It's Who You Know

A big part of the ongoing job search is perusing all those Web sites that offer career advice. One of the things I keep coming across is, apparently, job search LAW: To find the job you want, you have to "network."

Now, I understand the truth behind that. I've experienced it. Other than my first job in journalism, a part-time gig with the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 22 years ago, every meaningful job I've had came to me as a result of a phone call from someone I knew. Of course, the only meaningful job I've had since then was with the Tribune. I got that job when a guy named Ernest Hooper called me and asked if I wanted to apply. Hooper had seen my work with the St. Pete Times and thought I'd be a good fit at the Trib. A month after I was hired at the Trib, we bid a fond farewell to Hooper ... who jumped ship for the Times.

OK. So, I know from experience it's not what you know, it's who you know. Yet, with every fiber of my being I detest that unfortunate truism. It SHOULD NOT be about who you know. It should be ALL ABOUT how well you could perform the tasks inherent to the position in question. Of course, I understand that in order to acquire the position, the candidate must acquire a level of trust from the person doing the hiring. And who do we trust? The people we know.

But that kind of cronyism limits the field, does it not? If I were a hiring manager, I wouldn't want to trim the field based on whether a candidate once went out for beers with me or was a groomsman or bride's maid at the assistant editor's wedding. I'd want the best person I could find. I'd want someone with a proven background of accomplishment. Someone who had demonstrated a high aptitude for the type of work in question.

In other words, the best person available.

That's not how it works, though. If I don't send out e-mails and make phone calls and have lunches with people who might be able to help me land the kind of job I need to support my family, I don't stand a chance in hell of landing that job. I'd rather apply for a position and be allowed to sell myself as the best candidate based on my qualifications, not based on whether I went to school with the executive vice president's nephew.

So, anyway ... I guess I'd better get going on these novels I'm supposed to be writing.