Internships are widely regarded as being a necessity for college students studying finance, law, or other competitive disciplines to secure a job once graduation comes around. With an increasing number of entry level positions being replaced by artificial intelligence, the current job market is at an all time level of competitiveness. Internships are no longer just a way to gain experience in an industry, but often the primary pathway into full-time employment. However, students who are lucky enough to have the right connections are often given a significant advantage compared to their peers. This imbalance makes the playing field incredibly uneven, raising the question of how it can be tackled effectively.
According to The Guardian, up to 70 per cent of workers from the ages of 16 to 25 get their first job from someone they know. Having this work experience on a CV significantly increases chances of receiving a return offer, and prevents the stress and financial pressure that graduates with less connections will likely face. While not all of these cases constitute outright nepotism, they highlight how personal networks can often bypass or heavily influence formal recruitment processes. For roles originally designed to spot and encourage early talent, internships are now a question of who you know. Despite this, many recruiters in large organisations insist that they operate strictly on merit based systems, using blind CV screening, various rounds of interviews, and diversity requirements. However in many cases, informal networks and connections override these formal barriers. Employee referrals are often encouraged and on many applications there is even an option to cite the name of a current employee. When access to opportunities is mainly limited to who you or your family knows, social mobility is stunted as a result. This message can be incredibly demoralising to hardworking students who have less connections in their desired fields.
Nepotism is not always as black-and-white as a parent calling a friend for a favour. It often manifests in subtle ways such as knowing how to perfectly tailor a CV or cover letter, and how to network effectively. These advantages are disproportionately available to students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, creating a vicious cycle of privilege and power, causing many students to wonder if hard work is enough to secure them a future job. At its core, the nepotism debate reflects a broader inequality within recruitment, and society itself.
However, nepotism’s undeniable existence should not prevent students from pursuing these careers. Awareness is a huge driver of change in all circumstances. Institutions of higher education have recognised this imbalance and attempted to counteract it. For example, many large universities such as UCD, DCU, and TUD have work placements as a part of their degrees. The university actively helps students find and apply for internships, providing many students with valuable experience that will allow them to stand out from their peers. This levels out the playing field and promotes companies to hire outside of existing employee referrals.
However, it is not within the power of universities or individual students to compensate for the lack of internships or graduate roles available in the current job market which ultimately drives nepotism. While universities can improve their graduates’ employability through the modules offered, career guidance, and partnerships with industries, they cannot create sufficient opportunities in a market where demand from employers is weak. Similarly, students can gain extracurricular and academic experience and achievements but these efforts cannot overcome economic constraints like reduced graduate hiring or cost-cutting, which students all over the world are facing today.
Nepotism in all professions is likely to always exist, but there are methods which can and should be adopted to promote fairness and equality. The challenge will likely always remain for students to navigate a system that requires both merit and networks, while firms must move beyond simply claiming fairness within their systems, by actively demonstrating it in their recruitment processes and investing in entry level training. While connections may open doors, effectively addressing existing inequality depends on whether organisations are willing to confront the uncomfortable truths about access, privilege, and opportunity, while taking responsibility for building a more equitable future for the next generation of graduates.
