Penelope Trunk asks if an old boys' network exists?
Alright, we've finally reached the last question in our Q&A event on startups and small businesses. We have over 1500 professionals answer Obama's question on how the next president can help small businesses thrive, which was then followed by author Robert Sutton's question (author of the "No A**hole rule") as to whether power corrupts (over 350 answers) and then Kara Swisher (columnist at Wall Street Journal and executive editor of All Things D) asked users what their dream career would be (over 1000 answers). The penultimate question was from Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia who asked what your most interesting find on Wikipedia was (almost 575 answers).
So, finally here we are at the last question from Boston Globe columnist and Penelope Trunk who wonders if there is still an old boys' network? Oh, boy! What do you think?
Here are some responses I thought provided interesting perspectives from over 220 answers we have received thus far:
Here are a few answers that users have sent in since the question went live. There were many balanced responses from LinkedIn users. Here are a few responses thus far:
Michael Liebowitz | VP, Associate Creative Director at Grey Advertising (Worldwide)
It looks like I'm in the minority but I don't really see it anymore, at least not around me. I feel like there are more and more women in the industry than ever before and I her about many women in executive positions. Of course, I'm a man so what do you expect? If anything,
it's nothing like I see on "Mad Men".
Michael Schron | Business Development Manager at Robert Schron Associates; experienced Equity Investment Analyst
There is, but not so much in the traditional way people think of it. It is no longer based as much on shared heritage (e.g. family, ethnicity) as it is on having gone to the right school or worked for the right company.
For example, on Wall Street being a local doesn't really count for anything today, as the hiring is global, but having gone to Wharton or having worked at Goldman Sachs will get you much further than having gone to NYU or having worked at PaineWebber, because the prestige
factor is what is important now. Companies want to be able to say their
people come from the top name-brand institutions regardless of whether
they are from Boston or Bangalore.I imagine that in this process, alot of hardworking and intelligent people are left out, but the same was true of the old-stye networks as well so in that regard nothing has changed. If you want to succeed in this environment, you have to have gone to the right schools and worked
in the right places, in some cases it doesn't even matter what you studied or what your performance was, because it's all about brand recognition.
Tom Laszewski | Technical Director, Oracle
Yes, there are still many 'good old boy' networks. But not as many as there have been. Also, with more women in the work place I have run into some 'new girl' networks. Sometimes people tend to just like to interact and work with people that look, act and think like themselves.
Very unfortunate and the bright side is this attitude is changing!
Darrell Long | Professor of Computer Science, University of California
Yes, of course, but now it contains girls too. You tend to work with the people you know and trust. Absolute qualifications may show up on a resumé, but you only really know whether you can work with a person through personal experience or that of a person you trust.
Have a comment, leave one on the post or better still answer Penelope via LinkedIn Answers.