It’s an open secret: having connections helps you get a job. This is a reality known to all workers and young workers are no exception to the rule. According to a study by the social network LinkedIn and the CSA Institute revealed by BFMTV this Thursday, 93% of working people aged 18 to 24 consider it important, even essential, to have a professional network. But 80% of them add that their lack of network deprives them of opportunities on the job market. Is the piston necessary to find a place in the world of work? Are young people more affected by this phenomenon than other workers? 20 minutes examines these questions, thanks to the light of the sociologist of work Djaouidah Séhili.
Are the network and the pistons still essential for a career?
For more than 80% of Generation Z, the professional network is synonymous with development and career opportunity. The job market is particularly competitive in France and even more so for young workers. In France, “the youth unemployment rate is high [17,8 %] and above the OECD average,” noted the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in its Employment Outlook 2022. Young working people must therefore stand out from their classmates in order to get a job.
As noted Pôle Emploi website, “in the current economic context, calling on your network (…) means putting the odds on your side to get a job”. “This is not a new problem”, immediately poses Djaouidah Séhili, university professor and sociologist of work. “The novelty is perhaps that young people are aware that their professional integration depends on their network – or rather that of their parents and relatives – more than on their qualifications and/or skills”, explains the specialist.
Because, with equal qualifications, the employer will often favor the daughter of a classmate, the recommendation of an employee or the nephew of his childhood friend rather than a stranger. This is even more true for accessing “hidden” offers, that is to say offers that do not go through the usual recruitment channels. In some areas, job offers are not published and recruitment is mainly by cooptation. According to a study by Randstad published in June 2022the “invisible” market thus represented 84% of recruitments for administrative staff positions or 90% of reception staff between the first quarter of 2021 and the first months of 2022. but it is customary and having a network is, in part, “essential” for a career,” sums up Djaouidah Séhili.
How is cooptation problematic?
80% of the young people questioned in the study believe that their lack of network deprives them of opportunities on the job market. To be co-opted, you have to know people. However, it is obvious that a young active whose parents are recognized in the world of art and who is looking for a job in this field will leave much more advantaged than a son of workers, for example. “We no longer count the number of young people who have to postpone years because they have not found a professional place as part of their training or apprenticeship when they and they had validated their year by their results”, illustrates Djaouidah Séhili .
Co-optation therefore allows for social reproduction. And comes on top of a myriad of discriminations that already exist on the job market. If you don’t have a professional network, you are at a disadvantage. But if you don’t have a professional network and you’re a woman, you’re even more so. “It is a use which, obviously since men occupy the most senior positions, benefits men more than women”, deciphers the sociologist of work. Co-optation then becomes another form of discrimination, to be added to those that already exist in the workplace, such as sexual orientation, origin or disability.
In today’s workplace, “you are placed more than you actually place yourself”. The use of the piston or co-optation makes it possible to “rank” young people who nevertheless have the same qualifications and the same diploma elsewhere. “Society is hierarchical and these selective processes allow its reproduction”, explains Djaouidah Séhili.
How to compensate for a lack of network?
“It’s not up to young people to compensate for their lack of family networks”, notes the sociologist of work who adds that this would amount to a “reversal of the stigma” which would consist in saying to young working people: “Come on, move a little, do get out of the network and you will find or progress in your job, cross the street”. In The forms of capital in 1986, Pierre Bourdieu established the different types of capital.
He explained that social capital, which makes it possible to rely on one’s network, also makes it possible to raise one’s economic or cultural capital. Co-option is an example of this social reproduction. Having connections not only allows access to a job interview but also to have advice and even self-confidence. For 42% of young people questioned in the study, their professional network is a source of trust and encourages them to apply for positions for which they would not otherwise have felt legitimate.
Generation Z is particularly aware of the inequalities created by the professional network. 80% of young working people believe that they do not have access to a whole part of the job market and that others benefit from better opportunities thanks to a better professional network. Against less than two-thirds of active people over 50 years old. Without or with very little experience, young professionals sell themselves more easily with the recommendation of a relative than with their diplomas. Moreover, the LinkedIn study shows it well: 61% of young people questioned admit to having resorted to co-option in order to find an internship, an apprenticeship or a job.