Networking = Cheating

[Cobretti2]

kowenicki said:

Mr Khan said:

maverick40 said:

Mr Khan said:

More or less self-explanatory thread (or, Mr Khan's job-searching rant thread number three).

Networking is cheating. It's modern-day croneyism built into a system that favors insiders and people who know people, heavily favoring so-called "type A" personalities and more extroverted individuals, and overlooking any individuals who worked hard to get where they were but weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths or didn't room with the right guy in college.

When someone gets a job by networking, a more deserving person loses out. Therefore, networking to get a job is cheating, and sites like LinkedIn should be outlawed.

What a terrible and baseless argument. The better person will always get the job,simple as that. If you are not smart enough to network properly then you don't deserve the job. 

I have a job interview next week which I got from networking. That doesn't mean I have the job, it just means my CV landed on the right pile and so the HR manager liked my CV, thus giving me the interview. It is now totally up to me to get that job. 

 

Your argument fails on so many levels it is hilarious. If you have this bitter stance when you are applying for jobs, good luck beating the others guys. 

Networking isn't about smarts. It's all about luck.

I think you are confusing networking with cronyism and nepotism still.  I wasn't in a network when I stated out in work. I got into various networks and this helped me.  Is that luck?  When I go to networking opportunities, often nobody there know anyone else. It's about sharing ideas, making contacts and helping each other out with ideas and hopefully work. It isn't a load of pals meeting up to stitch up the rest of society.

For all your qualifications, you have a lot to learn. I see this so often when interviewing graduates. No. I'm not a "hiring manager", I'm the owner.

Damn as I finally got to the last page of this thread you beat me to the answer I wanted to give, as indeed he is confusing cronyism and nepotism with networking.

 

Mr Khan, i'll tell you my work story.

 

in 2005 I needed to do work experience in order to graduate. However because my degree major wasn't something common in my state, the only way I could get work experience was through a connection my mum had with her boss. Her boss spoke to another company that he previously worked at and they offered me work experience. In that job I proved myself and continued to work part time whilst I did my final year of computer systems engineering. However the job I was doing still wasn't exactly engineering, but more IT.

2007 - When I went to look for a full time job, a recruiter told me good luck move to another state as my degree will not get me employment here. 

However i did not give up. One day i went to visit a mate at lunch time and we were jsut catching up on what he was doing at work then the HR manager walked past us and she asked me what I am doing and I said looking for a job. She asked me why I didn't apply with them for the graduate program, I said because my degree wasnt in electrical engineering. She said it didn't matter and that they would offer additional training. So I applied and got the job. They provided me with the training (back to uni to do extra electrical unit) and that was it. I switched fields effectively.

end of 2010 - Then a restructure happened and a lot of peple got cut. The most senior engineer in that company tried his best to get me to stay, but the new general manager (AKA tool cutter)  wanted everyone on contracts to be gone to cut costs. The only reason he did that is because every morning I would simply say hello to him and because i come up with this new concept of mapping risk and outages of customers on supply. rather than purely asset outages. The guy eventually chose to retire as him and the new GM never agreed.

At this point I had a nice nest egg of cash as I didn't take any holiday leave,  so I applied for a few jobs not caring if I get them or not. Got a few responses saying not expeirenced enough as need minimum 7 years. Decided to spend the time just chilling for a few months as I still had the cash.

Then suddenly early 2011 I got a call from a recruiter saying someone recommended you to me. I was like ok...... confused..... as I wasn't looking.

She found three jobs that would be suitable for me. I said sure I want to apply. I applied, got all threee to offer me something and I took the best offer.

Now the recommendation for my second full time job come from networking. Someone I helped out solve something during a training course we both attended. It is not like we were good friends and even kept in touch for that matter, but because I helped, he thought of me. At this point any contacts I make I try to keep in touch with as much as possible as you never know.