LinkedIn and Weak Tie
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2016/08/17/to-get-a-job-use-your-weak-ties/#513068106b87
http://www.smallbizlabs.com/2016/07/linkedin-on-the-power-of-weak-ties-implications-for-coworking-freelancers.html
In this article, it claimed that the weak ties in life are the best networking sources to use when finding a job. As a college student, I felt related to this theory. Thinking of networking, people usually first think of their close friends or co-workers. However, as LinkedIn recorded, most of the successful networking is from 2nd/3rd-degree friends. This is most likely due to the size of the friends that people are usually having, people are usually having more weak tie relations than strong tie relations. So in this case, it makes sense that people should pay attention to their weak ties during networking. More people means more job vacancies can be found. In these two articles, they also emphasized the importance of the weak tie, and there are many related industries were developed due to weak tie. For example, the co-working space is an expanding industry because it’s usually where the weak tie is started.
Combining with the information I gained from the articles. I had new thoughts for the weak and strong ties in networking. Strong ties usually refer to people who are most close to us, and we are sharing a close friend cycle, etc. In this way, the strong ties in some sense can provide fewer novel resources for us as the things/information they gained to have a high similarity with the information we gained. This is another perspective of why weak tie may lead to successful networking, they have more access to different job resources. In addition, strong ties usually know us better, so it’s harder for them to think outside of the box while helping us find a job, this is not as helpful as weak ties. As the weak ties know us worse, so when they are trying to find a job fit us, they may have more choices providing for us. This is very helpful for a person who is seeking a change in career, or open to career exploration.