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A networking event sponsored last night by Andrew Hudson's Jobs List was fascinating for the contrasts and contradictions it exposed. The mere sight of hundreds of people with sky-high socioeconomic status but without work was jarring enough. We were further shaken by much of what the corporate recruiters on the panel had to say.

My outplacement firm, Right Management -- and many other guests said they'd received the same advice from their career counselors -- has job-seekers remove the "personal interests" section from their résumés, and has everybody reformat their résumé using Times New Roman and an extremely strict template, so that from a distance, all résumés coming out of Right Management are identical. The recruiters, on the other hand, expected to see personal sections and attractive, creative résumés.

Mary Kate Houk of Crocs tried heroically to convince the audience that, when rejection happens, "It's not about you." She even had us repeat it aloud, in unison, in the first person, like a prayer meeting. Much of the panelists' time was dedicated to expounding upon another aphorism: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Personal connections, we were told again and again, will get us looked at; skills and experience won't.

While it's impossible to argue with the importance of connections, if "it" isn't about me and "it" isn't about what I know, then it's hard to imagine how recruiters know "it" when they see "it."

For a roomful of communicators, the most shocking news was that many recruiters will not read cover letters under any circumstances -- not before, not while, not after filling a position. Career counselors are adamant that a well-crafted cover letter is our best, first, and in most cases last opportunity to impress a recruiter with our thoughtfulness and suitability to the position. Many online application systems require them. If they're not being read, one might as well submit a screenful of Lorem ipsum, which I think I might try just to see if anybody notices.

The importance of having a robust online presence was also established -- but not a revealing one. All must link in, all must tweet, all must blog -- but merely to prove that they can. I thought of an entrepreneur I met early in my job hunt who started blogging to prove to potential clients that he's a "thought leader" in his field.

Poor fellow. Doesn't he know that it's not what he knows?