Social networks have been identified as the key reason why young people from affluent backgrounds secure more jobs in popular professions than poorer peers. A report by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) finds that informal recruitment through word-of-mouth is particularly prevalent in the creative industries such as advertising, architecture, design, publishing and journalism, where the cliché that "it's not what you know but who you know" appears to ring true. The research suggests that networks are much more important than unpaid internships, which are often highlighted as inaccessible to those from poorer backgrounds.
The Guardian, December 2010
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