Company downsizes and leaves 49-year-old employee of 13-years jobless, 6 months later a friend gets him a salaried job, leaving him wondering if some nepotism is okay: ‘That’s called community.’

“I used to hate a guy at my last company, who sucked at his job but knew one of the VPs since they were roommates in college, now I'm that guy. After 13 years, my former company downsized and walked two dozen of us out one morning.”

-Hopefully_Tomorrow_

"I'm closer to 50 than 40 and don't have a degree, so it was slim pickins out there. If I got an in-person interview, it was half ghosted, half 'we went with an internal candidate'”

-Hopefully_Tomorrow_

“This past Thursday, I went to one friend's wedding and caught up with another friend I hadn't seen in a few-ish years. Of course, catching up leads to saying well I'm on the job hunt and he's like what your not at your former company?! Turns out he's now VP of a local company.”

-Hopefully_Tomorrow_

"Since then, I went to an "interview" the next morning, filled out onboarding paperwork over the weekend, and just completed my first day of getting to stay a salaried office type worker that will finally have health insurance again."

-Hopefully_Tomorrow_

People are getting laidoff left and right these days. It's truly kind of terrifying. We won't get started on our burning hatred for this flawed capitalistic society, but just know that we understand people are doing what they gotta do. If your friend thinks you've got the skills to handle a certain job position, then by all means, take it! 

Now, if your older brother feels bad for you because you're trying to get a job, but can't find anything, and then they hire you as the head of sales in their company, even though you have never worked in the field in your life… Well, then THAT is nepotism, and that is just gross and, honestly, bad business (and sometimes illegal).

Content-Finger-866

I’ve always gotten jobs through personal connections, there’s no shame in it at all. There’s nothing wrong at all with working for and with people you know, that’s called community.

bathtubsarentreal

Yeah it's networking

Nepotism is different. I'm too lazy to Google to see exactly how but my understanding is it's more family members getting good jobs with no experience

OkArugula8032

Its only cronyism if OP is unqualified. It would be nepotism if OP were family and unqualified

NaughtyHaze

If someone’s qualified, it’s basically just a shortcut through the hiring maze. The whole system is already kinda broken, so referrals just cut through the noise. Would you still feel the same if it was a super competitive role though?

angelprincessx18

People act like networking is some evil cheat code when it’s literally just knowing other humans

LunchDue1553

My husband couldn't find a job for almost a year, my uncle came to visit and said our family member runs a company out here and he already works with him. He got my husband started the following Monday. In this job market, it's who you know.

Tannare

Congratulations on your job!

If a person is qualified but not visible to a company (perhaps due to too many candidates out there), then a simple introduction can be a great way for the person and company to "meet".

Such an introduction is not necessarily a guarantee for a job (because that person still has to proof they are the best candidate) so this is not nepotism, but just a very nice introduction favor from a friend.

We applaud this guy for networking his way into a new job! Congrats on the health insurance. And don't let the haters get ya down. What you did was not nepotism, it was networking! An integral part of any business since the dawn of business!