It's all about who you know, not what you know.

How many times have you heard this phrase?

In other words, the rumor is that if you don't know the right people, you can't get anywhere.

Don't buy into this rumor.

Sure, there might be instances where you have to know the right person to get your foot in the door and there are certainly times when knowing someone might be the only way you can get hired with a particular company.

Certainly there are instances where a new manager gets rid of existing staff and brings "their own people” (ie. their friends) in to replace them. Fortunately this tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

I've often found that the "it's not what you know it's who you know” rumor gets started by underachieving people who look to make excuses for their own lack of success.

Even if it is true, I've always thought that I probably wouldn't really be interested to work for a company anyways if the only way to get hired is simply by knowing the right person.

Hiring people based on who they know rather than what they know is not the way to build a strong company so I wouldn't be too disappointed if you find that you're not part of a clique and can't get hired by such a company.

You probably don't want to work for them long term if that's the way they hire staff anyways.

In my experience, smart companies simply try to find the best person available for the job. No hiring manager wants to make a mistake hiring the wrong person (ie. hiring a friend) because of the hassle and cost of getting rid of someone who doesn't work

Don't let other people dissuade you from applying for a company based on this rumor either. As a recruiter, part of my job is separating fact from fiction and I've heard too much false information spread about companies that morphs into fact when in fact it is totally fiction.

When accepting advice from other people, always consider the source and take it with a grain of salt. Don't let others discourage you from attaining your goals.

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