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I don't even know what elite jobs this article is talking about. High paying professional jobs are open to anyone. Lawyer, doctor, and I guess maybe now program

I don't even know what elite jobs this article is talking about. High paying professional jobs are open to anyone. Lawyer, doctor, and I guess maybe now programmer. What are the elite jobs not open to us normal people? I'm not sure they aren't just a bogey man.

mhurron 11y ago
> open to anyone. Lawyer, doctor, and I guess maybe now programmer. The elite (or the highest paying, most prestigious) of those jobs are open to those who know the right people. The basics of those jobs are open to anyone who has the money to go to school for them. The path to the elite of anything is 'who you know.'
scarmig 11y ago
I'd identify it as high finance, big consultancies, and upper management for large corps. Of those you listed, only a small subset of attorneys might qualify, and they're just as closely bound to class as any of the real elite jobs. Doctors, lawyers, and programmers count solidly in the middle class, and I agree they're relatively accessible.
- eitally 11y ago
  If you're going to count finance & consultancies, you might as well count big tech, too. It is entirely unreasonable how many silicon valley non-programmers (and a few programmers) have gotten here via both of those channels. Moreover, I have directly heard from more than a handful of people out here that they only went to business school because they had no idea what they wanted to do when they left their investment bank / consulting firm, so it seemed the best idea at the time. Honestly, I think upper management for large corps is far more rarified air than the others. There is not only an extremely restricted population, but a lot of these leaders are selected via a revolving door. The average CxO only spends something like 3yrs at any given company, then gets hired by a different one -- rinse and repeat. You can consider only two pipelines for this role: 1) folks who successfully managed and grew smaller companies and are hired into those roles from outside, or 2) folks who spent a whole career at the company.
sgustard 11y ago
The book's Amazon blurb defines elite jobs as "top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms" which are "the nation's highest-paying entry-level jobs."

mhurron 11y ago

> open to anyone. Lawyer, doctor, and I guess maybe now programmer. The elite (or the highest paying, most prestigious) of those jobs are open to those who know the right people. The basics of those jobs are open to anyone who has the money to go to school for them. The path to the elite of anything is 'who you know.'

scarmig 11y ago

I'd identify it as high finance, big consultancies, and upper management for large corps. Of those you listed, only a small subset of attorneys might qualify, and they're just as closely bound to class as any of the real elite jobs. Doctors, lawyers, and programmers count solidly in the middle class, and I agree they're relatively accessible.

eitally 11y ago
If you're going to count finance & consultancies, you might as well count big tech, too. It is entirely unreasonable how many silicon valley non-programmers (and a few programmers) have gotten here via both of those channels. Moreover, I have directly heard from more than a handful of people out here that they only went to business school because they had no idea what they wanted to do when they left their investment bank / consulting firm, so it seemed the best idea at the time. Honestly, I think upper management for large corps is far more rarified air than the others. There is not only an extremely restricted population, but a lot of these leaders are selected via a revolving door. The average CxO only spends something like 3yrs at any given company, then gets hired by a different one -- rinse and repeat. You can consider only two pipelines for this role: 1) folks who successfully managed and grew smaller companies and are hired into those roles from outside, or 2) folks who spent a whole career at the company.

sgustard 11y ago

The book's Amazon blurb defines elite jobs as "top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms" which are "the nation's highest-paying entry-level jobs."