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Can't be what you can't see
Seeing new careers
Sheryl Sandberg has a line that you cannot be what you cannot see. In a first job, new options become visible. One path through McKinsey and into KKR shows how: he didn't know what KKR was in college, and he learned of it at McKinsey only because one colleague had gone to work there.
A small world
The choice of that group was just as small-world. A person two years ahead of him, an amazing performer he admired, had taken the job, so he decided to try for it, even though he knew nothing about private equity. A person's world is small when young.
Value of a first job
A job right out of school that teaches you how to be a professional and how to work with companies is an amazing one. In hindsight, he jokes, he should have paid McKinsey.
Where did that role-model line come from?
Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, is widely credited with the line, and she has used it in speeches about children and representation. Edelman was the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar, in 1965.
Why do first jobs shape careers so long?
Economist Lisa Kahn found in a 2010 study that college graduates entering the job market in a recession earned less than those graduating in better years, and the gap persisted for about fifteen years. Early employers shape which skills, contacts, and later jobs are available. Her data came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
How do people hear about jobs?
Sociologist Mark Granovetter, in a 1973 paper called The Strength of Weak Ties, found that people often learned of jobs from acquaintances rather than close friends. Acquaintances move in different circles, so they pass along information that a person's own circle has not already heard. His study surveyed professional and technical workers in the Boston area.