Anyone who has spent enough time around overseas contracting has heard the phrase:
“It is not what you know. It is who you know.”
Usually, the phrase is delivered as criticism. Someone sees a familiar name hired again, watches former coworkers follow a manager to another contract, or submits dozens of applications without receiving a response while another candidate appears to move directly into a position.
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There is legitimate frustration behind that perception. Connections can create unfair advantages, and closed professional circles can exclude qualified people who have not yet worked their way into the network.
However, the role of relationships in overseas contracting is not explained entirely by favoritism. In many cases, employers use professional networks because an overseas hire carries risks that a résumé cannot fully measure.
The more accurate version of the phrase may be:
It is what you know, supported by people who know how you work.
Overseas employers are not only hiring technical skills
A domestic employer may be able to replace an unsuccessful hire relatively quickly. An overseas contractor may need to transport a replacement across the world, process travel documents, arrange base access, complete medical requirements, issue equipment, coordinate housing and restart part of the deployment process.
For certain Department of Defense operations, contractor personnel may need the appropriate security clearance or background investigation, medical and dental qualification, theater-specific training, immunizations, registration in the Synchronized Predeployment and Operational Tracker, and documented completion of deployment processing. Personnel who do not have the proper theater documentation can be denied entry.
That means employers are not simply asking:
Can this person perform the technical job?
They are also asking:
Will this person actually clear every requirement, deploy when promised, remain on the contract and function effectively after arriving?
Those are different questions.
A candidate may have the correct certification, military occupational specialty or years of experience and still fail to deploy. Another may arrive and discover that the rotation, living conditions, restrictions, workload or isolation are not what they expected.
Consequently, previous overseas performance carries considerable value. Someone who has already completed deployment processing, worked in austere conditions and finished a rotation presents fewer unknowns than an equally qualified applicant whose overseas suitability has never been tested.
A résumé cannot document everything that matters
Résumés are useful for verifying employment history, education, certifications and technical experience. They are much less effective at measuring professional conduct.
A résumé usually cannot establish whether someone:
- Reports to shift on time consistently.
- Handles pressure without disrupting the team.
- Follows safety, security and accountability requirements.
- Can live and work around the same people for months.
- Performs without constant supervision.
- Maintains professional conduct when conditions deteriorate.
- Will complete the rotation rather than leave unexpectedly.
A trusted former supervisor or coworker may be able to answer those questions.
That is one reason employee referrals exist throughout the broader labor market. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found that referred applicants were more likely to receive interviews and offers and that referred employees experienced less turnover. The researchers concluded that the evidence was more consistent with employers using referrals to reduce uncertainty about prospective hires than with simple patronage.
That study was not limited to overseas contracting. However, its underlying mechanism is particularly relevant to an industry where a failed placement can affect mobilization, staffing levels, operational continuity and contract performance.
A referral transfers information that may never appear in an applicant-tracking system.
Government contracts can place measurable value on specific people
The importance of relationships begins before individual jobs are filled.
Government agencies may evaluate a contractor’s past performance, technical approach, management capability and proposed personnel when awarding work. The Federal Acquisition Regulation states that past-performance evaluations may consider the relevant experience of key personnel, predecessor companies and subcontractors performing major or critical portions of the requirement.
Some solicitations require companies to submit the names and résumés of proposed key personnel. Others require signed commitment letters showing that those people are prepared to work on the contract if the company wins. Federal contract clauses may also restrict a company from replacing named key personnel without approval and require replacements to possess equal qualifications.
This creates an important dynamic.
A contractor pursuing overseas work may need to identify qualified personnel during the proposal stage—not after the award. The company therefore benefits from maintaining relationships with people whose qualifications, availability and reputation are already known.
When someone says that a person “knew about the job before everyone else,” that may sometimes be true because the person was part of a proposed staffing plan, an incumbent workforce or a recruiter’s established candidate pipeline.
It does not automatically mean the individual was unqualified.
In some cases, the person’s documented qualifications helped the company compete for the work in the first place.
Overseas contracts are built around rapid mobilization
Operational support contracts are frequently designed to respond quickly to changing requirements.
When the Army described the LOGCAP V model, it said the program was intended to provide a regional sustainment capability with a 72-hour response time. The Army also described the value of maintaining a “warm” workforce that already understood the theater and how to operate there.
A company cannot reliably meet that kind of requirement by beginning every personnel search from zero.
It needs access to people who have already demonstrated that they can perform the work and are likely to deploy. That produces recurring networks of:
- Former employees.
- Incumbent personnel.
- Previous supervisors.
- Known subcontractors.
- Veterans from the same units or specialties.
- People who have worked on related contracts or installations.
From the outside, the result can look like a private club. From the company’s perspective, it is also a mobilization system.
The distinction matters.
Incumbent workers often carry the contract’s institutional knowledge
When one contractor replaces another, the corporate name may change while the mission remains essentially the same.
The incoming contractor still needs people who understand the site, customer, equipment, reporting structure, operating procedures and local constraints. During previous LOGCAP transitions, the Army explicitly described the transfer of services, contractor personnel and property between contractors and emphasized uninterrupted mission support.
Federal labor policy can also encourage workforce continuity. Under the Department of Labor’s nondisplacement rule for covered federal service contracts, successor contractors generally must make good-faith employment offers to qualified employees working under the predecessor contract before filling those positions with other workers.
This helps explain why the same names frequently appear under several companies over the course of a long-running overseas program.
The employees may not be receiving special treatment. They may be the existing workforce required to keep the mission operating while the prime contractor changes.
For an outside applicant, that means a job announcement may represent a replacement, expansion or contingent requirement—not necessarily an entirely vacant workforce waiting to be created.
Deployment readiness can matter as much as experience
Two applicants may have almost identical technical backgrounds but present very different hiring timelines.
One may already have:
- A current passport.
- The required clearance or eligibility.
- Recent overseas experience.
- Familiarity with deployment processing.
- Current certifications.
- Medical readiness.
- Availability to mobilize quickly.
- References from the same program or customer environment.
The other applicant may be highly capable but require additional investigation, documentation, screening or preparation.
DoD policy requires contractors supporting applicable overseas operations to provide medically and physically qualified personnel and certify that required deployment processing has been completed before deployment. It can also require security clearances, background investigations, training and theater-specific health preparation.
A candidate who already satisfies more of those conditions reduces schedule uncertainty.
That does not make the second applicant inferior. It makes the first applicant easier to place against an immediate requirement.
“Who you know” does not always mean a close friend
Professional networks are broader than personal friendships.
A former shift lead, recruiter, subcontractor, customer representative, classmate, LinkedIn connection or person encountered briefly on another program may become the connection that identifies an opportunity.
A large-scale randomized study involving more than 20 million LinkedIn users found that moderately weak professional ties—acquaintances rather than close friends—causally increased job mobility. These connections are valuable because they connect people to information outside their immediate professional circle.
That finding fits the structure of overseas contracting.
A close group of coworkers may all know about the same opportunities. A former colleague who moved to another company, region or contract can expose someone to an entirely different hiring pipeline.
Effective networking is therefore not necessarily about developing friendships with executives. It is about maintaining a credible professional reputation across multiple parts of the industry.
Where networking crosses into favoritism
The fact that referrals serve a legitimate purpose does not mean every referral is legitimate.
The system becomes favoritism when a relationship overrides clear evidence that a person is unqualified, unreliable or unsuitable. It also becomes damaging when managers continually recycle the same social circle while ignoring stronger candidates outside it.
Referral systems can reproduce the demographics and relationships already present in a workforce. Research has found that referrals commonly occur between people with similar backgrounds and characteristics, creating the risk that networks become self-reinforcing.
Poor networking practices can lead to:
- Unqualified friends being protected.
- High-performing outsiders being overlooked.
- Cliques controlling access to information.
- Managers repeatedly rehiring weak employees.
- New contractors being unable to enter the industry.
- A workforce becoming less diverse and less competitive.
These are valid criticisms.
A strong referral should mean:
“I have personally observed this person perform the work, and I am willing to attach my reputation to that assessment.”
It should not mean:
“This person is my friend, so ignore the requirements.”
Qualifications still determine whether a connection is useful
A connection can bring attention to an application. It cannot reliably compensate for missing contract requirements.
Companies still need personnel who can satisfy labor-category qualifications, customer requirements, clearance conditions, licensing standards and deployment rules. Government solicitations may require key-personnel résumés, documented experience and evidence that proposed staff can meet specialized requirements on short notice.
A referral without qualifications may produce a conversation, but it does not create a valid candidate.
Likewise, qualifications without professional visibility may leave a capable applicant buried among hundreds of submissions.
Both elements matter:
Competence makes someone employable. Reputation makes that competence easier to trust.
How an outsider builds a real overseas contracting network
The objective should not be to collect random contacts or repeatedly ask strangers to “put in a good word.” The objective is to develop relationships based on verifiable professional value.
First, make your background easy to understand. State your trade, clearance status where appropriate, certifications, overseas history, regional experience and availability clearly.
Second, maintain contact with former supervisors and coworkers before you need assistance. A message sent only when someone needs a job does not establish much of a professional relationship.
Third, protect your reputation on every contract. Overseas industries are often interconnected through primes, subcontractors, customers and recurring programs. The person working beside you today may be asked about you several years later.
Fourth, become deployment-ready. Keep required documents, certifications and professional records current. The easier it is to verify and mobilize you, the easier it is for someone to recommend you.
Finally, ask specific questions. “Do you know of any aviation maintenance openings in Kuwait?” is more useful than “Who is hiring overseas?” Precision makes it easier for a connection to recognize a relevant opportunity.
The real meaning of “who you know”
Overseas contracting is not purely a meritocracy, and pretending otherwise ignores the effects of personal access, incumbent relationships and closed hiring circles.
But reducing the entire system to favoritism is also inaccurate.
Relationships matter because employers are trying to answer questions that résumés cannot fully resolve:
- Can this person actually perform?
- Can this person deploy?
- Can this person be trusted?
- Can this person function overseas?
- Will this person remain long enough to support the mission?
- Is someone credible willing to stand behind the recommendation?
A professional connection may open the door, but the connection is most valuable when it is built on demonstrated performance.
POC Perspective
In overseas contracting, your network should not replace your qualifications. It should confirm them. A referral carries weight because someone is placing part of their own reputation behind your ability to perform.
The industry’s most accurate rule is therefore not simply, “It is who you know.”
It is:
What you know establishes your qualifications. How you work establishes your reputation. Who knows your work determines how far that reputation travels.
