Item — HN Reader

I think I'm going to be the only person commenting here who's going to cop to getting jobs all the time based on nothing but middle class social connections. I've gotten jobs through uncle's girlfriends/father's frat brothers/my drinking buddies. Honestly, most people I come in contact with know somebody with or have the ability to give me work, and I have the ability to get some of them work just by being a piece of the network for now, but probably after I'm further along in my career, directly. I have no doubt that if I become a business owner, or pursue a managerial track, I'll be expected to do the same thing for other people and their kids.

How else are you expected to get the million years of experience on everything expected at every job? The only entry-level jobs I see advertised are for entry-level geniuses.

I don't think that this can be artificially created by a third party for adults.

The advice that I would give to actual poor people: make friends with people with money. Wrack your brains to think of ways to do things for them for free so you can become a part of the favor trading network. Drink with them a lot - unless they're religious people, then pray with them. Only date people who have a family that has money. More money is better than less money. Avoid people with no money.

1 comments

Somewhat less cynical advice that I'll give to young people: Go to college, at least for a little while, and get a part-time job or an internship. Companies will hire a college student with little to no experience, but not a college graduate with little to no experience.

Many people only figure this out when it's too late.

Agree completely.

Also, college and internships are the best places to create social relationships with people with money. Remember that even though you may be intimidated by all of the fanciness and money around you in those environments, this is a period of time that rich people are actually slumming (assuming you're not at an expensive private/ivy league college) and will likely come into contact with more people that are out of their class than at any other point in their lives. A good number of people you can meet in highly contested internships are in the last non-managerial/executive job they'll ever have.

That's a more cynical take on it than I was intending.

I was thinking of one's college internship as an opportunity to get practical experience and prove yourself as a competent person instead of just a place to add rich folks to your network.

I totally understood your intention and agree. I didn't mean to recharacterize your comment as saying that college and internships were just a place to meet people with money; I meant to add that they were also maybe the best place to meet people with money.