[cvwright]

Yeah. I used to think it was all nepotism / corruption, but (at least in STEM fields) there’s a bit more to it. My phd advisor is one of the most intense, hardcore people I’ve ever met. If he says someone is a good researcher, that counts for A LOT with anyone who knows his standards. There is no amount of stuff on a resume that could outweigh the word of someone like that.

[bee_rider]

There also seems to be a lot of cheating and/or metric abuse in academia, so it is hard not to over-emphasize this one signal, if it is all you are going to get anyway.