Job Hunting Step 1: Make as Many Friends as Possible
http://www.12newsnow.com/news/nation-now/which-facebook-friends-can-help-you-land-a-job/326368600
Earlier this year, Facebook conducted research to observe patterns in how people obtained jobs based on the strength of their relationships with others. In this study, the strength of the tie between two users was based on the number of mutual friends, tags and posts exchanged between them. After distinguishing weak from strong connections, researchers then compared the workplace of the user with that of their friends in each category. It was discovered that a user was much more likely to join the same workplace as a close friend than a distant one. This is most likely due to the fact that a better friend is more inclined to help a friend in need of a job and is also in a better position to strongly recommend a close friend for an open position within the company.
Another key finding of this study was that weak ties are just as, if not more, important than strong ties when it comes to job hunting. This is due to weak ties’ collective, rather than individual, impact. What is meant by this is that simply because users have more distant friends than close friends, they are more likely to be connected through a weaker friendship to a company with a job opening. This topic of “the strength of weak ties” was discussed in lecture. Here, it was again illustrated that people are more likely to hear about new information and opportunities (such as a job opening) via a bridge in their network. These bridges are most often formed by weak ties rather than strong ones and have the power to greatly expand the reach of one’s social network.