Are the 'contacts' children make at private school really worth the expense of sending them there?

[Enid]

As someone said this at the weekend - that their children met so many 'well-connected' families through their schooling that it would make it easier for them to get a good job later.

Is this true? How does it work then?

I lived with four incredibly successful people when at uni but I have never needed them to get ahead with my own career.

My DH was at school with Hugh Grant. Ponders how this has helped his career. Draws blank.

what a load of crap

My friend married a privately educated man. He runs his own business and apparently his old school contacts have proved very beneficial. He seems to have his fingers in a few pies - property abroad, some scrap metal venture in south africa etc etc. I suppose in these types of scenarios being 'well connected' may be beneficial as oppose to 'so and so's dad owns a firm of accountants and will take you on as an apprentice'

Dont know anyway - my kids are going to the local comp

Mr Inferior went to school with Nathanial Parker, which has been no use either. Although he does get to say Oooh look there's Nat Parker at the telly a lot. Not everyone can do that.

Yes, MrsB was about to add similar - if the DC are relying on contacts made at school rather than old family contacts it just proves that they are not quite the 'right' type of family .

DragonsEye's example is excellent - I really do see how that would help. But I suspect the wheelerdealer business man in question would be a network-builder & contact-maker wherever he'd been to school!

It's true of places like Eton. Or at least it was 15 years ago when a friend going for City jobs with British banks was definitely lacking in her connections (and old Etonion friend going to the same interviews was being asked which parties Ma and Pa were attending this year, she was being asked things like 'and what type of school id this?' etc (it was private suggesting that the well-connectedness doesn't extend past the v big pubic schools). She easily picked up a job with an US bank though.

yurtjimjams yes, MPSIA (Minor Public School I'm Afraid) attitude still exists in some more traditional banks.

I have noticed that if you suffer from MPSIA, going to Oxford or Cambridge can really help

friend did, but it wasn't enough to overcome the gap (she had more than one job offer- in a recession- all from foreign banks...)

I think it is moderately useful for arranging work experience but beyond that my experience thus far is that the parents of the DC's (private) school mates are not any more 'well-connected' than my general pool of friends.

The DC's school does maintain a little booklet of all the 'old boys' willing to offer career mentoring or work experience which might come in useful.

In any event, I'm sure a shout out on MN would yield a far better quality of contact should the DCs ever need it

Well, absolutely soapbox - bigging up school contacts like that does suggest an odd lack of confidence in Enid's dinner party person's own non-school contacts.

Thing is, Jimjams, the City may have been like that 15 years ago but it really isn't like that now.

In the 20 years I've been in the City there has been, I think, a major change to meritocracy. I'm involved in Graduate Recruitment and it simply is mostly irrelevant where you went to school. You also will not get a vac scheme, Bink, depending on parental connections (this issue being one of the banes of my life!). I know that banks are very similar, plus the accountants and large corporates, as we do a certain amount of pooling of info.

I think the advent of the US banks has a lot to do with this. We may laugh at their "politically correct" ways with huge emphasis on diversity etc, but the City is a very, very different place these days. Another factor is "internationalisation" and the EU - a lot of recruitment in the City will come from European schools and universities, meanng that a few small UK public schools simply no longer dominate - there is a much wider catchment.

Anyone who thinks private school connections will get you a job is either deluded, or is working in a very small/niche field.

May be different if/when Dave Cameron gets in!

Ah that's good to hear Anchovy. I'm glad it has changed.

Anchovy, how funny - I was about to post a whole Thing about how the professions are more meritocratic (and I was even going to use that word), but I was going to claim it was Scottishising not Americanising. As Scotland has always been more level in that way - viz. the old term "lad of parts" - or "pairts" even - which let you get on no matter where you came from. The professions/financial sector in London now are much more like the Edinburgh I grew up in. Which is nice.

But - re vac schemes - we had a Partner Special only last year. Not for very long.

Yes. I will not be drawn on how I deal with this issue. But I do Deal With It .

It may feel Scottish, but Scottish influences have not been the driver, I don't think.

Oh no? Didn't you catch Matt O'Connor's mayoral candidacy manifesto? It's all about Scotland. (And in rap, too. It was quite something.)

Definitely not any more. I used to work somewhere where there happened to be a high proportion of public school pupils, not including myself.

Being in charge of the work experience programme meant I was occasionally on the receiving end of people trying to make the most of contacts. They didn't get very far with me. Especially when it was their mum who rang in for them.

starlight.

I always think James May only presents Top Gear because he went to school with Clarkson, though.

anchovy right- re the fact doesnt help anymore to get jobs - work for one of big firms and there is a definite trend away from the public school type which is good to see.

I would agree with soapbox that can help on work experience . And maybe also you have higher aspurations cos of the parents/background of those around you -but as someone has already said that can be a bad thing too as its not always the right choice to go for tertiary education/ go the banker/doctor/lawyer route (i know I'm massively generalising here but there is a bit of trend in this direction when careers etc are discussed).

what is more important isn't where you've been but where you are going and if you haven't got where with all to show that (which school may help bring out but will not actually create in you) its not going to do you any good.

lynette - if james may went to school with clarkson he was clearly taking more in than clarkson was