Reflect upon your group memberships and answer the following questions:
What do you consider the primary groups in your life? Which primary groups are the most important or influential to you now? Explain.
What do you consider the secondary groups to which you belong? Which secondary groups are the most important or influential in your life? Explain.
Who are the consequential strangers you encounter or sometimes see? Is there one consequential stranger that you consider most important? Explain.
Review “why personal connections matter & can get you hired,” the information in our text on weak ties, and Granovetter’s research on the strength of weak ties. Describe how might you apply, in a useful or helpful way, your new understandings of groups to your everyday life. You might take a look at Karen Fingerman’s (2009) thoughts on the value weak ties and consequential strangers might bring to families. Lastly, consider the following research about the workforce and social networks and reference in your response to the question, how might you apply these understandings of groups to your everyday life:
Why Personal Connections Matter & Can Get You Hired
What else can job seekers learn from social networks research? A few highlights:
Weak ties are important, but don’t ignore the strong ones. As often as people cite Granovetter’s findings, they usually don’t mention that weak ties played the largest role for people who already had jobs—those switching positions rather than looking to leave unemployment. Among the unemployed, strong ties actually mattered more. In moments of duress, it seems that strong ties might very well be the ones that come through. So while it’s important to enlist acquaintances in your job search, that doesn’t mean you should neglect the people closest to you.
Pay attention to tie “activation.” The work of Berkeley sociologist Sandra Susan Smith shows that under certain circumstances, people aren’t quick to pass along information about open jobs. To find out about a job, it’s not enough just to be connected to people. Your connections also have to be willing to go to bat for you, since the jobs people know about are often at the place where they work. Letting folks in your social network know that you’re looking for work is a good first step, but you should also work to sell them on the idea that you’d make a great employee. Don’t assume that contacts already know everything they need to about your professional life.
Keep in mind that getting a job and getting a great job are different things. Social connections matter for getting jobs, that much we know for sure. But do they also help people get jobs that are better than the ones they’d find in other ways? Social scientists can’t agree. The work of Duke sociologist Nan Lin suggests that having high-status connections helps land more prestigious jobs, but Ted Mouw, a sociologist at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, questions that link. Wrangling a number of large data sets, Mouw finds that while people with high-status networks do tend to get higher-paying and more prestigious positions, the first isn’t necessarily causing the second. Instead, Mouw argues, people simply have contacts similar to themselves. The take-away: networks are important for getting jobs, but if your goal is moving up the career ladder, don’t bank on the people you know as the most important factor.
During a job search, social connections matter in many different ways. The reason weak ties often lead to job tips is because of how information travels through social networks. But a job search usually involves a lot more than looking for information about open jobs. It might also involve rewriting your resume, practicing your interviewing, figuring out what sort of job you want in the first place, and keeping your spirits up as the weeks and perhaps even months tick by. Weak ties may be the key to getting your next job, but strong ties—those people who are in your life in a meaningful way for the long-term—could play a key role in surviving the job search process.
Remember, for Reflection Assignments, I will expect you to apply specific course concepts, themes, theories, or ideas into your responses. These concepts must be either italicized or bolded and I expect you to include a citation list ( APA style ) for each submission. When using information learned in our course readings, in-text citations will not be needed. However, I will expect you to refer to the author or the text in which you are using information. When using outside sources, I will expect you to cite the source. In general, outside sources are not necessary, especially if you’re writing about an opinion – be sure this is clear. Please differentiate between your opinion and an idea or concept supported by research or data.
Conerly, T. R., Holmes, K., & Tamang, A. L. (2021). Introduction to Sociology 3e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-3e
Fingerman, K. (2009). Consequential strangers and peripheral ties: the importance of unimportant relationships. Journal of Family Theory and Review, 1(69-82). doi: 10.1111/j.1756-2589.2009.00010.x
Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. The American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380. Retrieved from https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jure/pub/papers/granovetter73ties.pdf
Kiviat, B. (2013, October 23). Why personal connections matter and can get you hired. Glassdoor. https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/personal-connections-matter-hired/
Sachs, A. (2009, September 22). The importance of consequential strangers. Time. https://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1925288,00.html
