To think being prejudiced against the privately educated is OK

[EastLondonObserver]

I have spent 25 years working in the advertising industry at some of the most highly regarded agencies in the world. Most of these have been dominated (in certain roles, at least) by the privately educated who gained their entry to the industry through having personal/family contacts in it, were subbed by rich parents while working in low-paid or free internships to gain experience and had that empty confidence private schools instil.

Perfectly capable graduates educated comprehensive schools didn't get much of a look in. However a few managed to break through, including myself.

Consequently, throughout my career I have actively rejected almost all privately educated graduates applying for entry level positions. This runs into hundreds of applicants. I have managed to do this without being called out. Sometimes I have rejected them even when they clearly would have done a better job than a comprehensive school educated alternative. These were corporate companies - it made no meaningful difference to me if they were mildly less successful as a consequence. The only exception was one graduate educated at Harrow and Bristol. I gave him the job as an experiment. He was average at best.

I did this in the name of social justice: re-distributing opportunities away from those with unearned privilege.

Have I been unreasonable? Has anyone else done the same?

And cake makes people happy. Always a plus.

Pray tell, what advantage did the actual f. King got from going to Cambridge that wasn't already in his baby basket? Are we equating Kevin who went to StBedilbum with royalty now?

‘Pray tell, what advantage did the actual f. King got from going to Cambridge that wasn't already in his baby basket? Are we equating Kevin who went to StBedilbum with royalty now?’

so thick people aren't supposed to get into Cambridge or St. Andrews - a working class kid with the grades of William or Charles wouldn’t have got within a whiff of those unis.
so just proving that the ‘best’ candidate doesn’t always get the job, the opportunity, the leg up- mostly just the privileged ones do.

I'm not convinced. We have never struggled to attract candidates who can speak numerous languages - even though we have no foreign language requirement.

Keep at it @EastLondonObserver as will I.
something needs to be done to make companies more diverse and even out the playing field. Personally I find the ‘confidence’ of private school types really grating. The need to let everyone know their opinion regardless of how relevant or useful it is, the need to always ‘make an impression’ or ‘contribute’ in some way … they’ve all been media trained to the point of ridiculousness.

Wow. just wow. what about the high achievers from really impoverished dysfunctional backgrounds fml

‘Wow. just wow. what about the high achievers from really impoverished dysfunctional backgrounds fml’

theyre all in private schools are they? I work with Secondaries, private and public, so can attest to the fact that the ‘plucky, impoverished scholarship’ kid is a myth.
Most of the ‘bursaries’ that private schools give out for sports, music etc wouldn’t make a dent in the fees - they’re a slight discount for MC families mainly.
Because ironically the ‘talent’ you need for a music, cricket, dance etc bursary or scholarship to a private school requires that you’re at a level that required ££ - for equipment, for lessons, for kit - which still puts it out of reach of the less well off children.

If you ‘discriminate’ against a privately educated candidate then they’re 99% from a privileged background. And as OP says you CAN tell from their CV and hobbies etc because poor kids just don’t going ski-ing or on gap years to fancy places or horse ride or intern in a film production company or at a law firm etc.
it’s not just one thing - the name of a school or Uni- it’s all of it that gives their privilege away

That suddenly reminds me of a CV I once saw of someone who claimed to have been interned in a government department for a year after he left Harrow.
That’s a good point @Poopoolittlerabbit. The other argument is that reducing the pool of candidates you look at is going to significantly affect the performance of your company. I think recruitment is such an inexact science, there is so much unconscious or just unreasonable bias, that it probably has very little effect over all. No system is perfect.

It looks like you're talking about people who have limited intelligence, no valid experience, can't read a room and have so little self-awareness they're writing themselves off 99% of the job market. No one else but mummy and daddy's friends will give them a job, they're basically a charity case.
You need to find better markers.

Inverse snobbery alive and well!

Well, if we wait around waiting for the upper classes to give us plebs a fair shout it just isn’t going to happen.

YABU: merit is the only fair way to judge a new recruit. There are many ways to give children an 'advantage': buying expensive property near good schools, tutoring for grammar schools, books, clubs, cultural experiences for children. Should we discriminate against these children too? Where do you draw the line? I know many parents at independent schools who make huge sacrifices to afford the fees. And I know other parents who live in bigger houses and have better holidays and still complain about the unfair advantage that privately educated children will have in life....

OMG what inverse snobbery and illegal actions associated with that big chip on your shoulder! I went through state school, met a lit of very rich and old money families at uni, but that just showed me they were normal people.
Nepotism is never a good look, I agree, but to decide someone is unsuitable just because you think they've had a leg up is wrong.

It isn't 'OK' to be prejudiced against anyone.

I'm privately educated it gave me no advantages. I also went to a good university. But I have no Alevels, I worked bloody hard after failing at school to get into university as a mature student. Now I work bloody hard at being the best in my job. You need to see past someone's education and see them for who they are.

Oh god don’t start this up again!

Well done for doing this, this is positive discrimination. In many industries people are chosen because they went to private and oxford or Cambridge. I think you are doing and excellent thig for disadvantaged young people.

Because those kids make up the majority of those at private school...?

Well done for doing this

Please tell me you're being ironic

You’re disgusting and so is the pp who automatically throws Oxbridge graduate applications in the bin. There are people at those universities who have worked really hard from nowhere, they’re not all Hooray Henry’s or Henriettas. Vile inverted snobbery.

Most of them are though.

But their application is still going in the bin because these people aren’t reading further than the university they went to, it seems.

Again, the applications are going straight in the bin regardless so even if you’re the only person in your entire county who ever went to Oxbridge and you grew up in a shed with no door that application of yours is joining all the privileged ones in the bin because you had the audacity to get yourself to Oxbridge. These posters are saying they automatically bin applications from Oxbridge so they obviously don’t bother to read individual ones.

Not sure there's going to be another way to address the imbalance otherwise.
Positive discrimination is the only way to close the inequality gap... I'd do the same.