Bachelor's in International relations. Graduated Summa cum Laude and inducted to the national honor fraternity Phi Beta Kappa.

It is all about smarts, check out my linkedin profile. I have been getting job offers weekly from linkedin because it works!

Oh Linkedin. It claims we need a connection in common before i can view your profile...

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.

People who have been on the other side of the hiring decision don't think this way ...

It is easy to lie on a resume, you can fake external references, and it is often difficult to get a meaningful impression of someone from a job interview. When someone you trust vouching for a family member/friend/co-worker goes a long way towards proving that you can trust them too.

Beyond that, a lot of jobs are created for people because people know they can solve a particular problem. You may work at a company and notice they need some sort of Business Analyst but it is nearly impossible to convince anyone to hire a BA; but if you present it as "I used to work with a great BA and they were able to solve the exact same problem we're having in my previous company" it is pretty easy to get the job created.

I got my current job through networking and other connections. Guess I'm just a cheater and I didn't deserve it at all.

Ironically, I bet you get hired by someone who is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Then we'll see how your stances on networking changes.

What? This here thread was the reason for your ban?

Seems like you're trying to play the victim here...

Surely, you can think of a bigger picture, why your ban was deserved.

A bunch of sore losers in this thread that went Obama to come to their house and get them a job...

Not really.

It's not just about te big personalities, it's mainly about ho you've worked with ad who you know. I'm nowhere ear a type A personality but I have a great network. My wife is a consultant and has contacts pretty much everywhere n the Dallas area. If she likes you, as in you cando your job, she will find you a job.

The key thing here is you have to be actually good at your job in order to really take advantage of the networking.