People keep saying, “Oh, it’s not what you know, but who you know”. Everybody is becoming a great social achiever!! My question is how much knowledge do those people have?? Which people are hired, the more creative, intelligent and knowledgeable ones or the more social?? Can somebody tell me if this makes sense?? Unless we are hiring people for a specific social activity, we need to make sure that real talent leads our intellectual workforce, otherwise we will be in bad shape, much worse than we currently are. Employers should review applications and hire people based on the qualifications and not based on feelings, unless we are going for a date!
I just wanted to emphasize my concerns about the way we are setting our current values. Social ability is important, but it should not overshadow job-related performance. Throughout history, many of humanity’s greatest discoveries were made by social misfits.
Adolfo Cotter, MD
Aug 16/2010