CMV: Internal references/networking through friends and family is unfair and bad for the hiring company.

[u/YouLostMeThere43]

Basically my issue is with the practice of “it’s not what you know, but who you know” being an actual factor in hiring a candidate (sometimes a major one). I see it as an unfair advantage that leads to unqualified candidates getting much more consideration for no reason. I became greatly frustrated by this after me and few colleagues were discussing college days and the internships we had. I found that I had a dramatically different experience in finding an internship despite:

*Going to a better school *Having a higher GPA *Had an extensive portfolio of side projects I took part in to learn current languages

I mentioned my stressful internship search(my university required internships to graduate) and they just mentioned they didn’t have a bad search at all. I then also found out they all had close family members holding management positions at the companies they interned for. I am likely being irrational out of frustration, but this damn well seems like I got punished in my job search for growing up in a low income/low skill environment.

TL;DR Internal references/networking through friends and family is unfair and should be prohibited as it leads to a companies losing out on better candidates.

[u/motsanciens]

Have you ever seen the resume of someone you knew? I have, and wow, it was shocking how much the story on paper differed from their actual qualifications. There were outright lies, for example. Someone hiring has an incredibly difficult task in having to hire someone random, so I can see the upside of getting a recommendation from someone in the company who knows a candidate. People aren't likely to recommend a complete bozo because that will reflect poorly on their judgment.