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That's right: 6 out of every 10 jobs were never advertised ... so how do people find them?

Career Pointers

That's right: 6 out of every 10 jobs were never advertised ... so how do people find them?

By now, most people know that “networking” is the way to get a mid-level to senior job these days. In fact, almost 60% of respondents to a large scale survey quoted “through contacts” as the way they’d landed their job—through business contacts, through family members, tipped by a friend or schoolmate, or recruited by someone who already worked there—in short, through a process of referrals. 

Dr. Granovetter, of Stanford University, revisited his original 1970’s research and theories on the power of our casual networks of friends and acquaintances in his 1982 essay “The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited” and found that still 56% of respondents (technical, professional and managerial careers) cited “through contacts” ... almost 6 in every 10 jobs had not been advertised, and were found through a network of “weak” contacts.

See: http://www.analytictech.com/networks/weakties.htm

Weak ties—as opposed to the strong and intimate ties we have to family, spouse, close and dear friends—have proven to be much more effective in exploring the world of job opportunities, precisely because people we don’t know intimately often move in greatly different circles—social and business—than we do ourselves.



In the illustration, you’ll see a number of partially overlapping ovals - these represent groups of people. You are at the centre of these groups, or networks of people.

The further away from you, and the more tenuous the connection, the higher the chance that a contact will have information you don’t have, and will know people you don’t.

Networking is this simple ... You know Ann, one of your office pals, and Ann knows Sue and Jim. What if Jim happens to be working in an industry you’re interested in? Well, if you go and talk to Jim, on Ann’s say-so, Jim might think highly enough of what you have to offer, to refer you to his boss—who might be interested in hiring you.

See also: SPM Group’s White Paper on The Strengths of Weak Ties

Source: Granovetter, M. (1982).
The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited.
In Marsden, P.V. and Lin, N., editors, Social Structure and Network Analysis, pages 105--130. Beverly Hills: Sage.

Last updated on Nov 13, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Category: Career Strategies 
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