Choice
"The book is packed with sociological thinking rather than sociological theories and concepts. It is well written and should provide undergraduates with many insights about all career phases, from the job search to the separation. Undergraduates will have many of their assumptions challenged, especially that inequalities at work may not be based on connections, skills, information, or knowledge, but on luck. 'Luckocracy' may be difficult to face. However, Streib makes a compelling argument that luck plays a larger role in decision-making than students have been taught to believe."
David B. Grusky
Do children born into rich families always make more money than their less privileged counterparts? No! Streib shows that the market for college graduates is a booming-buzzing confusion of idiosyncratic standards, misinformation, and rushed decision-making—all of which undermine the iron law that ‘class matters.’ A striking demonstration that illicit advantage can be countered, provided that one’s willing to infuse the market with lots of noise, luck, and chaos.
Inside Higher Education
"Based on hundreds of interviews with business school graduates and the employers that subsequently hired them, Streib’s book ultimately argues that college is not, in itself, the great equalizer; the impossible-to-navigate job market is."
Wall Street Journal
[Streib] examines an important segment of the labor market that gets relatively little attention: entry-level positions for midtier jobs . . . Far too much energy and ink are spent on who gets the most elite jobs, who goes to the most elite schools and how terribly unfair the whole process is. Little of that conversation describes the reality for most Americans. The role of the good-but-not-elite college affects far more people and gives us much more insight into the state of economic mobility than Ivy League statistics.
Peter Cappelli
That working-class students from state universities do just as well in the job market as better-off students is a remarkable outcome. Even more surprising is that the equalization is actually driven by hiring practices that are so opaque that the graduates are basically flipping coins trying to get hired. Streib’s findings are enormously important for the 80% of all college students who attend those universities and the rocky start it gives their career.
Jake Rosenfeld
We now know that a college education can limit inequalities related to class origin, but very few scholars have tried to explain why. Streib’s engaging, provocative account seeks to answer this question. Rare is the book that challenges well-established beliefs shared by academics and policymakers. This one delivers.
Los Angeles Review of Books
One of the biggest myths out there is that the job market, unlike other spheres of life, rewards merit. But it largely rewards luck. Most employers in large mid-tier markets are not seeking excellence. They just want reliable people who can do the job. And that is, in many ways, a good thing, argues sociologist Jessi Streib.
