…mounting evidence produced by labor economists [shows] just how important it is for current graduates to ignore the old-school advice of trying to get ahead by working one’s way up the ladder. Instead, it seems, graduates should try to do exactly the thing the older generation bemoans — aim for the top.

The recent evidence shows quite clearly that in today’s economy starting at the bottom is a recipe for being underpaid for a long time to come. Graduates’ first jobs have an inordinate impact on their career path and their “future income stream,” as economists refer to a person’s earnings over a lifetime.

So says Austan Goolsbee, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, in this article from the New York Times.