It IS who you know, not what you know.

3/7/2013

4 Comments

 
I'm sure you have all heard the quote "it's not who you know, it's what you know," but in today's society, this is more important than ever.  The social media sites that are becoming facets for getting jobs are Twitter and LinkedIn.  These two sites provide ways to interact with followers and connections in order to find jobs.

According to this article, http://www.weknownext.com/blog/for-your-career-its-not-what-you-know-its-who-you-know , about four months ago, "44% of employees believe the key to their success lies in “who you know”. Not far behind was job performance (39%)."   This is becoming more evident with the use of social media sites.  It is crazy that "who you know" ranks before job performance.  Who would have thought that this would have been possible 10 years ago?

It will be more likely for a company to hire someone that an employee refers than someone who has a few more years experience in the subject.  With websites liked LinkedIn, it is important to make your connections known  to the public than the experience that you have.  

Let's face it.. It is becoming more and more important to know more people in order to make connections for jobs than to have the skills and expertise to beat out all of the rest of the candidates. 

What do you all think?  How did you get your job?  Was it because you had a connection at the company?  Do you think social media will affect the way that people get jobs?

Join the conversation


4 Comments
Jacob R. Scott
3/7/2013 02:54:29 pm

Well the saying I'm familiar with is "it's not what you know, it's who you know." I'd say like most questions in life, this one can't be definitively answered. However a couple thoughts.

1. In my personal experience, the answer to the question is it takes both what you know and who you know. Not less than average in both. Especially in high level administrative posit

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Shane George link
3/8/2013 11:09:03 pm

I think that when you know somebody personally you are more likely to know what their skills are and how they work so it is more likely that you will hire that person over someone you know nothing about. Also if you know someone you will know if they fit the culture at your organization.

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Claire
3/19/2013 09:38:39 am

I work at a university career counseling center and we tell students, based on studies and surveys, that networking gets the job 70% of the time. We are living in a time where networking has never been easier, thanks to social media.

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Autumn
3/19/2013 11:57:50 pm

I agree that who you know is very important to at least get your foot in the door with many companies. I am about to graduate and I am currently looking for jobs. It definitely helps to "know people in high places" but at the end of the day if you don't know what you are doing or don't have experiences or internships to prove that you are qualified then you won't be getting the job.

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