The Importance of Networking in Job Search by Analyzing Strong Ties/ Weak Ties
Networking means establishing a large number of contacts that are willing to help you in your job search. These people may be family relatives, high school friends, or people you’ve met in a social or business setting. They may give you an advantage over other job seekers by giving you advice, or even recommendations to their companies. Furthermore, many job openings are actually never advertised and passed through word-of-mouth so you may theoretically discover more opportunities if you have more people in your network.
Strong ties and weak ties can be applied to networking. Depending on position or expertise, the people in your network differ in usefulness. Networking is particularly beneficial when you and your friend share a strong tie. This way, your friend would be more inclined to give you the information that you need in your job search. In addition, if that friend also has a high position in the company or has a strong tie with someone important, that would help tremendously. On the other hand, if you have a weak tie with someone in your network, that person would be reluctant to help you. They would prefer to help another one of their strong-tied friends. They may even give you incorrect information so that their friend may have a higher likelihood of getting the job. Now imagine if you have a strong-tied friend who has a lowly position in a company. That friend would have a very low impact in the recruitment of new members. Their recommendation for you would definitely not be weighed as much as the recommendation of someone holding a higher position. Strong and weak ties clearly play an important role in helping someone find a job.
http://www.quintcareers.com/career_doctor_cures/proper_networking.html
http://www.quintcareers.com/networking_guide.html