The Importance of Second Level Connections
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A career coach on LinkedIn shared the following:
“A recent article in the NYT https://nyti.ms/3LUboKB brings evidence using LinkedIn for five years on more than 20 million users. The essence of the article is pointing to the fact that weak-ties (2nd level connection in LinkedIn lingo) is more helpful for jobseekers than 1st level connections i.e. strong-ties.
This subject was researched in the past in 1973. A leading voice on the subject is the one from Dr. Granovetter, a Harvard PhD.
“The recent researchers analyzed how LinkedIn’s algorithmic changes had affected users’ job mobility. They found that relatively weak social ties on LinkedIn proved twice as effective in securing employment as stronger social ties.”
If so, how do you increase the number of 2nd level connections? By having many 1st level connections
I replied:
The logic of this theory tells us we should never accept a connection request from someone because then they become a first-level connection and are unwilling to help even though their third-level connections become second-level connections. This reminds me of the Myth of the Passive Candidate I helped to create many years ago as a way of defeating the stranglehold the New York Times had on agencies and candidates. ‘These agents find the best person who reads the NY Times on Sunday. I find the best person.’ Truth be told, I couldn’t afford Times ad rates, particularly in the financial section. So I created a rebuttal that is so good that the notion that passive candidates are superior to active ones still exists today.
Often, the introduction to the weak tie (a second or third level) comes from a strong tie (a first level)– someone that we know who introduces us to someone we don’t know but they know well. The original statistics said 70% of positions were filled as a result of networking. 70% of the 70% (49%) come as a result of introductions from people who we know to people they know who we don’t know. That makes far more sense than the mumbo jumbo of 1st and 2nd level connections.
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
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[…] notices you’re a member of a group that they’re a part of, or that you’re a second level connection to someone that they that they’re already connected with. So, what they’re trying to […]