Are you part of an "Old Boys Network"

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A new guy started working here yesterday, and within seconds of his arrival, all of the senior staff were able to identify that he attended the same prestigious Northern Californian university as them (one that, for the purposes of this thread, will go unnamed, as it is only a small detail, and several ILX0Rs KYLE SPENCER STERLING LEEE DAN went to the very same school). Immediately, they began exchanging details and each taking in turn to state their graduating year, and all but doing the secret handshake. This is not really a coincidence, as this took place place in the very same city that is dominated by this particular institution, but it got me to thinking...

Are you part of an Old Boys/Girls Network? Have you ever used school/whatever connections to get ahead? Do you know passwords and secret handshakes? Will you teach me some?

― adaml (adaml), Thursday, 2 October 2003 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"place place"?

― adaml (adaml), Thursday, 2 October 2003 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not actively used my (v posh and well-respected) school/university combo to get ahead - I've never tried to find out if ppl in my jobs went to the same places, and I'm useless at 'networking' and have never tried to stay in touch with people cos they could help me either. Maybe if I'd had any idea about what career I wanted to pursue I would have. Obviously it might still be that in a marginal interview situation the names on my CV have swayed somebody.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Back in August, my university affiliation got me an interview at a place in DC where I would like to work. It did not get me a second interview with this employer.

― j.lu (j.lu), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The fact that my dad is well-known trade unionist and my aunt was the toast of Broadway have both opened some interesting doors for me.
That's a lie. About the doors opening that is.
Although I'm thinking about going to NYC to see what kind of doors my aunt can open for me. Maybe she can get me a job as a valet.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Only in the sense, because I did a journalism course, a lot of my university friends went on to become journalists. And I guess because of the friends I have met through work, I now know the people from their journalism courses too. Obv. though no one who graduated as class of 2000 is going to be in any position of power at the moment. On the occassions when I have recomended a friend/ they have recomended me to someone higher up it's only because I/ they know they/ I can do the job in question.

― Anna (Anna), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I am, but I do find myself disturbed because I think I may have partially gotten my new job because I'm a man.

― Bryan (Bryan), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess so. Actually it goes back to my school days; going to the maths olympiad meant that I knew all the people a year or two older than me who were amazing at maths, and then I knew them at university, and so on. It's definitely helped several times. On the other hand the maths world is one where even my limited social skills make me an amazing networker...

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom - I seem to remember another Old Boy once tried to network with you, though...

― alext (alext), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I've definitely gotten into my both my main jobs because of where I went to college. In fairness, the first one was straight out of college to a company run by one of my lecturers, so it was more that he knew what I knew. This is also true of the job I started last year: the colleges pumped out so many half-arsed comp.sci. degrees during the boom years that, come the crunch, actual personal contacts are the only way you can pick out someone who knows his stuff from the million CVs you recieve.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha yes it's true, someone I knew and didn't much like at school wrote to me suggesting some kind of lizard-meeting, and I totally ignored it. Rude, but there you go.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

a guy i knew through uni got me my current job, but only in the sense that it wasn't advertised, and he contacted me to tell me about the vacancy. actually getting the job was all my own work, er, of course, i hope. people do get a bonus for recommending people to join the company but i'm sure that had nothing to do with it.

― pete b. (pete b.), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Conceivably there is one I could hook into but I have no desire to as most people at my school were tossers of the highest order.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing to do with school, but the company I'm temping for ironically got taken over by the (huge) company my dad works for, which could conceivably help me to get a permanent job. I have very mixed feelings about this.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 October 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I went to the same college as Andrew and it is certainly true that we will rise and conquer the world.

― Lara (Lara), Saturday, 4 October 2003 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

You haven't already? Lazy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 October 2003 14:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I got my job before I had graduated uni; mine is one of the last semi-professional fields (ok, that may be stretching it) where you don't need a degree to land a job and excell. I actually started my communications degree in my 3rd year if uni *after* I had been hired part-time to be a DJ. At the same time, there was a fellow around my age (19-20) hired to be a sales rep. I now run the radio station, and he now runs the entire sales department. Plenty of people on both sides only have high school diplomas...promotion and status is definitely enormously based on hard work and talent. (I would like to think so, at least.) People with expensive degrees don't get into radio because the pay is shit.

mr teeny on the other hand, who graduated from the same state uni as me, went to another state uni to get a masters in Latin, which is one of those weird degrees that's impressive for reasons you can't quite put your finger on, and I think that helped him get into law school (Yale was actually chasing him, but he gave that up for love or possibly me paying the rent). So it's back to state school for the law degree. So far this is all very meritorious, and really it continues to be, he's in the top of his class and could pretty much choose his job. But the firm he's going to be working for has an odd quirk in hiring...they recruit about half or a bit more of their new associates from the top tier of law schools nationwide, and the rest from the state school. Apparently there's one senior partner who's an alum who really believes in the school and its grads, and comes to my town to hand-pick candidates. So weirdly enough, as well as mr teeny has done for himself, his degree from a second-tier law school actually helped him get a better job than you would expect!

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 4 October 2003 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

my school has a network? someone needs to hook me up with it!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 4 October 2003 23:39 (twenty-one years ago)

my school has a network? someone needs to hook me up with it!

Kyle to thread! ;)

― adaml (adaml), Saturday, 4 October 2003 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

sadly yes I guess,
indirectly most of my
jobs have come from school,

or school contacts or
moms of people I met there
or mothers-in-law...

but these jobs were not
lucrative in any way
so I'm off the hook (?)

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 5 October 2003 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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