Job Search and Network / Connect with “weak ties” and your “dormant ties”

Connect with your close friends, family, and colleagues – talking to these “strong ties” may be all you need for a successful job search. But if you think that’s all LinkedIn is good for, you’re missing out on the real magic. LinkedIn makes it far easier to connect to and cultivate your “weak tie” and your “dormant ties.” Weak ties are your acquaintances. Dormant ties, according to Adam Grant, a professor at the Wharton School and author of Give and Take, are “people with whom you’ve lost touch for a few years: a childhood neighbor, a college roommate, or a colleague from your first job.”

Sociologist Mark Granovetter found in a classic study that you’re 58% more likely to find a job by cultivating your weak ties rather than your strong ones. Why? Both weak and dormant ties offer more novel information than strong ties. They travel in different circles and are connected to entirely different people – unlike strong ties, who tend to travel in the same circles as you do.

You’ll likely find that dormant ties are easiest to initiate contact with – after all, you’re just catching up with an old friend. But if dormant ties aren’t enough, build the strength of your weak ties. This can be more difficult, because you’re forging new relationships and friendships where there once might have been only a weak acquaintanceship – or nothing at all. But they are definitely worth the effort, because the chances are that you share very few strong ties in common, thereby benefitting from their vast network that you would otherwise have had no access to. They may even have a useful connection to one of your dream companies.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Job Strategy: The Human Side of Digital Networking | Kim Keating.

Related articles

• Job Search with LinkedIn / Close to 100% of job seekers use it as their number one social media
• Job Search and LinkedIn Profile / Please Polish it
• Job Search / Top 10 LinkedIn Groups
• LinkedIn / Most Recruiters Who Use Social Media
• Job Search with LinkedIn / 5 Privacy Settings
• LinkedIn Job Search / 6 Mistakes You Should Never Make
• Apps for Your Job Search
• Google+ / A Recruiter’s Advantage
• Job Search / YouTern’s Top 50 Twitter Accounts
• Job Search Resolutions