Strength of Weak Ties in Employment
An important aspect of finding employment is this day and age is networking and creating connections. While many believe that making strong connections are more effective, such as ones with a former boss or a coworker, one study by the employment-orientated social networking service LinkedIn has shown otherwise. Fast Company’s Vivian Giang makes sense of the LinkedIn study in her article “What LinkedIn Data Reveals About Who Will Help You Get Your Next Job,” and notes the strength of weak ties in finding employment.
In the study, LinkedIn’s data team found that first degree connections, or people who you are directly connected to, did not account for a majority of the referrals. Instead, people will be more likely to be referred for a new job by 2nd or even 3rd degree connections. LinkedIn defines 2nd and 3rd degree connections as “people who might know you through someone else, but probably don’t have an intimate knowledge of working directly with you.” Giang theorizes that the need for many weak ties stems from the proliferation of social media where connecting with people is easier than ever.
LinkedIn’s findings echo what we have learned in class about the strength of weak ties. In the 1960s, Mark Granovetter also found that people learned information about new jobs not through close friends, but acquaintances. Having many weak ties is beneficial to reaching new groups of people and finding novel information, as they make local bridges between people with nothing in common. If one wants to seek new information about a potential new job, then it is more helpful to reach out to an acquaintance connected by a local bridge. Ultimately, in a time where finding employment can be difficult, the use of weak ties can be more beneficial as evidence by LinkedIn’s study.
Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/3060887/what-linkedin-data-reveals-about-who-will-help-you-get-your-next-job