Well said. I agree completely. It is my understanding that there are a large number of qualified apps in each Tier. As an example, if two pilot's apps were scored into Tier 1 and neither has yet received a call, but one of the pilots does some networking and gets his app pulled and scored again triggering a call sooner rather than later, I would say that pilot benefited from networking. Did it get them the job or the interview? No, their qualifications, background and experience did. But it may have gotten them the interview earlier.

I certainly can't come up with how your chances would be harmed by networking, unless you made an @$$ out of yourself to whomever you are trying to network with. In that case, that type of person was probably never going to get the nod in the end anyway.