Finding a job: the power of the weak tie

Posted by admin on January 21, 2009 in Jobs

We are getting to the point in the economic cycle where we all know someone who has lost their job. These types of events always result in some self-reflection and an assessment of your job prospects and worse case economic scenarios. There are really two foremost considerations in situations where your position may be at risk: getting the right severance package and finding a new job.

Here’s a little quiz for you. Look at your email address list, business card folder or whatever you keep your contact list in. Take out all the contacts who are within your organization. Now remove everyone who you speak to at least once a month. Delete everyone who works for a direct competitor. Take out all your close friends and immediate family members. Is your list of contacts reduced significantly or only a little? Chances are the longer your list is after all these close contacts are taken out, the more likely you will find a job quickly.

Why? It is called the strength of the weak tie. Malcolm Gladwell popularized this concept in his book the Tipping Point. Simply put, the more distant or weak a social tie is to someone the more likely you have access to opportunity you otherwise would not have (to quote: “Acquaintances, in short, represent social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.“)

Gladwell cites a study where 56% of all job seekers found a job through a personal connection but of those people who found their job this way 16.7% surveyed indicated that they saw the contact that referred them to the position often, 55.6% occasionally and 28% rarely. In other words, statistically speaking, your close friends are terrible at giving you job hunting leads (as a sidenote, the lowest statistical source of job sources was formal means- advertising and headhunters).

Makes sense when you think about it. Your close friends share the same inner circle as you. A friend once removed probably has some over-lapping ties. But someone two or three degrees removed? They probably inhabit a different social and job opportunity base than you and are not going to give you the same old job leads.

The point being whether you have a job now but don’t know if you are going to have one much longer or are looking for a job, its best to spread your social wings and just meet new people. What kind of people? Some people are pickier than me but I say meet everyone you can.

When I practiced law (and let’s equate getting a client with finding a job since they both involve getting people, sometimes strangers, to hand over money for your services), I use to get referrals from the strangest places because I went to a lot of different things; I sheepishly admit that some people would say “so and so met you and said you may be able to help…” and I did not know who so and so was! There is a school of thought that you should target certain people but, in a downturn, those people are probably being swamped with requests to meet. Might as well target everyone you can. What’s the worse that happens, you meet someone nice?

For the wallflowers, this may seem very uncomfortable but look at it this way; you can be comfortable and broke or uncomfortable and making a decent living.

Next week post on jobs will discuss what to do when you are networking for job hunting opportunities.

5 Comments on Finding a job: the power of the weak tie

By Patrick on January 21, 2009 at 12:01 pm

I think you have reached the wrong conclusion based on a statistical fallacy. You say only one in six who got their job through an acquaintance saw that acquaintance “often”. But if one sixth of the average person’s acquaintances are seen “often”, then this means that any given acquaintance is equally likely to find you a job, regardless of how often you see them.

Your close friends are not “terrible at giving you job hunting leads”. You just have a lot fewer of them to give you leads in the first place.

By Riscario Insider on January 22, 2009 at 12:03 am

I thought this post was about clothing, that wearing a “power tie” may no longer work well. That point is made in The Articulate Executive by Granville Toogood. I thought this post a confirmation!!!

Knowing more people in different fields helps in any environment. Connecting-to-others sites like LinkedIn for business and Facebook can help even the shy.

By admin on January 22, 2009 at 11:24 am

Thanks for the comment.

Patrick, if I understand you correctly, you premise your assumption that all people have relative the same # of leads. However, what I understand the study to say is that your close friends most likely have the same leads that you do given closely over-lapping circles which means their leads are leads given that a job seeker has already pursued or is pursuing them whereas mere acquaintance may have the same number of leads as close friends but, because they inhabit different circles, the leads are not leads that a job seeker would otherwise have.

By admin on January 22, 2009 at 11:25 am

Riscario- does LinkedIn actually work for you? I hear very different things about it. Please share your thoughts. Thanks.

By Riscario Insider on January 25, 2009 at 2:55 am

LinkedIn “works” for business in the sense that I have good connections and meaningful recommendations. I’ve been contacted by strangers and old acquaintances. Some connections send messages through LinkedIn rather than email.

Most people are invisible when you type their names into a search engine. A LinkedIn profile (essentially an online resume) makes you visible. There may be similar sites but I haven’t explored or compared them.

Few invest the time to post a meaningful profile, a photo or even to customize their URL. That will affect results, as will restricting access to your profile. Here’s mine http://www.linkedin.com/in/promod. A post on the pros/cons of sites like LinkedIn would be interesting.