Playing the Hiring Game: Class-Based Emotional Experiences and Tactics in Elite Hiring

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While studies have shown that graduates from elite universities enjoy high employment rates, they do not tell the story of how students from different social class backgrounds experience the hiring process. We address this question by interviewing upper-middle-class (UMC) and working- and middle-class (WMC) Computer Science Ph.D. students at prestigious universities who are applying for lucrative internships at established technology companies. We find that while these students are aware of and have access to the “same” resources (e.g., social connections and insider knowledge about employers’ expectations), the tactics they use to act on these resources and their emotional experience of the hiring process vary along social class lines. In short, the class-based norms of UMC applicants align with those of employers. The majority of WMC applicants, however, discuss experiencing tension between their class-based norms and employers’ dominant values. In contrast to their UMC counterparts, these applicants report spending substantial amounts of time preparing for the hiring process and describe the hiring process as emotionally draining. This research provides insight into the emotional burdens facing even the most privileged WMC applicants. Our findings also have implications for how organizations should take into account social class backgrounds in their hiring practices.