones may not be ideally equipped to implement the growing calls among regulators and government for greater <a href="https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/3353c201-13d6-4dfb-854c-57106c272d49/Briefing-Paper-professional-scepticism-March-2012.pdf">professional scepticism</a> and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/852960/brydon-review-final-report.pdf">suspicion</a> among big four auditors. Such calls have grown increasingly <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fa0040fe-3095-11ea-a329-0bcf87a328f2">loud</a> in response to the role these firms played in high profile corporate collapses like BHS, Carillion and Thomas Cook. </p>
<p>So, for their own good, and for the good of society more generally, elite employers, such as the big four, may want to reconsider their graduate recruitment practices so that they can attract people who are not only diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, but also in terms of ideas, attitudes and personalities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Florian Gebreiter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many of Britain’s elite employers do not perform well when it comes to cognitive diversity.Florian Gebreiter, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/673272016-10-20T12:15:37Z2016-10-20T12:15:37ZBritain’s great meritocracy gap – why businesses must widen their talent pool<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142496/original/image-20161020-8828-cjecc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C635%2C4004%2C3212&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain’s new prime minister has put meritocracy <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-the-great-meritocracy-prime-ministers-speech">at the heart of her government’s agenda</a>. It’s a noble goal. This idea of allowing those with the most talent to rise to the top of society and occupy the best jobs must surely be good for society. Similarly, attracting and promoting the best talent has to be good for business.</p>
<p>Rising <a href="https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/wealth-tracker-2016">wealth inequality</a>, however, suggests that the UK has a long way to go to becoming a meritocratic society. If Theresa May wants to make Britain a place where people have “the chance to go as far as their talents will take them”, businesses need to look very carefully at how they recruit and select their future leaders. </p>
<p>Recent research we’ve worked on for the government’s Social Mobility Commission, into the workings of professions such as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/434791/A_qualitative_evaluation_of_non-educational_barriers_to_the_elite_professions.pdf">law, accounting</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/549994/Socio-economic_diversity_in_life_sciences_and_investment_banking.pdf">investment banking</a> in the City of London suggests that the way meritocracy is discussed can actually curtail opportunities for social mobility. The findings show that new, more formal recruitment techniques offer the illusion that the City is “<a href="http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/forget-brown-shoes-investment-banks-fiercely-meritocratic/any-other-business/article/1407668#z87QqdbdxugUyAir.991">fiercely meritocratic</a>”. </p>
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<span class="caption">Theresa May has made the case for meritocracy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/29457570052/in/dateposted/">Number 10</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>Yet it remains significantly more difficult for hard-working, talented people from lower socio-economic groups to gain access to these top jobs, compared to their more privileged peers. In particular, there is a disproportionate number of people working in the elite professions who have been privately educated. Research by social mobility charity <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/pathways-banking/">the Sutton Trust</a>
recently found that while 7% of the general population attends a fee-paying school, 34% of new entrants to the banking sector were privately educated, rising to 69% of those working in private equity.</p>
<h2>Appearances can be deceptive</h2>
<p>Organisations certainly cannot be blamed for looking to recruit the most talented students to work for them and in many ways the recruitment and selection processes adopted by elite firms appear to be meritocratic and fair – everyone is judged by the same yardstick. The difficulty arises when trying to assess what is meant by talent. </p>
<p>Elite professions largely equate talent with good A-Level grades and a degree from a narrow range of the “top” universities. At first glance, pre-screening of applicants based on A-Level results may seem a fair way of dealing with large numbers of recruits. But A-Level performance is <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-mobility-why-does-private-school-give-you-such-a-leg-up-45739">strongly correlated with social background</a>, which serves to disadvantage certain groups. Similarly, focusing on students who have gained degrees at elite universities might appear sensible, but those universities are themselves more likely to recruit students <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30939926">from privileged backgrounds</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142498/original/image-20161020-8852-1gnpqu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Privilege persists throughout education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>Less objective aspects of the recruitment process can further disadvantage those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. For example, final stage interviews with senior staff are often used to judge whether the applicant would fit into the firm. We were told repeatedly in interviews we conducted with staff across law, accounting and investment banking how important it is that candidates are “polished” and give off the “right” impression. </p>
<p>This may seem logical in a competitive, client-facing environment, but, as our interviewees explained, applicants who have the necessary intellect and aptitude can be rejected purely because they are wearing the “wrong” tie. Plus, an increasingly early start to the recruitment cycle involves applying for internships either before or in the first year of university study. This means that if applicants lack the social networks which provide knowledge about opportunities they are likely to miss out. Thus, the status quo is maintained and it is difficult for those from less privileged backgrounds to access elite professions.</p>
<h2>Redefining talent</h2>
<p>So what can these firms do? Some are clearly working on this and the increase in apprenticeships and post-18 entrance schemes in accounting has been one response. Other leading firms have introduced the use of <a href="http://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/largest-british-business-to-adopt-contextualised-recruitment.html">contextual data</a>, which allows them to see how applicants compare to peers at their school, to help them judge A-Level results. And many firms engage with third sector organisations such as the Sutton Trust and the Social Mobility Foundation to offer outreach programmes and work experience. These have been successful up to a point, yet change appears slow. </p>
<p>In order to facilitate further change it is important that firms measure and monitor the social background of both new recruits and current employees; examine all aspects of how they attract and select applicants and consider ring-fencing opportunities for internships from non-traditional candidates. </p>
<p>They should also think critically about how they define merit. Should a candidate’s background be taken into account when making judgements about how they present themselves? If Britain is to be the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-the-great-meritocracy-prime-ministers-speech">“world’s great meritocracy”</a>, firms need to focus on selecting applicants on the basis of their potential to develop the attributes of a good professional, not the polish that comes with a more privileged background.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Duberley received funding from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission to undertake the research upon which this article is based. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Ashley received funding from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission to undertake the research upon which this article is based. </span></em></p>Research shows that the way meritocracy is discussed can actually curtail opportunities for social mobility.Joanne Duberley, Professor of Organisation Studies, University of BirminghamLouise Ashley, Lecturer in Organization Studies, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/581882016-04-26T10:12:34Z2016-04-26T10:12:34ZWhy Britain’s class system will have to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119513/original/image-20160420-25595-hslkfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The wealth parade.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://hopian.wordpress.com/">Ella Furness</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Britain is still a society deeply divided by class. The same schools, established church and universities <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/24/privately-educated-elite-continues-to-take-top-jobs-finds-survey">dominate public life</a>, but under the façade of immobility, changes are afoot.</p>
<p>Social class is clearly no longer neatly defined by occupation. People of the same income can have access to widely varying resources. Class is no longer simply a vertical ranking linked to capital and a system of production. It’s possible to hold multiple class identities. What class, for example, is a university graduate working in a call centre, renting with friends but expecting some “help” with a mortgage from their parents in later middle age?</p>
<p>While accent, dress and name can still reveal so much about who you are in Britain, most European societies have overcome many of the restrictions and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Spirit_Level.html?id=jfJMajQulfQC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">inequalities</a> of older class systems. For more than a decade, we have known that <a href="http://cep.lse.ac.uk/centrepiece/v10i1/blanden.pdf">social mobility</a> is lower in the UK than elsewhere in Europe, and that it is falling. In North America, Japan and much of the rest of the world, a revolution or invasion abruptly disrupted the traditional class systems and social mobility was greater after those events. By comparison, the gradual loss of Britain’s empire and the global dominance that went with it meant this did not happen in the UK. </p>
<p>So often, someone’s address tells you a great deal about who they are: your postcode is the unhidden part of your wealth. This is also true in the US, where income inequalities, and class and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Threat_of_Race.html?id=iZzIIZh03nQC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">race</a> divides are even greater than in Britain.</p>
<h2>Out of the machine age</h2>
<p>Class is always there – it is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/per.845/abstract">all-pervasive</a> but also always changing. Our current classes – working, middle and upper – originally defined along occupational lines, were born out of the machine age and in newly expanded towns and cities. We now call these “social classes” as if they were cast in stone, as if they were akin to a taxonomy of species – but they are only a very recent rank ordering and they will soon be replaced in their turn. </p>
<p>The older social classes (that predated our current hierarchy) we now call castes. Not long after the start of industrialisation we recognised that it was the machines that made current class systems so different from the older agricultural caste systems. As British sociologist Michael Young <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36094827">wrote</a> in 1958: “The soil grows castes; the machine makes classes.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119514/original/image-20160420-25641-1us0071.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://hopian.wordpress.com/">Ella Furness</a></span>
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<p>As societies industrialised, economic relationships began to be more clearly ordered, primarily around the connections between people and the machine, and between the interests of those who owned the machines and those who were forced to operate them. </p>
<p>Now, these classes have become untenable outside of factory town settings, or when the machines are sent abroad – when industries are moved “offshore”. Then, at home, more precarious classes emerge, and what class means and what class you are changes – because capitalism is changing.</p>
<p>Our social classes now are often seen as classes of free-market capitalism – but it is not the market that is important in defining them. Markets have <a href="http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/sites/thecornerhouse.org.uk/files/40poisonmarkets.pdf">existed for millennia</a>, as have bosses and servants, slaves and masters. What was new was industrial capitalism – and what made that capitalism so new was its machines. Without machines being built to harness the power of carbon, initially through coal, we would not have been able to transform our world so much in such a short time, and in doing so reorder our societies so dramatically. That reordering has not ended.</p>
<h2>As capitalism changes, so will classes</h2>
<p>Margaret Thatcher had a valuable point to make when <a href="http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111359">she wrote in 1992</a> that: “Class is a communist concept. It groups people as bundles, and sets them against each other.” </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean the concept was wrong – communist concepts can sometimes be spot on (Karl Marx very accurately described the times in which he was living) – but as capitalism changes so will classes. It was not the concept of class that set people against each other, it was being bundled into groups, largely by dint of your family’s wealth, which did this. This wealth is beginning to matter more than income in the UK in determining everything from <a href="https://goo.gl/pjK2SQ">where you might live</a>, to how you are educated. Now, the classes that best define us are changing as we change and as the political, economic and social structures that surround us change. </p>
<p>Machine-based capitalism, which has been around for just over half a dozen generations, <a href="http://www.dannydorling.org/books/10billion/">appears to be slowing down</a>. It is stunning to discover that such a short period of time has been long enough to form the bedrock of the working, middle and upper class labels we most commonly allocate each other today. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=675&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119515/original/image-20160420-25612-olteoj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://hopian.wordpress.com/">Ella Furness</a></span>
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<p>The greatest change under our current system is the class position of women. Almost everywhere in the world today, women live longer than men. Before our current class system was established <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1432200/">this was not the case</a>. Across Britain, and in many similar countries, young women are now far better qualified than young men. As recently as 2002 a narrow majority of the <a href="http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=203#">world’s university students</a> were female. </p>
<p>Moving out of our current class system will see a further transformation of the position of women. A decade ago it was possible <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674025554&content=reviews">to suggest</a> that: “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, earn one-tenth of the world’s income, and own less than one-hundredth of the world’s property.” But established gender divisions become untenable as the nature of homes change, as we have fewer children, and more of us <a href="http://www.dannydorling.org/books/betterpolitics/">live on our own more often and for longer</a>. </p>
<p>What our current class system changes into next very much depends on what we do, or don’t do. If we continue to allow the wealthiest people in our societies to hide their <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/panama-papers">wealth offshore</a>, but still partake in our society, wealth will matter more in determining class in future. Alternatively, we could introduce a basic income, as is being <a href="http://www.basicincome.org/news/2015/12/finland-basic-income-experiment-what-we-know/">experimented with in Finland</a>, or ensure less fettered access to education, as is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34132664">the case in Germany</a>. Then the divides between us could narrow and we might in future be valued more by what we contribute to society, not by how much we take out.</p>
<p><em>The cartoons in this article were drawn by Ella Furness, PhD candidate at Cardiff University and <a href="http://www.dannydorling.org/books/betterpolitics/">published in a recent book</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Dorling is funded by the University of Oxford. The work behind this article was not funded by any other source. Danny is not a member of any political party. He has been an Expert Group Advisory Member for the World Economic and Social Survey, United Nations, Development Policy and Analysis Division. He is an Advisory Board Member for the Intergenerational Foundation, London; for the Nuffield Study of graduate earnings in the UK and the ESRC project: 'Life in the Alpha Territory'. This article does not represent the views of the research councils.
</span></em></p>Today’s classes were born out of the machine age. They are not fit for purpose in 21st century Britain.Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/412212015-05-06T08:01:43Z2015-05-06T08:01:43Z‘Class ceiling’ in workplace suppresses the American dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80499/original/image-20150505-936-s6yjhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elite students get elite jobs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/elite+school/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=6485857">Certificate image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The American dream of equal opportunity, based on the conviction that intelligence, hard work and character are the keys to success, may be on life support. These days <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/0001/01/01/moving-on-up">children raised at the top or bottom fifths of the income pyramid tend to stay there, even as adults</a>. </p>
<p>Higher education is considered a major contributor to economic success. Parental income, a strong predictor of admission to elite universities, <a href="https://www.ntpu.edu.tw/social/upload/P_420100307132431.pdf">doubled</a> in importance from 1982-1992 and has continued to rise. </p>
<p>Now, Lauren Rivera, an associate professor at the <a href="http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/">Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University</a>, shows us through her new book, <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10457.html">Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs</a>, how those at the bottom of the income ladder are stuck, as it is the socioeconomically privileged students who tend to get a disproportionate share of elite jobs.</p>
<h2>College matters</h2>
<p>Rivera draws on in-depth interviews and first-hand observations of hiring practices at top-tier investment banks, law firms and consulting companies to reveal how the playing field is tilted toward affluent students. </p>
<p>In the definition and evaluation of merit, a “class ceiling” gets created for their less affluent classmates. Higher education and employment, she indicates, are “interlocking systems of social stratification.”</p>
<p>Convinced that having employees from prestigious colleges and universities enhances a firm’s status, recruiters tend to spend the vast majority of their time with graduates of 15 to 20 institutions. </p>
<p>They sort resumes rapidly, spending between 10 seconds and four minutes on each and bypassing cover letters (fewer than 15% reported even looking at them).</p>
<p>The qualities most commonly used to sort applications, in descending order, are school prestige, extracurricular activities and grades. Well down the line are standardized tests, previous employment and diversity. </p>
<p>Rivera reports that many evaluators believe that attendance at a lesser-ranked institution constitutes evidence of a slip up somewhere along the line and/or warrants “a question mark” around analytical ability.</p>
<p>The remaining steps of the screening process further skew the competition toward children from privileged families. </p>
<p>Applicants who were not involved in formalized, high-status extracurricular activities (rock-climbing, lacrosse, cello playing, unpaid internships at organizations with a brand name) were judged unlikely to fit into “a fraternity of smart people” – and did not often move to the interview stage. </p>
<h2>The interview process</h2>
<p>Working-class students, Rivera reminds us, have fewer opportunities to participate in such activities. And, ironically, their conviction that employees really care more about grades and tangible skills than extracurricular activities “constrains, not expands, the types of jobs and incomes available to them when they graduate.” </p>
<p>During the interviews, Rivera points out, the response of the applicant to a concrete “case study” problem can be determinative, especially for consulting firms. </p>
<p>Far more often, however, it’s all about “the fit.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/80505/original/image-20150505-933-9ab1wj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Class matters when it comes to hiring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=Wnz7oJjeCCBxjHXXYMcSlw&searchterm=job%20education&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=164369231">Candidates' image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Interviewers saw fit more in terms of the personality traits conducive to the creation of a tight-knit workplace than the social and communication skills for assessing and attending to client needs. </p>
<p>They sought “surface-level demographic diversity in applicant pools,” Rivera writes, “but deep-level cultural homogeneity in new hires.”</p>
<p>Interviewers also rewarded applicants who told compelling life stories that emphasized individual choice, freedom, passion and control. </p>
<p>Bootstrapping narratives can subvert existing socioeconomic and racial biases in hiring. However, Rivera suggests, quite often individuals who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are reluctant to disclose personal information to a stranger in a workplace setting.</p>
<p>In firms where teamwork and client satisfaction are important, interpersonal qualities are deemed as important as job-relevant skills. </p>
<p>Convinced that a baseline of intelligence is sufficient, evaluators are content to “outsource” screening for “skills and smarts” to elite universities – and to make selections that privilege fit and polish. </p>
<p>“Of course class matters,” a banker told Rivera. “It comes through in the way you speak, the language you use, the way you dress and the general impression that you give off when you talk to someone.”</p>
<h2>A class-based society</h2>
<p>Rivera makes a compelling case that although on the surface the United States is a meritocracy and committed to equal opportunity, in fact it is “creating a rigid class hierarchy based on ascription and birth.” </p>
<p>To be sure, some individuals from modest backgrounds get hired by elite organizations; their success is sometimes cited as evidence of a selection process free of bias and based on ability rather than pedigree. </p>
<p>Despite the popular narratives that highlight these successes, Rivera’s book adds to already abundant evidence that “movement from the very bottom to the very top of the economic ladder has become exceedingly rare,” in higher education and employment, despite metrics that on the surface are class-neutral.</p>
<p>Moreover, since social class has not been deemed a protected status under the law, discrimination on its basis remains legal.</p>
<p>For as long as the reputation of organizations are tied to the status of its employees, current practices are likely to remain in place. </p>
<p>To bring change, each of us will need to recognize the high economic and ethical costs of inequality and take ever more affirmative action to level the playing field in all aspects of American culture and society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41221/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn Altschuler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even though America claims to be a society based on hard work and meritocracy, rewards go only to those with the right college degree.Glenn Altschuler, Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies and Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions , Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.