reading today's ny times i can't help but wonder what's the best way to get ahead ~
Andrew X’s parents paid $8,000 this year to a service that helped their son, a junior at the University of Y, get a summer job as an assistant at Ford Models, a top agency in New York.
“It would’ve been awfully difficult” to get a job like that, said Andrew’s father, “without having a friend or knowing somebody with a personal contact.” Andrew completed the eight-week internship in July and was invited to return for another summer or to interview for a job after graduation.
. . .
But many educators and students argue that the programs bridge one gulf — between those who have degrees from prestigious colleges or family connections and those who do not — only to create a new one, between the students who have parents willing and able to buy their children better job prospects and those who do not.
“You’re going to increase that divide early, on families that understand that investment process and will pay and the families that don’t,” said Anthony Antonio, a professor of education at Stanford University. “This is just ratcheting it up another notch, which is quite frightening.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/09intern.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
so what is the alpha key to success?
Poll Results
| Option | Votes |
| parental bank account(s) | 4 |
| connections | 4 |
| luck | 2 |
| gumption | 2 |
| social class | 2 |
| destiny | 1 |
| lack of morals | 1 |
| stick-to-it-iveness | 1 |
| morals | 0 |
| style | 0 |
| athletic ability | 0 |
| wit | 0 |
| taste in ___ (music, film, visual art, literature, architecture) | 0 |
| education | 0 |
| "talent" | 0 |
| "attitude" | 0 |
| "intelligence" | 0 |
| "character" | 0 |
| pluck | 0 |
| looks | 0 |
― kamerad, Sunday, 9 August 2009 15:39 (sixteen years ago)