How big is the role of luck in career success?
Luck plays a significant and often underestimated role in career success, starting from birth. Warren Buffett has referred to it as winning the “ovarian lottery” by being born in America at the right time and having the right qualities for success in a market economy. Physical attractiveness is associated with higher salaries and a higher likelihood of being selected for interviews during the hiring process. Your experiences of discrimination are influenced by your circumstances of birth.
Chance often plays a role in the early stages of a career, such as having an encouraging boss or being assigned a project that leads to unexpected but defining opportunities. Even in the most rational professions, luck can shape career paths. A study conducted in 2022 by Qi Ge of Vassar College and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College found that economists with names that are harder to pronounce, even within their own ethnic groups, were less likely to secure academic positions or obtain tenure-track positions.
Names can also have an impact on economists in other ways. Another study by Liran Einav of Stanford University and Leeat Yariv, now of Princeton University, discovered that faculty members with surnames that appear earlier in the alphabet were more likely to receive tenure at top departments. This effect is attributed to the fact that authors of economics papers are typically listed alphabetically.
2023-10-19 07:32:02
Original from www.economist.com
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