It’s Next To Impossible To Get A Job These Days Without Having This One Thing, According To Professor Scott Galloway
It's not the way it should be, but it is the reality.
PeopleImages | Shutterstock Here's the way getting a job should work: You submit your resume, you're evaluated fairly and reasonably on the merits, and if you fit the bill, you get the job. But of course, that's not at all how it actually works, and it's next to impossible to get a job these days.
So what gives? How do you actually break through? Sure, bolstering your skills and optimizing your resume for the AI bots running the applicant tracking system are important. But according to NYU Professor Scott Galloway, they're not nearly as important as the one thing many of us find the most difficult when it comes to job hunting.
Galloway says connections are the number one key to getting a job in today's market.
Galloway is a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business and a renowned expert on economics and the workplace, and during a recent appearance on the Vice News podcast, he laid out what he says is the number one thing you must have in your pocket to land a job today: Connections. Real-life ones.
That's a tall order in our increasingly isolating world, but Galloway said that despite the ways the internet has changed everything, the way personal connections interact with our careers hasn't changed much.
“The way you [succeed] as a young person," he told Vice's Shane Smith, "is you go out, you make friends, you drink, and at every possible opportunity, you help that person out." It's the good old-fashioned "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" dynamic. He said working at building this network is absolutely essential, and data from studies on the matter backs him up.
Studies have shown that the majority of jobs come from networking and referrals.
It's easy to dismiss this as the sort of pop-psychology pablum we hear all the time about the dismal state of our economy and job market. "Just put yourself out there!" isn't actual advice after all… except that, well, it kind of is.
Recruiters have been talking about this for a while now: The job market has become one in which an often tiny skeleton crew of hiring managers is bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands, of resumes for every single position. It's a totally untenable situation that's like drinking from a fire hose.
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Those with connections cut through the noise and take a load off recruiters' backs in the process. "Google puts out a job opening, they get 200 CVs within like eight minutes," Galloway said. "Seventy percent of the time, the person they pick is someone who has an internal advocate," meaning someone with a connection.
His take is in line with extensive research that shows that those with a connection are up to four times as likely to be hired as those who apply online and account for 30-50% of all hires. Referred employees also have much higher retention rates, which means companies tend to prioritize them even if they're less qualified than strangers.
It may not be fair, but connections are the make-or-break factor in our messy job market.
The problem, of course, is that "connections" is another way of saying "nepotism," and it is a totally unfair part of the job market. Useful connections in business are often the result of privilege, like having well-connected parents or attending elite educational institutions, or just being white, or a man, or any other of a number of unearned advantages.
That's unfortunate, and perhaps it won't be the case anymore. But until that comes to pass, those who don't have those legs up have to learn how to create our own nepotism, if you will. But crucially, Galloway, like many experts, said online connections aren't enough. We need to be out in the world making links with others.
Professional organizations, networking events, volunteering, and taking courses to bolster skills are all ways to cross paths with those who might be able to refer us for jobs. Personal branding and image-crafting, both online and in person, are indispensable too.
And while this is all daunting for the more introverted among us, the hard truth is this is a "do it anyway" situation. Because at the end of the day, this is all a psychological game. As Galloway explained it to Smith, "You want to be placed in rooms of opportunities when you’re not physically there."
That is, you've created mutually beneficial social connections with fellow professionals so that when an opportunity comes up, you're the first person one of your connections thinks of when they say, "I know a guy or gal who'd be great for this."
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
