Don’t Say ‘Elite’: Corporate Firms’ New Pitch Is Meritocracy

If you ask a graduating M.B.A. student, a prep school guidance counselor or the internet how to be hired at the global consulting firm McKinsey, you’re likely to find a list of prestigious “target schools” where it has consistently aimed its recruiting efforts. You know the ones — Harvard, Yale, Stanford.

But these days, McKinsey would prefer a different answer. “Exceptional can come from anywhere,” its career website says. And then, in case that wasn’t clear enough, “We hire people, not degrees,” and also, “We believe in your potential, regardless of your pedigree.”

Katy George, Mckinsey’s chief people officer, told Fortune last year that the firm had increased the number of schools that its new hires came from to 1,500 from about 700, part of its process of “pivoting from pedigree to potential.”

Many companies are working toward a similar makeover.

“Elite” has never sat well with many American institutions, but the word has taken a particular beating in recent years. On the 2016 campaign trail, Donald J. Trump used the label practically as an insult; the Black Lives Matter movement drew attention to racial disparities along the path to people becoming rich and powerful; and debates over free speech and safe spaces on college campuses transformed into hot-button issues, leading to opinion essays with headlines like “Elite Universities Are Out of Touch” and “Why I Stopped Hiring Ivy League Graduates.”

The legitimacy of traditional markers of brilliance, like an Ivy League diploma, are being questioned. And so, companies have had to come up with other ways to convey to recruits, investors and customers that they’re not just ticking boxes that may be outdated — their talent is truly the most talented. Broadening the recruiting net fits the bill, but may come with some of the same shortcomings as previous strategies.

One way companies have tried to highlight the fairness of their recruiting practices took off in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, when they doubled down on emphasizing a commitment to “diversity, equity and inclusion.” Companies hired D.E.I. officers in droves and published accountability reports.