You're right - perfectly valid. Along with "A guy I went to college with works there now." And then "My Dad knows a guy there" around the A bucket.

Luck. Luck helps as well. I've become the guy knowing people, but hard work alone wouldn't have brought me there.

That just brings us back to tier F.

I knew a guy

Idk sometimes you just have social networks and someone in them is looking for someone with your skills

I would love to see one of those sankey diagrams about job applications except it’s some dude walking into local businesses everyday to do the firm handshake and insist that he would be the greatest employee they will ever have.

And then, because I am a scientist, repeat the experiment with the same dude but dressed like a slob, with a woman, same lady except dressed like a slob, etc

And then do a small paper on the sociology of the interactions and how hiring managers innate biases might impact getting hired.

Very wholesome. Not many such exist.

My first job was "my dad knows a guy" (that guy really fought for me at that company and that turned out great for everyone) and from then on almost every job was through a former coworker. Have returned the favour a few times.

I don't consider myself a good networker by any means. But that's literally how I've gotten everyone of my jobs during my professional career.

Went to a job fair senior year of college, saw an old classmate, struck up a conversation and that lead to my first job.

Then from there on out, exactly what you described. Just old coworkers recommending better places.

Honestly, the idea of applying for a job going in cold over the Internet sounds like a horrible experience.

Just find some old guy to be friends with. Chances are he knows a guy who needs a guy

For what its worth, i havent talked to my parents in a decade and have moved around but have still landed jobs, its just stressful and time consuming bc most of the job postings are fake

especially if they dont understand the job market(especially if they are boomer or gen-xers, and the family is railing on the child for not finding a job in recent years.

I mean, yes, pretty much, having shitty parents fucking sucks

Idk i figured that one out fairly quickly after it happened

(It actually did get better, I just didn't get any nepotism)

Or, you know, good old fashioned networking. Unless that’s what you mean by cronyism.

"Get fed, I hired?"

Hey, I was really interested in checking this out, until I realized that I needed to enter payment even for your free plan. Why is that required?

glassdoor used to be better because of the reviews, until they got astroturfed, it seems thats why indeed eliminated thier forums at the same time. which is around '21.