Pedigree

How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs

By: Lauren A. Rivera

Narrated by: Dina Pearlman

Americans are taught to believe that upward mobility is possible for anyone who is willing to work hard, regardless of their social status. Yet it is often those from affluent backgrounds who land the best jobs. Pedigree takes listeners behind the closed doors of top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms to reveal the truth about who really gets hired for the nation's highest-paying entry-level jobs, who doesn't, and why.

Drawing on scores of in-depth interviews as well as firsthand observation of hiring practices at some of America's most prestigious firms, Lauren Rivera shows how, at every step of the hiring process, the ways that employers define and evaluate merit are strongly skewed to favor job applicants from economically privileged backgrounds. She reveals how decision makers draw from ideas about talent - what it is, what best signals it, and who does (and does not) have it - that are deeply rooted in social class. Displaying the "right stuff" that elite employers are looking for entails considerable amounts of economic, social, and cultural resources on the part of the applicants and their parents.

Challenging our most cherished beliefs about college as a great equalizer and the job market as a level playing field, Pedigree exposes the class biases built into American notions about the best and the brightest, and shows how social status plays a significant role in determining who reaches the top of the economic ladder.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Princeton University Press (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Outstanding study

Comprehensive descripton of the admission process of law, investment banking and consulting firms with full of insights of the elite students

Great book about cultural capital

Would you listen to Pedigree again? Why?

Yes, very well done.

What did you like best about this story?

Highly relevant for anyone in college or looking to graduate.

Which character – as performed by Dina Pearlman – was your favorite?

There are not any characters, the book is non-fiction and based on a study

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The stories about the degree of blatant irrationality for the goal of reproducing a workforce similar in taste and culture.

Amazing

Truly amazing book. I am going to buy a paper version in addition to audio

So much fluff.

i had to put it at 2X speed most of the time. It's a fantastic 3 chapters if it were part of a larger book but no, every chapter has some good insight but damn.

Very insightful

I loved this book! I recommend this book to anyone thinking about starting college or to anyone studying the American class system.