I think a better takeaway is this… Hiring runs on nepotism. It always has, but for a while you could go through an application process and land a decent job

You have to work your social connections to find a job these days. People are just way more willing to put in the energy to evaluate you if they have someone vouching for you

Especially now with remote work and AI… The screening process has devolved into nonsense. If they’re not pulling your resume out of the stack, it’s very likely no human is looking at it