"it's not what you know but who you know" meaning in English

See it's not what you know but who you know in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} it's not what you know but who you know, {{en-proverb}} it's not what you know but who you know
  1. For success, and especially to obtain employment, one's knowledge and skills are less useful and less important than one's network of personal contacts. Synonyms: it's not what you know but whom you know Related terms: friends in high places Translations (Translations): 識人好過識字 (Cantonese), 识人好过识字 (sik¹ jan⁴ hou² gwo³ sik¹ zi⁶) (Cantonese), non è importante cosa conosci ma chi conosci (Italian), quien a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-it's_not_what_you_know_but_who_you_know-en-proverb-siIS1sK0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for it's not what you know but who you know meaning in English (2.6kB)

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          "ref": "1951, G. P. Bush, L. H. Hattery, “Federal Recruitment of Junior Engineers”, in Science, volume 114, number 2966, page 456",
          "text": "Eighty-four students referred to political influence as a disadvantage of federal employment with such remarks as: \"There are too many political connections necessary . . . it's not what you know but who you know—in spite of apparent merit systems.\"",
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          "ref": "1993 August 25, Heidi Gruber, “Cross film earns recognition in Hollywood”, in Ellensburg Daily Record, retrieved 2009-06-19",
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          "ref": "2008, Natasha Davies, Webc@m Girl, page 53",
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          "word": "識人好過識字"
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          "word": "识人好过识字"
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          "word": "quien a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija"
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      "word": "識人好過識字"
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      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "识人好过识字"
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      "word": "non è importante cosa conosci ma chi conosci"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "quien a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija"
    }
  ],
  "word": "it's not what you know but who you know"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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