PAYING IT FORWARD
King’s Alumni Fight the Network Gap BY JOHANNA LEE ’13
Waliullah (“Wali”) Hairan ’15 and Fawzi Itani ’14 are working on online solutions to address disparities in employment opportunities for young people not born into powerful social networks.
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few months before his graduation from Connecticut College with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Wali Hairan ’15 was stuck. While many of his peers were securing interviews for postgraduation jobs, he hadn’t even begun applying. Hairan has always had enterprising ways. As an eight-year-old living in a remote village in northeastern Afghanistan, he called upon the few words in English he had picked up while living in a refugee camp in Pakistan to befriend some Americans. These Americans, Bruce and Dana Freyer, helped Hairan apply to high schools across the world, with King’s Academy as his final selection. At King’s, Hairan flourished, immersing himself in the rigorous academic environment that contrasted sharply with his earlier education. In 14
BEYOND KING’S
his home village, there was no school. Hairan would walk 10 kilometers to attend a school that served several neighboring villages. Books and stationery were in short supply, and many of the teachers had not completed high school themselves. After volunteering with the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) at King’s, Hairan launched an educational afterschool program in his village. The program achieved its modest goal of sparking intellectual curiosity and motivation in the students of his hometown. He is quick to point out, however, that intellect and drive aren’t enough to guarantee a successful career — as he found out for himself when facing down the job hunt. “If you’re born into a wealthy family, you have a huge leg up in terms of finding a job after graduation,” says Hairan. “You’re either born into a profession or you’re born into a network.
Hairan receiving an award for his work on a project at eBay
But if you’re coming from a poor and underprivileged background, you don’t know how the professional world works. You don’t even know how to approach the job market; you’re scared.” This leg up is referred to as the network gap by the professional networking platform LinkedIn. Fawzi Itani ’14, a senior talent solutions consultant at LinkedIn, describes the network gap as having “self-perpetuating” effects on the hiring process.
“The tendency for many companies is to hire through a referral network: college, family, hometown, high school or others,” Itani says. “Often, we tend to hire people who look like us, who come from the same socioeconomic background, who played the same sports, and so on.” Taking a small step to alleviate the network gap, LinkedIn announced in September 2019 that it was unveiling the “Plus One Pledge”: a commitment for LinkedIn employees to reach beyond their networks and provide professional mentoring. Hairan stumbled into the Plus One Pledge by chance. While searching through job postings on LinkedIn, he saw a post by LinkedIn employee Stephanie Harrison, offering her help. Hairan reached out, and Harrison quickly took him under her wing. Although she didn’t have a technical background, she demystified the application process, helped Hairan with his resume and introduced him to engineers in her network. His confidence skyrocketed. He secured interviews with Google, Amazon, Facebook and Instagram before accepting an offer as a software engineer at eBay. Reflecting on how much his life had changed with the help of the Freyers and Harrison, Hairan realized the power of a strong social network. He resolved to pay forward his lucky breaks by creating a mentoring
platform for young people from backgrounds similar to his own. “If it had not been for a miraculous series of events, I would not have been here,” he says. “There exists a huge need for mentoring for people with my background, but such a platform doesn’t exist. These are kids who have the intelligence and the skills, they just lack confidence and knowledge of the marketplace.”
Reflecting on how much his life had changed with the help of the Freyers and Harrison, Hairan realized the power of a strong social network. He resolved to pay forward his lucky breaks by creating a mentoring platform for young people from backgrounds similar to his own.
Coding the platform in his free time, Hairan is designing it to connect underserved students with working professionals in the field they seek to enter. The platform will also provide resources to guide students
through the application process, such as advice about how to reach out for informational interviews. Hairan’s goal for the platform is to place at least 500 students in good positions at large tech firms across the United States, and then expand the platform to other professional fields. Itani has already signed up as a mentor, as have several other King’s alumni. “Don’t be afraid to reach out,” Itani advises college students who are intimidated by the prospect of expanding their professional networks. “Some people won’t answer, but many will. Do your research and prepare questions as to why you want to have this conversation and the passion around your own brand and work.” Hairan emphasizes to those who are unsure of how to approach the job search that they should be confident in themselves; they are no less capable or smart simply because they don’t have the same network as many of their peers. “Instead of getting upset about this imposter syndrome, why don’t we just help some other people,” he suggests. “That way, instead of just Harvard and MIT populating the entirety of the tech world, you’ve got these people who are equally as intelligent, equally as smart, equally as driven, as ambitious. The difference between them working next to me on a platform like eBay and somebody else is just that they were so scared, they didn’t know what to do.” SPRING 2020
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