The whole controversy regarding the referral system really intrigued me. In high school I had this naivety that in America you can make your own destiny. You can choose your own path and grow up to be whatever you want to be. And in school, I think you're taught that if you work hard, academically, these dreams will come true. But really - this is not the case. Referrals, "business casual" when you know the mean "suit", and your "30 second elevator speech" are all part of the game. They get you in the door, but they don't necessarily land you the job.
A personal example is that two summers ago, my uncle got me an internship with NASD. I interviewed for a few positions that I was really not qualified for, and then ultimately got an internship I was qualified for. So I mean if you don't have the skill sets once you get your foot in the door, having that connection can only do so much.
From a HR perspective, referrals make recruiting easier and I think it helps maintain corporate culture. How great would it be to work with your friend, neighbor, or something you think highly of? An article from Inc.com raises some great points about sites like Monster.com, "Today, recruiters' chief complaint is about the volume of unqualified candidates they receive from their postings. Millions of people use job boards and many apply to dozens or even hundreds of jobs per day. The result can be overwhelming, making it more difficult than ever to find the qualified candidates among the flood of thoughtless applications."
So maybe its not fair. Maybe this isn't really the land of opportunity if your destiny is perhaps out of your control, your career limited by who you know. But that's life. The best we can do is take courses like this and work not only on the academics and the resume, but also our networking and people skills.
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3 comments:
Agreed. It isn't fair. Welcome to real life. Blame "the man" if you want, but that doesn't change one thing except you might be termed a liberal, or even worse, a hippie. That's why we take classes and learn how to connect to other people. These are all lessons that I learned early on, seeing as my parents would not practice nepotism (meaning I had to find my own job). They could have easily said, "here is a job that pays $15/hour with full health benefits." While I might not entirely be a fan of referrals, they are very necessary, as was written to combat "...the flood of thoughtless applications." Talk about a double-edged sword.
While our education system is cushy and easy to get into, they never teach you that the real working world are cutthroat and difficult to enter. Everyone is gunning for everyone's job. With this much competition, there have to be referrals, and its not just for getting that first job or your foot into the door, referrals are needed for that next job, that next position, that next pay raise.
I agree referrals and networking on paper means your skills are somewhat ignored, but when paired with your skills it makes you that much more appealing than just the people with the referrals.
I think this concept of referral system is in every society. It's every where in the world. an dI also agree with you about the role of "connections" in terms of making things easier for the HR people to recruite. As long as the HR person knows the bounderies between fairness and unfairness in hiring the right qualified employee,I think it's ok to use referral or connections.
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