• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Eat Your Career

  • Need a speaker?
    • Course Catalog
    • Speaker Request Form
  • Blog
    • Archives
  • About
    • Contact
    • Testimonials
  • Success Store
    • Programs
    • Products
    • The Learning Lab
  • Log In
    • Your Account
  • 0 items
  • Career Advancers
  • Career Changers
  • Job Seekers
  • Administrative Professionals

July 21, 2010 By Chrissy Scivicque 4 Comments

Bad Career Advice: It’s Not WHAT You Know, It’s WHO You Know

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin
0 Shares

This is post is part of my Bad Career Advice series in which I expose outdated, clichéd, and counterproductive advice for exactly what it is.

This is perhaps one of the most frequently repeated pieces of bad career advice that exists. So, if it’s now what you know and it’s all who you know, why bother learning anything at all? Instead of attending classes while at college, we might as well focus all of our energy on the parties (clearly, some of us do that already…). But, if what you know doesn’t really matter, why do people make such a big deal about getting a college degree? Why go through the hassle of building a resume? Why not simply send a copy of your address book to prospective employers?

Why It Doesn’t Work

Clearly, I’m being a little facetious…but the problem with this kind of advice is that it places an unfair burden on your network. It supposes that your friends and family will be willing and able to open more doors for you than your own expertise. The truth is, what you know and who you know BOTH matter. Neither one works as well without the other; you have to leverage what you know and who you know to create opportunities for yourself.

The people in your network certainly want to help you grow professionally but not at their own expense. Even the most altruistic person will still want to protect his or her own interests. So you have to bring the goods. What you know matters. If you don’t have the ability to do the job, your friends and family can’t in good conscience advocate for you. By doing so, they’d put their own reputation on the line. If you don’t know enough to do the job and do it well on your own, your network can’t make opportunities appear for you.

Having the ability and having the network are just the beginning. The other critical component is knowing how to effectively leverage both of these things.

Leveraging Your Network

Just because you have a large and powerful network, doesn’t mean you can sit back, relax and let the opportunities flow. You have to do your part—reach out to people, ask for favors and return favors, be specific when you ask for things, know what you want your friend to do for you and the end result you’re looking for.

Leveraging Your Knowledge

Knowledge alone doesn’t do anyone any good. You need to create demonstrable proof of your abilities. Get out into the world and use your skills. If you’re not using your full potential in your current professional role, you need to find another way to do so. Join a professional organization and volunteer for a committee or run for a position on the board. Start a side business and put your skills to work that way. Don’t let what you know remain hidden. The more you show your abilities, the more opportunities will present themselves.

So don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the favors others can do for you are more important than your own abilities. You have everything you need to be successful, with or without your network. Yes, having people who are willing to help you grow professionally certainly makes a difference. But they have to be willing. Don’t ask your network to create opportunities that you can’t appropriately take advantage of due to lack of knowledge.

Filed Under: Bad Career Advice Series Tagged With: Relationships

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Srinivas Raos says

    July 21, 2010 at 10:36 AM

    Chrissy,

    AS somebody who has been the through what seems like the most hellish first 10 years of a career imaginable, I think you’ve got some great points. When I look at the network I’ve built, I realize that one of the most important keys to leveraging your network is providing value to your network. So that’s where what you know becomes really important. If you’re just a person who knows a ton of people with nothing to offer them, then you who you know is meaningless. I do think that if you lack one and have the other then you are not going to ultimately tap into your full potential. Really loving your blog and I see good things ahead for you 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect

  • facebook-official
  • twitter
  • youtube
  • linkedin
  • envelope

Do You Have a Professional Development Plan?

Available on Amazon

ALREADY READ IT?
Please leave a review!

ALREADY READ IT?
Please leave a review!

ALREADY READ IT?
Please leave a review!

Footer

QUICK LINKS

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Testimonials
  • Career Success Library
  • Career Resources for Administrative Professionals
  • Resources for Career Changers
  • Resources for Career Advancers
  • Resources for Job Seekers

Products

  • Build Your Professional Development Plan
  • The Proactive Professional
  • Personal Branding for Professional Success
  • Resume & Cover Letter Toolkit
  • Rock Your Interview
  • Build Your Professional Portfolio
  • Networking Naturally
  • Guide to Goal Setting & Goal Getting
  • Modern Business Etiquette

Services & Programs

  • Speaking & Training
  • Career Coaching
  • Resumes & Cover Letters
  • DISC Assessment & Consult
  • F.I.N.D. Your Nourishing Career
  • G.R.O.W. Your Nourishing Career
  • Job Seeker Jump Start
  • ELEVATE Admins (On-Site Training)
  • Next Wave Leaders (On-Site Training)

© 2021 CCS Ventures, LLC
Chrissy Scivicque
720.282.9431
Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.