Have you ever been asked WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO? I was once asked this in a high-stakes job interview and my answer was that of a startled rabbit caught in the headlights before becoming squashed roadkill on the highway to hell. Nobody has asked me that question before or since. How can such a simple question be so difficult to answer?
WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO? is a Big Friendly Question (BFQ) that triggered lots more questions in my head rather than a composed answer from my mouth. My brain started work on Questioning The Friendly Question (QTFQ):
- Why was the interviewer asking, when I could see him reading it off the top of my CV from across the table?
- How the hell was the school I attended relevant to my suitability for the role?
- Was this a friendly warm-up question, an innocent icebreaker or a inappropriately tricky tiebreaker to sort the men from the boys and the women from the girls?
- Was the purpose of the interview to enable someone in the Human Resources department to cynically tick some state school box for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) before abandoning me by the roadside as unfortunate (but deliberate) interview roadkill?
- If I’m just here to make up the numbers, maybe the interviewer would like to know where they could shove their stupid question and the interview with it?
Years later, I still can’t decide what to make of the WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO interview question. If you were asked this question in a high-stakes job interview what would your answer be?
This is my answer.
Beware of the heavily loaded juggernaut
The heavily loaded question of WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO is a very personal one. The personal is political and the political is often provocative. It proved to be a fatally political question in a Great Gatsby Scholarship interview I had for a DPhil at the University of Oxford. I wasn’t expecting the question or the abusive reply to my bewildered (but factually correct) answer. As with many job interviews, there was a big power imbalance between the interviewer and the interviewee. The Professor interviewing me was a member of some exclusively professional gentlemen’s clubs in London. One of these clubs serves as UK’s National Academy of Sciences (the royalsociety.org) whose members, or Fellows (as they like to be called), use the letters FRS after their names. Alan Turing, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren and Stephen Hawking were all FRS alongside 8,000 other fellows in total. Around 80% of Royal Society fellows are no longer with us, which is why they are sometimes called the Dead Scientists Society. To keep themselves relevant in the land of the living, they invite around 60 new fellows to join their esteemed club every year. Although the society started as the oldest of old boy networks for scientists back in 1660, women started joining relatively recently in 1945. Newer members include Nobel laureates like Jennifer Doudna and Demis Hassabis (of Google DeepMind) alongside business leaders like Elon Musk, although his fellowship (like most things he does) is controversial. There is still lots more work to be done improving diversity at the Royal Society, because only 12% of their ~1,800 living fellows are female. (1)
The other professional club my interviewer sported membership of was another exclusive invitation-only outfit, let’s call it the Imperial Club. As a Commander of the British Empire CBE, this Professor was awarded a premium Imperial Club membership by the royal family alongside 99 other newly appointed commanders each year. Diversity in the Imperial Club is actually a bit better than that of the Royal Society (and certainly the royal family), but still not generally particularly representative of society as a whole. (2)
The odds are about 5:1 that my interviewer was also a member of the 7% club (6), that’s the elite minority group of the UK population who are privately educated by one of our formidable Engines of Privilege. (7) But who knows? This Professor was justifiably proud to be a Fellow the Royal Society (FRS) and a commanding member of the Imperial Club (CBE), because they are both significant awards in their own right. Only about 0.002% of the UK population are deemed worthy of the award of club membership. (8) Membership of these London clubs does not come easy because the bouncers working the doors are notoriously powerful, opinionated and they love a good fight. They don’t fight with their fists, they wage war in words. If your name isn’t down on their closely guarded list, you’re not coming in. The Professor interviewing me was down on the list and up there in career clubbers heaven with other Gods because he was appointed CBE by Queen Elizabeth II. That same Queen (and her son King Charles III) were appointed to their posts as head of state by God using a special hat – so I’m literally only three steps from God:
- ✞ God
- step one takes you from God to:
- 👑 The Queen (or The King)
- step two takes you from the reigning monarch to:
- 🎓 The Professor
- step three takes you from the Professor to:
- 😀 Me
Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! Alternatively, if you’re an agnostic republican like me who can’t tolerate watching any more nonsense on the premium subscription channel Monarchy+, at least show some R.E.S.P.E.C.T. in this High Temple of Science. Despite my republican agnosticism combined with a healthy dose of scepticism, I dress appropriately, take my metaphorical shoes off and respectfully leave them by the door of the interview room. I am grateful, incredibly lucky and immensely privileged to have this unique once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of an interview and I really wanted to make the most of it. Bring it on!
Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell?
In stark contrast to my interviewer, the only letters I had after my name were the humble BSc (Hons). That’s a Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Sciences with Industrial Experience, also known as a year in industry. On being asked WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO, the letters BSc (Hons) were rapidly followed by a collection of other post-nominals including:
WTF?OMGFFS!
The only clubs I was a member of at the time were the climbing club and the all inclusive 93% club, a group for the overwhelming majority of the UK population educated in state schools. The 93% club didn’t actually exist back then but I’m really glad it exists now.
While I ended up as yet more roadkill on the interview highway to hell, just another casualty of the Oxford juggernaut, I learned a painful, humiliating but important lesson about pride, or what 93% clubbers call State School Pride. (9) That’s a badge I’d been wary of because my mum, a very wise and stoic woman that I love and listen to, warned me about pride. “Pride comes before a fall, Duncan” – she said. She’s right, especially when you see how the proud have fallen, all those privately educated cocksure Oxford graduates. The likes of Blair, Cameron, Johnson and Sunak haven’t exactly showered themselves in glory since graduating have they? When it comes to school badges, some of the alternatives to the pride badge are:
- 📛 State School Fear
- 📛 State School Loathing
- 📛 State School Shame
- 📛 State School Embarassment
- 📛 State School Inferiority complex
- 📛 State School Impostor syndrome
- 📛 State School Taboo: It’s a bit awkward, so let’s change the subject shall we?
I’ve worn all those school badges and even been employed as a Science teacher in secondary schools that are accused of minting them such as the (supposed) Scumbag College. If you’re not familiar with the infamous College, it’s a bog standard comprehensive state school in AnyTown, AnyWhere which feeds into another (supposed) Scumbag College, part of the University of AnyCity. These school badges are uncomfortable to wear, they don’t look good and they don’t help you, the school or the University you attended make a useful contribution to society. If you’re a state schooler like me, I don’t recommend wearing any of them unless you want to become squashed roadkill too.
If you haven’t already, you should burn these badges immediately and replace them with your State School Pride badge! 🏳️🌈
Whatever school badge you decide to wear, the education your school(s) gave you is a paradox. It’s both incredibly relevant and completely irrelevant on your CV and in job interviews. My state schooling, funded by the taxpayer, was relevant because I’d been invited to interview thanks to years of hard work by my teachers. If it wasn’t for the teachers who patiently taught me (and my friends and my siblings) during thirteen years of primary and secondary school education I wouldn’t have been able to express myself to create a CV accompanied by a persuasive covering letter that convinced decision makers to interview me. If it wasn’t for my maths and science teachers, I would never have been able to study Science at University in the first place. My Mancunian teachers at the University of Manchester extended this education, building on the foundations of my compulsory state school education.
But at the same time, that very same education was completely irrelevant, it should not affect how I was treated. Should it have even been an interview question at all?
In its defence, WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO is an open-ended question that invites the interviewee to challenge the authority of the interviewer. There are many possible answers to choose from including: Why the hell are you asking me that? I didn’t have either the guts or the gift of the gab to think of that under pressure. Rabbit. Headlights. Roadkill. On the other hand the irrelevance of the question will probably make the admissions and HR department blush because it doesn’t comply with their new EDI policy. 😳
The school anybody went to shouldn’t be a factor in either being invited to interview or being offered a job. With help from Viktor Polyakov and Ellie Wardrope, I recorded a video testimonial to that effect last month at the Founding Member’s Reception in Manchester of the 93percent.club. Thanks to Sophie Pender, Imogen Carr and Lorna Culpin for inviting me to (and hosting) the reception at ey.com. I had a blast, it was good to speak to you Conor Churchman from ada.ac.uk, the National College for Digital Skills, Sarah Mohammed-Qureshi from the University of Law and Benjamin Hobbs from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. I’m looking forward seeing you again and meeting more kindred spirits at future events online and in person. 🙏
Answer The Friendly Question (ATFQ)
So I need to practice what I preach by doing what I tell my students to do: Answer The Friendly Question ATFQ after carefully Reading The Friendly Question RTFQ …
SO, WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO? It’s not really any of my business and certainly won’t affect how I treat you. Wider society may differ so there’s an argument for making whatever kind of education you’ve had another protected characteristic. (10) Just as your age, your race, your religion or beliefs, your sexual orientation, your gender, your disabilities, your marriage or civil partnership, your pregnancy and maternity, your education should not determine how you are treated either. These characteristics are covered by the Equality Act of 2010. Your education (private or state) is your own business, and you probably didn’t have that much say in which school you went to anyway.
What I definitely care about 100%, is the school I went to, especially when asked in a high-stakes job interview where my reply is mocked by the abusive and memorable comment:
“I’VE NEVER HEARD OF IT”!
At this point, my dæmon (that rabbit I was talking about) died a quick but horrible bloody death and although the interview continued, I was barely able to function, let alone be my very best. The education we receive is an integral part of who we are and what makes us, so when someone demeans it, its like they’ve had a head-on collision with your soul. Juggernauts and rabbits don’t work well together. 🐰
I’m lucky and privileged to have attended the kind of state schools that never held me back and got me, my friends and my siblings to wherever we wanted to go. Thank you Fitzmaurice Primary School and St. Laurence School. Thanks to my amazing state school teachers and thousands more professionals just like them working incredibly hard in an increasingly challenging state sector to educate EVERYONE inclusively across the UK:
- regardless of their socio-economic background
- regardless of their ability to pass an extrance exam
- regardless of their families ability to pay the school fees, with or without VAT (11)
- regardless of their families ability to live in the catchment area of the “right” school
- regardless of their ability to win competitive scholarships, assisted places or other bursaries
That’s an extraordinarily diverse group of millions of students in state schools across the UK. I’m proud be one of them. I’m proud to be a card-carrying, badge-wearing, box-ticking, word-spreading and founding member of the UK’s least exclusive members club: the 93percent.club. 💪
Join us in tackling inequality across the UK
Not everyone educated in the state sector gets the headstart in life that I did. (10) As the former Education secretary Justine Greening once put it, talent is spread evenly but opportunity is not. (12) There is a class ceiling to accompany the glass ceiling which prevents many students educated in the state sector from getting the opportunities they deserve. (13) That’s just plain wrong. It’s indefensible. It’s immoral and it’s an injustice. Unfortunately, the UK is still a country where the school you went to definitely counts, and the higher you want to go in pretty much any profession, the more it will tend to matter. Your education has a huge influence on how society treats you but unfortunately our educational system in the UK is riddled with inequality from the bottom up to the very top. The Elitist Britain report by Martina Milburn and Peter Lampl at the Social Mobility Commission and Sutton Trust provides an unappetising taster of the scale of the problem we face. (14)
Would you like to help us tackle inequality through the power of our community? Would you like to empower state-educated students by giving them access to more social capital, better opportunities, improved careers advice and more mentoring? By bringing together thousands of like-minded individuals across the country, we are breaking down the structural barriers to social mobility and building a future that’s fairer for the next generation. Find out how to join at 93percent.club/join
If you’re a student studying at a University in the UK, see if your Students’ Union has a 93% club, for example you could join:
- Manchester manchesterstudentsunion.com/activities/view/93club
- Durham durhamsu.com/groups/93-club-durham
- Oxford oxfordsu.org/get-involved/clubs-and-societies/join/20312/
- Cambridge linkedin.com/company/the93clubcambridge
- Imperial College London linktr.ee/93clubimperial
If your Students’ Union doesn’t have a 93% club yet, why don’t you start one?
P.S. Sophie, speaking of word-spreading, when is the next episode of the WHAT SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO podcast due? It’s been a while… (15)
Epilogue
POST PUBLICATION UPDATE № 1: Several readers of this article have pointed out that the abuse I received is mild compared to the daily torrent of invective and unfair treatment they are subjected to as a non-male, non-white, non-heterosexual, non-middle class, non-binary, non-Southern English, non-privileged, non-RP, non-whatever person. I agree with you. I’m definitely not claiming to be an excluded member of any under-represented, marginalised or minority group. Thanks to all those readers for correcting what I’d initially overlooked from my self-confessed position of middle-class middle-England mediocre male white privilege. I’m doubly, triply or quadruply lucky that I don’t have to deal with anything like the same level of abuse and unfairness that many of you routinely do every single day. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must be like, I am definitely not claiming to “feel your pain”. Maybe (just maybe) I got the faintest whiff of it for a few minutes in a high-stakes job interview that didn’t go my way. So, yes abuse and unfairness might be an all too familar stench to you, but it was a new and unexpected odour for me at the time in the circumstances. Just sayin’
POST PUBLICATION UPDATE № 2: A lot of abusive and unfair behaviour is not reported and goes on behind closed doors. The incident described above took place behind a closed door because it was a one-to-one interview, part two in a series of three. The other two interviews were much smoother, they must have been using the classic good cop, bad cop interrogation technique to give me a good grilling. I dealt with the fallout of this bad cop interview as many people do using the Chris McCauseland method of: “I take every emotion, I dig a big hole, bury it in the ground and then I build a car park on top of it.” I didn’t report or reflect on the experience very much, because it was too painful to do so and I blamed myself for my stoopid stoopid naive rookie interview technique. Other than briefly discussing it with close family and friends, it has been buried deep in my subconscious for 27 years. A bit like 28 Years Later, it re-emerged uninvited after a period of dormancy. So if you think I’m woefully ignorant of all the horrendous abuse and unfairness going on in the big bad world, I disagree. A big part of the problem is that people don’t talk about it, myself included. If you’re able to talk about it, don’t be yet another one of those people who buries bad behaviour . 🤦♀️
O'Really? 