[selfhoster11]

> getting hired through connections (...) it's also interesting that so many members of the field look down on that very process.

I think the explanation is quite obvious. People who gravitate to this industry are not as social as those who gravitate to other industries, hence the disdain for (or rejection of) the process that leans heavily on something that doesn't easily come to them, that feels like something they shouldn't have to be dealing with.

[ghaff]

I'm not sure it's so much a case of social vs. not-social though some of it probably boils down to that. I think it's more of a rationalist viewpoint that the "best" person should be hired rather than a merely "good" person who knows someone who may put their thumb on the scale.