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Weak Ties versus Strong Ties in your Job Search [Updated]

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Weak Ties versus Strong Ties

weak tiesWeak ties—or weak connections—in your network are more valuable than strong ties!

WHAT?

Weak ties are those people who you do not know well…those people with whom you only have a casual relationship.

Wait a minute. Everyone has been telling you that you need to network and develop deep relationships to help in your job search. That is still true.

Here is the problem.

People who know you really well, know the same people you know. People who know you more casually likely know a lot of people you do not know.

Why Would Weak Ties be More Valuable than Strong Ties?

This concept comes from a section of the book Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant. Look for a couple of more posts based on this book.

Adam writes:

Strong ties are our close friends and colleagues, the people we really trust. Weak ties are our acquaintances, the people we know casually. Testing the common assumption that we get the most help from our strong ties, Stanford sociologist Mark Granvotter, surveyed people in professional, technical and managerial professions who recently changed jobs. Nearly 17 percent heard about the job from a strong tie. Their friends and trusted colleagues gave them plenty of leads.

But, surprisingly, people were significantly more likely to benefit from weak ties. Almost 28 percent heard about the job from a weak tie. Strong ties provide bonds, but weak ties served as bridges: they provide more efficient access to new information. Our strong ties tend to travel in the same social circles and know about the same opportunities as we do. Weak ties are more likely to open up access to a different network, facilitating the discovery of original leads.

Here’s the wrinkle: it’s tough to ask weak ties for help.

The premise is that weak ties know about people and opportunities that your strong ties do not. Therefore, weak ties can be more valuable to you in your job search than strong ties.

Asking for Advice

Most of us are not comfortable asking weak ties for help. Heck…I am a guy, I do not like asking for help from anyone!

The magic word is to ask for advice.

When you ask for advice, you will rarely be turned down. If they do turn you down, they are a jerk and you do not want to talk with them anyway.

When you ask for advice from a weak tie, it is a compliment.

It might sound like — Can you give some advice on:

How to get hired at your company?

Who do I need to talk to at your company to get a xyz job?

How to best hear of new opportunities at your company?

You are not asking for a job! You are just asking for a little bit of advice.

This fits nicely into the asking for A-I-R—Advice, Insights, and Recommendations.

Weak Tie Example #1 – Past Colleagues and Managers

Weak ties can come from a variety of areas.

Take a moment and read about Steve in the post Introverted Sales Guy Job Search – Case Study. 

Steve very methodically reached out to past co-workers and managers who he had worked with over the last 20 years. Many of these people he had not spoken with for over 10 years. He reached out and reached out, and finally found a former colleague who was looking for an account manager. This former colleague remembered him as an excellent account manager and a really nice guy.

It was through this weak tie that Steve landed his job.

Weak Tie Example #2 – Family Relationships

If you have children still at home, you likely have a huge amount of weak ties. It is your children’s friends parents.

Think about that for a second. If they are still in school, playing team sports or involved in other school activities, you have access to people who have networks that may only barely intersect your network.

Even if your children are grown, look to their network for access to potential connections. One trend I am seeing is our reluctance to reach out to people much younger than us. The problem is, when we hit our 50s, 60s or beyond, our networks may age out. I wrote about this in the post Has Your Network Aged Out and Abandoned You?

We need to be constantly looking for new connections and sometimes they will be younger than you would expect.

Weak Tie Example #3 – Professional Relationships

You have a lot of professional relationships outside of work. How about asking for help from your:

  • Financial Advisor
  • Accountant
  • Doctor
  • Lawyer
  • Chiropractor
  • Hair Dresser or Barber
  • Personal Trainer

When I was looking for a high school math teaching position, my most valuable networking connection was …. my chiropractor. At that point, I had been seeing her for over a dozen years and she had seen me through two very difficult situations, a ruptured disc in 1993 and my near-fatal bicycle accident in 2002. She knew me well, why I was pursuing a pivot into teaching and knew a lot of people I did not know, including several local school superintendents.

Willingness to Reach Out to Weak Ties

All of these weak ties know a lot of people who you do not know. As Adam Grant said in his book, it’s tough to ask weak ties for help.

If you can become comfortable reaching out to weak ties, your network will expand greatly…and so do your opportunities.

Have your weak ties been more valuable than strong ties?

Tell us about it!

Marc Miller  

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How To Stay Connected When You Are Not There

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Stay Connected

Stay Connected
Copyright: netsay / 123RF Stock Photo

I was asked, by a member of the Career Pivot Community, about how to stay connected to his remote network during a job search. He and his wife are living in an area where the economy is in decline. He is looking for a job halfway across the country.

I previously wrote the post, I Want to Be Hired Before I Move Dilemma. I share how to make it look like you are in the remote location without actually having to physically move there.

The Career Pivot member is currently making regular trips to a remote location for networking. The problem he is struggling with is how he can stay connected in between the trips. He wants to stay connected to the people he meets on each trip, but not be a pest. He does not want to email them every week or so, to check to see if they have heard anything. He knows that when people do that to him, he stops reading their emails.

My response was to become a resource to them on LinkedIn. Share targeted curated content to become a resource to them.

Share Curated Content on LinkedIn

Curating content is nothing new. Museums and galleries have been doing this for years. They have curators who select pieces to display or share.

He should do the same by curating content from the geographical location and industry he is pursuing.

Let’s talk about finding relevant content and then sharing it on LinkedIn

Finding Content to Share to Stay Connected

I always suggest subscribing to the Business Journal in multiple locations in the state where you want to relocate. In this case, he was targeting North Carolina. I suggested he subscribe to the Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, and Greensboro/Winston-Salem Business Journals.

You might also subscribe to the email lists of relevant industry associations. You might want to check out Feedly, which helps you to locate RSS feeds and then filter the content based on keywords.

I use Twitter lists to organize the Twitter feeds of various organizations. If you are not sure how to use a Twitter list, check out my post, Twitter Lists, and the Targeted Job Search.

Schedule Content to Share

Once you have located content to share, you will want to use a tool like Buffer to schedule the content to be shared on LinkedIn throughout the week. There are other tools out there, but I am a big fan of buffer.com. The free version will let you schedule to a personal LinkedIn account for free.

For example, you might locate 4-5 relevant pieces of content on a Monday morning, and schedule them to be shared mid-morning and early afternoon for Tuesday – Thursday on LinkedIn. You may want to check this Hubspot article called, The Best Time to Post on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+.

You will want to check the engagement level for every post by checking how many clicks and likes each post gets. Buffer will provide those basic statistics.

Target Individuals in New Location

Now comes the important part to this strategy. After a post has gone live, make a comment in the post and specifically tag individuals.

You may be saying to yourself, how do I tag an individual in a comment. You do this by typing first an @ and then their name. 

I posted a recent podcast episode where I was interviewed by Denise King. I wanted Denise to know I was using the recording. I typed in her name and a drop-down list appeared. I selected her name from the list and typed in a message.

Denise will now be notified that she was mentioned in a comment.

Be Helpful by Sharing Relevant Content

For each curated content you find, tag one or more individuals who you think would find it worthwhile. Pay attention to see who engages with the content by commenting or liking the post on LinkedIn.

If you consistently share relevant content once or twice a week, people will notice and want to stay engaged.

This strategy works whether the connection is local or remote. It is even better if you are sharing content that you produce, like a blog post or a podcast.

There are two themes I want you to remember :

  • Be helpful
  • Be consistent

If you do share relevant content every week at approximately the same time, people will come to expect your sharing.

This makes you memorable!

Marc Miller  

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Has Your Network Aged Out and Abandoned You?

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Has Your Network Aged Out

network aged out
Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

I am hearing over and over again about how people’s network have aged out. I was working on a brand story with one of the members of the new Career Pivot community (look to hear a lot more about this in the coming weeks) who told me that new positions always came to her. She never needed to look because her mentors and other leaders were always looking out for her.

What has happened to her in her 60s is her network has aged out. The people who had her back for so many years have either retired, are not in a position of power or are in the same boat she is in, underemployed or unemployed.

When she was telling me the story of her career, it was pretty obvious that she did nothing to cultivate or care for the network. Rather it was always there for her and she never paid attention to it.

On the other hand, she is mentoring a lot of young professionals and her connection to them is strong; but they are not nearly as influential as the people who had mentored her over the years.

Her network has aged out and left her abandoned.

Network Has Retired

I had a similar discussion with a gentleman who is now in his late 60s. He was forced into retirement and has since formed a consulting group with 5 or 6 of his former colleagues.

Throughout his career, opportunities just came to him through his network. He never really needed to find work and he did little to cultivate his network or even grow his network. He did not see the need to grow his network as it was feeding him and his family just fine.

That was until he hit his 60s and his network either retired, became unemployed, were downsized or they just died. His contacts within his industry greatly diminished. It did not help that he was on the manufacturing side of the business which had been shipped offshore for cost savings.

He now needs to reinvigorate his network but this is not something he is comfortable doing. At the same time, he is not social media savvy.

His network had aged out and left him abandoned.

Strategically Examine Your Network

For those of us in the 2nd half of life, our next job will come through a relationship. That relationship may be an existing one, a dormant one that you will reinvigorate (weak ties), or a new relationship.

You should carefully examine your existing relationships or network.

How many are of similar age? How many are much older? Will they still be around to assist you in 10 years?

Zero in on those who are connectors. Connectors are those people who know lots of people and enjoy making connections.

If you were let go from your job today, who could you depend on to help you? Will those same people be in a position to help you in 10-15 years? If not, you need to replace them NOW!

You want to examine your network NOW to see how much of it will age out.

Industry Shifting?

How stable is the industry where you are currently working?

If you are in a shrinking or dying industry now is the time to make the shift.

I want you to look at your industry through two different lenses.

Automation, AI or robots will continue to break down and eliminate jobs. I recently had a client interview with a company that will be using deep learning to replace thousands of service personnel. The chatbot they were developing will be able to answer 95% of all customer service questions.

Creative destruction is accelerating. Think of the industries that have been affected by the creation of the iPhone just 10 years ago. Just imagine what drones will be able to do in 10 years and what jobs and industries will be eliminated.

Next Steps

Once you have examined your network and industry, you will want to create a plan to replace and/or augment your existing network.

If you need to shift to a different industry, who do you need to develop relationships with? How are you going to garner street cred within that new industry?

If you’re in a stable industry, who are the ‘up and coming’ individuals that you need to develop relationships with NOW – such that your network will not age out?

If you are in your 50s today and plan to work until 70 or beyond (yes, that is a large percentage of the 50 somethings) you need to plan on your network to age out.

I am now into my 60s and many of the people I worked with at IBM in the 1980s and 1990s are no longer in the workforce. Many of the people who I worked with after the dot-com bust are still working but are no longer in a position of power or influence. My network has aged out.

Has your network aged out? What are you going to do about it?

Marc Miller  

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“Advice” – The Magic Word in Managing Your Career

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Advice“Advice” is the Magic Word

When someone comes to you and asks for some advice, do you ever turn them down?

Probably not.

In fact, you probably take it as a compliment!

What is the best way to approach a contact for help with your career?

Ask for advice?

I use this in a larger strategy called Asking for A-I-R.

  • Advice
  • Insights
  • Recommendations

(More: The Key to a Successful Shift: Asking for Help)

First Ask for Advice

Let’s say you are looking to network into one of your target companies. You get one of your contacts to make an introduction. When you reach out to the targeted individual you immediately ask; “Can I have a few minutes of your time to ask some advice?”

Might they ignore your request? Sure.

Might they simply say no? Sure.

If they refuse to help you then they are probably a jerk. In that case, you do not want to talk to them anyway. Move on to the next person on your target list.

When you get some time with this individual you might ask for advice about getting hired at the company.

Secondly, Ask for Their Insights

  • How do you like working there?
  • Can you describe the culture?
  • What is the management style in general in the company?
  • What is the management style of your immediate boss?
  • How is hiring done – referral, posting on a website, headhunters …?

If you think of any other questions please share them in the comment box below.

Ask for Their Recommendations

The step that many forget is to ask for recommendations!

  • What should I do next?
  • Who do you recommend that I talk to next?
  • Can you introduce me to anyone that might help me in reaching my goal?

When you get a recommendation, you need to follow up, follow up and follow up. You keep the person making the introduction in the loop at every step!

I like to think of this as “sales closing.” As a sales person, you want to close each meeting. It is not necessarily to make the sale but to move to the next step.

(More: Strategic Networking Playbook – Who, How and When!)

What Can I Do For You?

The last step in this process is to always ask what can I do for you? 

When I network, my philosophy is to be as helpful as possible and never expect anything in return. It is all about creating good karma. You do this enough and good things will come to you. The issue is you never know when good things will come back to you. They usually come back to you when you least expect it.

Asking for Advice Story #1

I like to tell the story of my son, who after graduating from college in 2006 was having difficulty landing his first job. He applied with a large employer in Sacramento, California. I instructed him to get on the Sacramento chapter website of the professional association where he belonged and to e-mail all of the Sacramento officers and ask for 15 minutes on the phone to ask some advice.

My son expected that this was a bunch of hogwash. No one will reply.

Much to his surprise every last one of them gave him at least 30 minutes, and he got a lot of great advice. He did not get the job, but he learned that when you ask for advice…. people will respond positively.

Asking for Advice Story #2

Recently, I had a client who was working on penetrating the headquarters of a large company in the Austin job market. She was introduced to the head of human resources through a contact. The next step was to pull out the magic word and ask for advice.

The head of human resources could have easily blown off the request but instead was asked if she wanted to come in for a cup of coffee. That coffee meeting led to a whole series of introductions that have not led to a position just yet but she now has a whole set of valuable contacts.

All because she used the magic word of “advice”.

Advice is the magic word in managing your career!

Do you ask for advice?

Marc Miller  

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Connecting on LinkedIn is Like Asking for a Date

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My Connecting on LinkedIn is Like What?

dateHave you considered that when you are connecting on LinkedIn you should follow the same rules that you used when you asked for a date?

I have been married for over thirty years. My memories of dating are pretty vague but I do remember those awkward feelings when asking for a date. I remember that I did not want to be rejected, ignored or dumped.

When you are connecting on LinkedIn, consider the following:

  • How do you know this person? Did you meet at a conference or meeting? Maybe you read an article on their website or did you comment on their blog? Is it a personal or a virtual relationship?
  • Why do you want to create a connection on LinkedIn with this person? Do you want to network with this person? Do they work at a company that you are targeting? Can they introduce you to decision makers? Can they help you get your next job? Do you think they are doing interesting work and would like to connect personally?
  • Is there anything you can do for them? People rarely do this but if there is something reciprocal in nature to the connection – mention it.

Why are you asking for the date … eerr … the connection on LinkedIn?

How do you know the connection and why do you want to connect?

LinkedIn used to make you check a box on how you knew the connection. Too many people figured out how to get around that requirement by lying.

However, it is still important to think about how you found this person and what you expect from the relationship.

Writing the Connection Request

When you press the connect button on a LinkedIn profile (and that is the ONLY place from which you should initiate a connection request,) you will now get a popup like the following:

customize

You should always select “add a note.”

I will write a connection request like the following:

Mary,

It was great meeting you at XYZ conference. (Notice I specify where we met.) I looked at your profile and see that we have a lot in common. I look forward to meeting you again and corresponding about EFG (whatever we talked about at the conference.) I would enjoy continuing the conversation. (Give Mary a reason to stay engaged.)

Please accept this invitation to connect.

Marc Miller

This invitation quickly tells Mary:

  • Where we met
  • What we have in common
  • Gives her a reason to stay connected
  • I am a real person and not just sending out SPAM

If I found Mary by reading one of her articles I will tell her.

How is this Like Dating?

This is using the same tactics that men have used for years. If you want to meet a girl, you hang around those groups, classes, clubs … where the girls you want to meet congregate.

I am dropping all of the little hints that I like you and would like to get to know you. I want to go out on a date …eerr … I want to network with you.

Blind Date

Sometimes you receive LinkedIn connections like the following:

Blind Date

I look at this kind of invitation as a blind date. Do I turn down the overture?

I take a quick look at the profile and if the profile looks real, i.e. the profile has a picture, there is some employment history, and it has more than a few connections, then I accept the connection.

I immediately go to the profile and send a LinkedIn message.

Dear Mary,

Just accepted your invitation to connect. How did you find me?

Marc Miller

Just because the person may be shy I do not want turn down the opportunity for a date. When I graduated from high school, I was 6’4″ tall, weighed about 140 lbs. and had a big head of red hair. I was also pretty shy around girls.

I was no chick magnet. Therefore, I understand when people send connection requests with no notes.

However, I want you to send a note to explain why you want to connect in every connection request.

Be Authentic

Be authentic, personable and most importantly tell me how we know each other!

If you want a date …errr … a connection on LinkedIn, then you should behave just like you are asking for a date!

Give it a try and let me know how it works!

Marc Miller  

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