[QUOTE]The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission says these firms draw from a small pool of graduates, who probably went to private or selective schools.
Elite firms are sidelining the UK's bright working-class applicants in favour of privileged, "polished" candidates, a report says.
This version of talent can be "mapped to middle-class status", it adds.
The report was based on interviews with staff from 13 elite accountancy, law and financial services firms.
The study by Royal Holloway, University of London, on behalf of the commission, examined barriers to entry for people from less privileged backgrounds to these elite firms.
It found that despite attempts to improve social inclusion over the past 10 to 15 years, such elite firms continue to be heavily dominated at entry level by people from privileged social backgrounds.
The study concluded that elite firms are "systematically excluding bright working-class applicants" from their workforce.
To break into top jobs, state school candidates needed higher qualifications than privately educated peers, it added.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33109052[/url]
sounds like more of a factor of selecting people based on university and business edict, it just happens that the expensive school has the more rich people because they can afford it.
The business edict I'm not sure about being all a money thing, but maybe most of it being how much they can spend on clothes before hand.
[quote]The report was based on interviews with staff from 13 elite accountancy, law and financial services firms.[/quote]
Thanks god that in engineering, nobody usually gives a shit where you come from or what you have studied, but what can you actually show off (at least here). An impressive graduate thesis is usually worth more than the diploma itself.
my roommate is working on an application for a big company that he describes as morally grey. its purpose has never been stated but he is pretty sure they intend to use it for exactly this.
it basically ranks candidates for employment based on their background, qualifications etc. the people that score highest are those that are from rich backgrounds and attend elite schools. they substantially rank down people who are deemed to be from working/middle class even if they have amazing grades.
its basically giving someone a combined 'social status/academic achievements' score, except social status carrys more weight than academic achievements so that an upper class person with a fancy background but mediocre grades will rank higher than someone who is working class but managed to obtain the highest grade possible on their uni course.
Well at least this shows how full of shit all those people who say the working class just don't work hard enough are.
Meritocracy is, as usual, a lie
Meritocracy where rich parents is considered merit.
edit: tidbit - US and UK have lower social mobility than Pakistan.
[QUOTE=Shibbey;47965416]Meritocracy is, as usual, a lie[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;47965429]Meritocracy where rich parents is considered merit.
edit: tidbit - US and UK have lower social mobility than Pakistan.[/QUOTE]
[quote]The report was based on interviews with staff from 13 elite accountancy, law and financial services firms.[/quote]
I don't want to sound overly cynical, but again, might it actually be in the interest of these particular institutions to stick to the "polished" candidates, if you consider how they function?
Remember that today, banking, accounting and law are all businesses where favouritism and buddy-buddy deals are extremely common and constantly lead to severe issues with corruption both corporate and governmental, unfair trade practices and all that. It might be useful to have people who understand their job, but it might be even [I]more[/I] empirically useful to hire somebody who has a daddy who's pals with prime minister/has a big name/already owes me. I feel like strictly speaking this isn't something that would talk about the companies being stupid and choosing unfairly candidates that aren't ideal, they are just choosing candidates based on metric that's different than their skill/education level and the actual issue is that people don't realize how do these firms function.
I feel like, similarly to what mcdeceiver79 says it's less "meritocracy is a lie" and more of "merit of education is a lie" and it only gives us wakeup call on how exactly do these syndicates operate, and maybe to really embrace the fact that they aren't even operating on basis of economical knowledge and application of it, and rather on basis of personal ties and personal profits.
[editline]15th June 2015[/editline]
Among other things it explains why banks keep crashing and burning and needing being bought out - nobody really even understands their job beyond what might provide immediate gains and create more favouritism among potential allies, which is why they don't see a big fucking crash coming.
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;47965068]Thanks god that in engineering, nobody usually gives a shit where you come from or what you have studied, but what can you actually show off (at least here). An impressive graduate thesis is usually worth more than the diploma itself.[/QUOTE]
Eh its also about where you've interned which is another nightmare as everybody wants 4.0 engineering students for their internships, and all the major companies have 3.5 or 3.0 cutoffs, engineering isn't devoid of its own elitism
[QUOTE=Sableye;47969849]Eh its also about where you've interned which is another nightmare as everybody wants 4.0 engineering students for their internships, and all the major companies have 3.5 or 3.0 cutoffs, engineering isn't devoid of its own elitism[/QUOTE]
It's purely academic elitism, though. Which is far more defensible than socioeconomic elitism.
[QUOTE=Shibbey;47965416]Meritocracy is, as usual, a lie[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/mw8FMHg.jpg[/IMG]
Poor Aussies.
"It's not what you know it's who you know"
Most places fill their job openings before job seekers even know there's an opening. The idea that if you work hard and are qualified you have the same chance as anyone else is a joke. It's why things like affirmative action are necessary. People will take care of their own and lock everyone else out if you let them.
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;47975531]"It's not what you know it's who you know"
Most places fill their job openings before job seekers even know there's an opening. The idea that if you work hard and are qualified you have the same chance as anyone else is a joke. It's why things like affirmative action are necessary. People will take care of their own and lock everyone else out if you let them.[/QUOTE]
What does affirmative action have to do with this?
[QUOTE=Cushie;47965232]my roommate is working on an application for a big company that he describes as morally grey. its purpose has never been stated but he is pretty sure they intend to use it for exactly this.
it basically ranks candidates for employment based on their background, qualifications etc. the people that score highest are those that are from rich backgrounds and attend elite schools. they substantially rank down people who are deemed to be from working/middle class even if they have amazing grades.
its basically giving someone a combined 'social status/academic achievements' score, except social status carrys more weight than academic achievements so that an upper class person with a fancy background but mediocre grades will rank higher than someone who is working class but managed to obtain the highest grade possible on their uni course.[/QUOTE]
That's because a lot of these companies are going for a quality that many people from the normal schools or middle class can't afford. Pre-existing networks. Mind you it will usually depend on the position as well.
The thing is, those rich "brats" will have contacts, aquaintances, which can later be turned into actual contracts or insider information for the companies in question.
snip
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;47974763]It's purely academic elitism, though. Which is far more defensible than socioeconomic elitism.[/QUOTE]
Not by much, prep schools put some students way ahead of others in terms of college preparedness. My highschool in cornsville had one physics class, one calc class, one chemistry class, students from Chicago suburbs have already taken organic chemistry, calc-3, several levels of physics, ect ect all because they can afford to go to a school which can have those classes while my school could barely afford a physics teacher
[editline]18th June 2015[/editline]
It's better than the status problem but still just as painful
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