The first-gen applications were significantly less successful, receiving 26% fewer callbacks for an interview than the group that didn’t disclose the candidate’s background.
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Peter Belmi, PhD ’15, fields lots of queries from his graduating students at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where he is a professor. Many of them want career advice. But students who are the first in their family to earn a college degree have a particular question, Belmi says. “They want to know if they should include their first-generation status on their job applications.”
He talked it over with several colleagues — including his former doctoral adviser at Stanford, Margaret Neale — and the group agreed that it could go either way. Hiring managers might see it as a plus, but some research suggested that the first-gen label might carry a stigma.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up : https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails ) ]