It Is Not About What You Know, It Is About Who You Know

“Nepotism is the lowest and least imaginative form of corruption.”

Daniel Alarcón, ‘At Night We Walk in Circles’

There is almost noone who does know and use the phrase ‘It is not about what you know, it is about who you know.’ To my mind, this is definition of nepotism to some extent. To be precise, when a person with power, influence or connections provides jobs for relatives, friends and expect others to be within this system. In some societies people interpret this as an act of kindness, for instance, if someone is landed a job.

However, might one argue whether it is ‘kindness’ or ‘dishonesty’. There are a great deal of unconnected people who are very intelligent and really deserve any specific job. Their line of principles and dignity do not allow them to ask someone for a help to find an appropriate job. They search, spend time on motivation letters and hope for success. Most regrettably, in majority cases they are left out of the picture since one or another candidate is already recommended.

You will say, ‘when there’s a will, there is a way’. True, even so, we have to admit, — the process is synthetically overcomplicated. And this is definitely dishonest towards a hard-working, proud-hearted and trustworthy member of a particular community. Unethic.