Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also so much of management is personal. Upper management doesn’t have visibility into your day to day and needs to trust you’ll deliver by the deadlines they set for their bosses/customers. It’s hard to trust someone you don’t already know.
Something I try to instill in juniors is to make and keep relationships up. Depending on your industry, it’s a very small world. I recall interviewing someone who had just a terrible technical interview, but honestly seemed like a good fit. In the interview it came out he had worked for and with two people who I knew fairly well (and respected and trusted.) Two phone calls later, and based on their experiences with h…
Okay, maybe that's not a fair argument on my part because you're actually using the positive feedback that you got from the mutual acquiantances and they could have given negative feedback, but it's still the case that some candidates don't get that opportunity at all.