Skills, social inequality, and workplace success across income, class, and gender

¶ … skills sets needed to be successful in the market place and whether discrimination of poverty, gender, and race may impede one's chances

There are those who argue along the lines of "if you will it, you can do it," and that as long as you present something that people need and you show them that you are the one who can best help them get it, you can be successful no matter what your external limitations.

On the other hand, there is a significant amount of social scientists that say that impeding factors such as poverty are real and stop you from getting where you want to be. The rags to riches story is a myth that happens infrequently to rare individuals. Much more common is the reality that states that money, class, and, to a lesser extent, gender are the factors that get you to, or impede you from your career destination.

I believe that there is merit to that line of thinking. I also believe, however, that given today's unprecedented opportunities particularly that of the Internet where one can communicate on a global level, one can transcend limitations of specific country and context and be enabled to achieve one's goals on a level and scope that one was unable to in the past. Today, as long as you have the ability to provide someone with something that they need and as long as you show them they need it and that you alone are the one to supply it, opportunities exist that may -- with plenty of luck - raise you out of debilitating circumstances and help you become more successful.

It is a reality of life that a certain percentage of the population are born on a silver platter and become successful far more readily than can others who are not born with these circumstances. A Jack Kennedy, for instance, was helped by his mogul rich father to become president of the United States. A Bill Gates got to where he was due to his mother's contacts and influence. And Trump the same. The poor become poorer and the wealthy become richer due to life circumstances that already placed them on a disadvantageous footing and shaped their future.

Take poverty, for instance: children born into poverty are not given the opportunity that wealthier children than they have. They are given poorer education, if at all, surrounded by crime and ghetto conditions that cramp their potential and stunt their brain.

Moreover, it is well-known that poverty can also affect individuals psychologically. Children growing up in poverty have far higher rates of academic failure and mental as well as physical health problems, aside from the fact that they have limited exposure to developmental stimulation and greater exposure to stress in both the physical and psychosocial environments. This breeds problems such as aggression and hyperactivity as well as chronic health problems and adversity that only serve to aggravate social-emotional problems and one's consequent self-esteem / confidence level and expectations of success, competence, or self-efficacy (Dearing, 2008). Aggravating the situation is the fact that environmental conditions have a neurological impact. An impoverished and stressful childhood negatively impacts the brain in countless ways, not least being one's ability for learning and for memory. Disadvantaged environments can withhold the necessary stimulation that is so needed for enhanced development. (Farah, Noble, & Hurt, n.d.)

Given all these elements, then, there is little wonder that poverty is an ongoing cycle with its persistence almost guaranteed by social factors. Surmounting that to achieve career success seems almost miraculous. Give too the fact that employers judge and discriminate based on one's socioeconomic assets and achieving vocational success becomes little more than a dream for those hindered by poverty. The same goes for other external factors such as gender, race, and class. These are unalterable factors and, unfortunately, there will always be people who are bigoted, and, despite all the rules and regulations forbidding it, assess you in terms of extrinsic factors and base your job chances, or lack of them, on the basis of unalterable characteristics.

Regulations exist such as not hiring a woman on the grounds that she has young children or disallowing women from performing certain types of occupations. An equal wage for the same job must be paid to either gender. The same ruling regards age, disability, religion, and ethnicity. The employer, too, is required to reasonably accommodate the religious belief of the employee unless doing so would impose undue hardship. An age limit for the job may only be specified in rare circumstances where age has proved to be an occupational qualification (Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination.) However employers can, and frequently do slip around these legislations, and very few violators are held accountable. Given these circumstances it seems almost impossible to succeed in a world that evaluates you according to disadvantageous characteristics that fate has bequeathed you with and that are beyond your ability to eradicate.

On the other hand, there do seem to be some skills that are innate and that, everyone, regardless of external merit can claim possession to if they are born with them. These skills enable people to get to where they wish to be.

Baron and Markman (2000), for instance, observed that startups are often doomed to failure but some are more successful than others due to personality traits of the individual entrepreneurs rather than due to their affluence or influence. It is the entrepreneur's social skills -- specific traits that help them interact effectively and personably with others -- that play a dominant role in their success. Economic capital does help but, oftentimes, too it may hinder, since companies that are flush with the money spend it too easily and fail to innovate. It is past experience, ability to deal with people, the skill in reading other's accurately, being able to make a favorable first impression, being flexible, and adaptable to a wide range of social situations that can most help individuals in making that important first impression and in influencing the quality of their business interactions later on. In other words, it is not so much external characteristics that help one succeed but rather internal characteristics that are, most times, innate or that can be acquired through persistence and will.

Current times give us a far greater opportunity than ever before to practice these innate characteristics and to side-step deprivation of birth or fate. Potential employers may, and do, evaluate others based on external characteristics of socio-economic strata, gender, race, and so forth. Tendency to do so will, quite likely, continue despite national rules and regulations to the contrary. One who is determined, however, to pursue his dream and pursue a certain career can more confidently step in that direction by taking a non-conventional route such as becoming an entrepreneur, starting his or her own business and/or using the Internet. The Internet enables one to assume a guise where oen can transcend limitations of context and space and, using one's skills, market one's capacities (product or service) to others. Opportunities such as entrepreneurship and the Internet focus more on merit-based work or production than on extrinsic properties and these enable the individual to side-step potential limitations.