> Don't take it too personally, just keep flipping > those coins and (I dread to use this word) > "networking".
Me too on the dread. People tend to be such that 'networking" really means "schmoozing" - if not "conning".
It can have that connotation yea, but it's really just employers looking for someone they can trust without going through reams and reams of fluffed up CVs.
If you can get someone on the inside to vouch for you, you've literally solved half the problem for them.
And yes, it is cronyism, and yes there is corruption and xenophobic overtones in such practices, but such selection biases really stem from the employer and would occur still in a formalised officiated process.