I see this mentioned a lot. I am not really sure if this is really helpful at any of the good and/or big places. It is very questionable whether an MD at Citi or GS can get their kid in at Citi or GS.
Or for that matter at Google or Amazon. There are multiple layers of checks and balances. Bar raisers etc.
Yes you can put your thumb on the scale at small, privately owned entities where you ask your boss to give your kid an internship. Potentially unpaid.
Yes there is networking at colleges. But it is peer-to-peer networking, and with upper classmen. On the basis of shared respect for your competence and reputation. The other person is going to put their name on the line to recommend you internally. But yes, you have access to the other person (your senior from 1 to 4 years) in order to display your competence, smarts, work ethic, soft skills etc.
And those internships help when you go to interview. Iāve seen it over and over again. Donāt underestimate the power of the early connections - they absolutely help when you are gunning for the top jobs.
I helped my son for a 10th grade internship :-). My CTO wanted him back in the 11th grade, but my son did not want to spend 90mins each way in commute. That was the last time I helped him. I am not sure how much his 10th grade internship helped him.
A senior exec would be out on the street at any company Iāve ever worked for if they got a job for an unqualified nephew, friends kid, golf partners child.
Can they forward a polite email āhere is Susieās resume, I was at her christening and she was a well behaved infantā? Yup. Makes it easier to file in the āno never everā folder.
Do you know who has clout? Professors. A highly regarded professor who has taught and supervised a student. Those emails mean A LOT. Some random rich guy who played rugby with our CEO 30 years ago? Not so much.
??? Ok and that translates to what in terms of the value of connections for students? I know a ton of people in industry who help their kids all day long - whether your son benefited from you connections means absolutely nothing to the general statement that networking matters.
My sonās friendās prof called her friend at Amazon and Msft to get the kid into the PL research group at these places. Not usually possible for a non-PhD. The kid TAd a grad class in Programming Languages in his sophomore year of undergrad.
I am just saying that I have not seen it. Maybe it was more common 20 years ago.
It is very hard. And as @blossom says, risky, to be forwarding resumes and hinting to people that this kid should be given a job.
Professors recommendations are at the top of the list. A professor at U Maine in paper technology has a lot more clout than a random āimportant personā who barely knows the kid in question!
While overt nepotism is rare these days, it is clearly advantageous to have parents, relatives and close family friends who are in influential positions. While they cannot guarantee a job, they likely can provide leads on openings and open the door for an initial interview. You canāt get a hit if you never get to the plate. This goes to @Darcy123 at post 79 that it is actually the blue collar/lower income student who has the most to gain going to the more selective colleges.
And my experience is current - I get it - you didnāt help your kids - whatever - to deny that most people with connections give their kids an advantage is just inane. I had zero connections and benefited 1000% from my undergraduate name - also not popular on cc. Now I see in my circle of very successful people they make sure their kids have the best internships well before first job comes up - anyone who thinks those top jobs are all merit based is just fooling themselves.
I am not saying they donāt want to. I am saying it is not easy.
I do help my kids. I connect them to people I know so that they can have a conversation to understand the business better.
I have been told by a friend when his kid was trying to get into MBB, that an M partner canāt get his own kid through the M auto screening process.
At large well known companies there isnāt a secret set of jobs that are open and kept secret. There is a season that starts somewhere between April and August, and there is a set process.
So you have no kids going into MBB and know one random person who told you something and now youāre the authority on connections no longer matter - yeah ok. Whether it was easier 20 years ago, I havenāt a clue as I was well out of circle where I had a single connection - but now itās more than obvious - it may not be as easy now as 20 years ago, but connections still matter a TON.
You are talking a relatively narrow set of companies and perhaps industries where they are hiring in āclassesā. There are way more jobs, and good ones, at small, medium and even some large companies that hire based on perceived need throughout the year. A few years ago I was talking to a PE partner one of whose portfolio companies was trying to sell some tech to us. We had some personal chit chat about our families and when he heard my kid was at Yale, he immediately offered an internship for my son with the PE (of course not conditioned on us opting for their product). Son was not interested, but the fact was that the opportunity fell into his lap because of connections.
No, not limited to small, private, owner owned companies. Plenty of medium to large āMain Streetā companies, including public ones, have flexibility in how screenings are done and hire throughout the year. Agree that even for those companies, hiring the idiot nephew of the CEOās frat brother is not going to happen. However getting HR to take a real look at the resume or even going straight to an initial interview is not uncommon.
And do you notice that the kids of parents in these fields have great internships? Really itās just that simple. I am unique that I see both realms every day. I know hard working wonderful kids of parents without a college degree and wonderful hardworking kids whose dad just sold his startup for $400 million. These kids simply do not have a similar first internship freshman year - honestly first generation kids often donāt even know internships are a thing freshman year. Even at strong schools - people underestimate how much of standard, expected resume building isnāt known. My daughter helped a friend his sophomore year find an internship as heād spent freshman year roofing - it made money and thoughts of needing experience to land first job didnāt even enter his mind.