Pity the public school graduates who overcome a cocktail of disadvantage and reduced opportunities, only to have their resumes thrown into the discard pile, writes Rebecca Douglas.

My western suburbs high school proudly displayed its motto on a metal sign out the front. "PATHWAY TO SUCCESS," it proclaimed, or would have if a few strategic letters had not been scratched off by some joker. Instead, the sign proclaimed: "PATHWAY TO CES" (or "Commonwealth Employment Service", Centrelink's old moniker).

The dole was apparently all we could aspire to with such an inauspicious educational launch pad.

The school had such illustrious alumni as footballer Malcolm Blight and, uh, some guy who played soccer for Australia once. The teachers were split between the earnest ones battling the system and the ones who wished they were working somewhere better.

Resources were modest, at best. Despite touting ourselves as a technology-focused school, our computers appeared to be hand-me-downs from Fred Flintstone. Yessiree, it was quite the bastion of educational excellence. Yabba-dabba-do.

I may joke at my school's expense, but I've always been proud that I came from a public school and that I've succeeded (well, in the sense that I'm not dependent on the good ol' CES, at least) both despite and because of doing it tough back then. Public school can foster a hunger and self-reliance private school kids have likely not had to strive for to get ahead.

As for how it's affected my career, I'd hoped and imagined that if having a public school on my CV ever cost me a job interview, there would be other recruiters (probably old scholars of the public system themselves) giving me mad props for my achievements and placing my resume at the top of the pile. In short, I'd hoped that bias worked both ways.

That is, until a recent conversation shook this belief to its core.

While out on an innocent dinner with a pair of fellow law school graduates, both products of elite private schools, conversation turned to the recruitment of final-year law students as clerks at my friend's firm. This is an important process, as a clerkship can mean the difference between scoring a plum job at a big-name firm and indefinite time lost in the wilderness of unemployment after graduation. As you'd expect, competition between candidates is fierce.

My friend's firm had been inundated by applications and had chosen to filter them by insisting on grades of at least a distinction average (fair enough) and by eliminating all the public school applicants, regardless of merit (very much not). Apparently the reasoning was that private school kids would likely have connections that could benefit the firm. My other friend chimed in to say that her employer had taken the same approach. Both ladies, being good sorts, were suitably offended by this injustice, but didn't quite reach the levels of blind rage I managed to conjure.

Now, I'm certainly not naïve enough to believe the legal profession is immune to classism in recruiting, but I'd always chosen to believe this was the exception, not the rule. My friend's revelation had me wondering how widespread this discrimination is across not just the legal profession, but recruitment as a whole.

The reality is, public school students start behind the eight ball before they even enter the job market. Unsurprisingly, their private school counterparts are more likely to finish year 12 and attend university. If they manage to reach university, however, the tables start to turn. Research has shown students from public schools actually perform better, relying on the self-motivation that got them there in the first place.

But this comeback of the educational underdogs could be all for nought if potential employers won't even give their resumes a look-in. Surely students who somehow manage to overcome a cocktail of socioeconomic disadvantage, reduced opportunities and limited school resources, and transcend their public school beginnings won't, after all that, be auto-filtered out the door when they apply for jobs?

That's the question. Employers would hardly be falling over themselves to admit to private school bias, but if the Coalition's shadow cabinet is anything to go by, the old school tie is still alive and well in Australia.

In May, Paul Malone reported for The Canberra Times that if Abbott keeps his current line-up, it would be the most "unrepresentative, elite-school ministry ever". Educational equality be damned.

But I'm old school, not old school tie. I believe that educational and career success should be determined by ability and hard work, not wealth and family background. If the rest of Australia believes that as well, perhaps an example needs to be set at the top that recruitment should be fair and balanced.

Public school kids thought they'd studied and strived to set themselves on a pathway to success, not the CES. But perhaps in real life and recruitment, it's all about how you're labelled and heaven help you if there's a rusty sign out the front.

Rebecca Douglas is a freelance writer from Adelaide whose work has appeared in a variety of magazines and online publications. View her full profile here.

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