Post 1: Strong Ties vs: Weak Ties in Job Searching
Link: https://careerpivot.com/2018/weak-ties-versus-strong-ties-in-your-job-search/
I find it interesting that this article revolves around the idea of weak ties being more important than strong ties in this world. According to the article, strong ties in a social network would be links between close friends and family while weak ties are links between acquaintances, which was covered in one of the lectures about applying social relationships between people in network models. In fact, one major advantage of weak ties with others is that those people may know someone that you may not know about. Miller makes a reference to the book Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success where the author discusses about Granovetter’s research on strong and weak ties in learning about jobs. According to the study, about 17% of people heard about a new job from a strong tie, while about 28% heard about it through a weak tie. Acquaintances can know about people and opportunities that your strong ties don’t.
It makes sense that weak ties are valuable in getting more information in places like searching for a job. People that you have a strong tie with will be always be in the same social circle as you, receiving relatively the same amount of information as you do since you are always together and most likely doing similar things together. As for acquaintances, they move in different social circles usually learning about different information. I have had a weak tie, an acquaintance of mine, help me in looking for summer jobs and internships. During my search, I reached out to one of my peers after congratulating him on receiving an internship from Google. He recommended me a website to use to apply to jobs and it has been easier for me to look and find jobs or internships for the summer.
In addition, Marc Miller gives examples of different types of possible weak ties. One example is past colleagues, where a man named Steve reached out to co-workers and managers in the past for a job until he was able to land one through someone he worked with in the past. Another example is professional relationships, like advisors or trainers. Their expertise can grant you some knowledge on different topics including how to better manage your finances or how to improve your workout routines. Thus, it is important to reach out to weak ties in order to grow your network and gain all the essential information that is out there in the world.