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When it comes to finding out about new jobs – or, for that matter, new information, or new ideas – ‘weak ties’ are always more important than ‘strong ties’. This is not surprising when you think about it – whilst your friends are closely associated with your personal network, your acquaintances tend to occupy quite a different world to you, so that they are more likely to know something or someone that you don’t. In this way they make great ‘connectors’, linking you to new information and people, new jobs and employment networks.
This research finding, originally conducted by sociologist, Mark Granovetter, in 1974 was reported in Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point”, a book I was reading over Christmas, whilst also digesting rather a lot of high calorie food! Subtitled, “How little things make a big difference”, the book demonstrates how concepts such as “the law of the few” and “the power of context” can lead to escalated effects such as epidemics, successful mass media campaigns and increased social power.
Many people, when they look back over their life and tell their ‘career story’, quite often mention a turning point; something that happened such as a chance meeting or piece of information which transformed their lives, changed or boosted their career direction. Such events can act as a ‘tipping point’, defined by Gladwell as one dramatic moment when everything can change all at once. People also refer to these instances as their ‘lucky’ moment. They say things like, “I just happened to bump into someone who told me about a great job opportunity” or “I attended a conference I’d found out about on Twitter, where I met my current supervisor” or “I attended a career workshop where the tutor put me in touch with one of her contacts and from there I managed to find my first job in science communication”. That last one was me – I was the workshop tutor who acted as the ‘connector’ to help one of my workshop delegates to get connected to the science communication community.
Social media, especially Twitter [currently], are vast networks which often get into the news as the perpetrators of viral stories (good and bad) – they can cause information epidemics very quickly and are a powerful example of how one tweet can escalate globally, depending on factors such as who posted it, the topic and the controversy. Within this global network, more specialised sub-communities exist where people follow each other and tweet a variety of fascinating and useful information (including jobs) connected with their particular interests. All of our connections on social media are potential ‘connectors’ – the fact that they are engaging with these networks means they are likely to be conducive to approaches from people in their circles, so I recommend that you join one or two of them, depending on your career plans.
So if you look a bit closer, you’ll probably find that people are usually the makers of their own luck. They have put themselves ‘out there’ by being proactive, being in the right place at the right time, instigating semi-formal introductions and initiating interactions with acquaintances or ‘strangers’. One or more of their many ‘connectors’ are likely to have put them in the path of a person or piece of information which has acted as a tipping point in their career, acting as their lucky moment, and leading them to where they are now.
Related content: 10 ways to find your next job