Triadic Closure’s Potential to Ruin Job Opportunities via LinkedIn
I’d be shocked to find a Cornell student who has never heard of Linkedin. Students use Linkedin to build their professional network and look for job opportunities. Every LinkedIn user starts out with zero connections. Once the resume section of the profile is complete the site suggests potential connections to users. For example, if a student says that they study economics at Cornell, it is likely that the site will suggest other economics majors at Cornell. If a student says they worked this summer at a firm in NYC, LinkedIn will likely suggest employees at that firm as potential connections. Linkedin has the ability to predict one’s academic and professional acquaintances just by looking one’s credentials.
When two people connect, the site will suggest contacts from each of their networks. Triadic closure states that if node A is linked to node B and node A is linked to node C, there’s a good chance that node B and node C will become connected. LinkedIn’s ability to suggest contacts to users has the potential to ruin possible job opportunities. For example, let’s say Bob is a senior looking for a job in business. Assume company A and company B are rivals. At the end of Bob’s interview at company A the recruiter connects with Bob on LinkedIn to see his digital resume. Similarly, at the end of Bob’s interview he connects with the recruiter from company B. Now that Bob is connected with a recruiter from company A and a recruiter from company B there is a good chance that the two enemies will pop-up as a suggested link. If this happens the recruiter from company A may no longer be interested in Bob after realizing he has interviewed with the company A’s rival, company B. Similarly, The recruiter from company B may no longer be interested in Bob after noticing that Bob is the mutual connection between company B and company A. Triadic closure can be seen in entrepreneurship via LinkedIn. It has the ability to build new connections, while simultaneously ruining potential job opportunities.
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