Granovetter, by contrast, argues that what matters in getting ahead is not the quality of your relationships but the quantity -- not how close you are to those you know but, paradoxically, how many people you know whom you aren't particularly close to.
This idea is perhaps more poignant for me at this point in my life, as I am fully immersed in a full-time job hunt. The idea that I could be talking to less helpful people than others simply by speaking those who are close to me is intriguing. Going forward, I may start to rekindle old ties to see what opportunities may reveal themselves.
The Clive Thompson article posed a very different thesis. The author wrote about the rising trend of "reality mining." In this case, real life situations (in the workplace, for example) are analyzed - or "mined" - to determine possible inefficiencies. I have always found this type of analysis very interesting (e.g. the idea of removing inefficient physical movements in an operating room). I had not considered that this could be happening in a work environment, but upon reading this article it became immediately obvious. I couldn't help but to think of my first day of work, or even my first few weeks of work - I couldn't have possibly been a more inefficient worker. This, multiplied across large companies, multiplied throughout the entire workforce, becomes a staggering thought. I leave you with this food for though: Were this inefficient workplace curve to be even slightly lessened, can you imagine the increased output of companies worldwide?
interesting, austin! i had a similar thought. i'm a pretty firm believer that if people open up a bit in the real world like they do in the virtual that efficiencies would be increased.
ReplyDeleteI like how you took lessons from the Lois Weisberg article and applied them to your own life. I agree that the article makes you think about how you've been networking, and whether or not you've taken the best approach.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the comment you sited. I feel it is very poignant in my life at the moment as well. I was just privy to Lindsay Pollack, prof career advisor and she says that networking is the best way to get your job. I think while we increase the quantity of our networks we also have to work very hard to increase the quality simultaneously in order for our social networks to be effective.
ReplyDeleteInteresting POV on the Six Degrees article in regards to job hunting. Meera brought a good point about how important it is to work toward maintaining quality with these networks or else they become useless. And another point to consider is how do you sift through the hundreds of friends you have to determine who's worthy of connecting with?
ReplyDeleteAnd I also totally agree with about the various work inefficiencies but how does a company break down that "social barrier" (fear of opening up amongst coworker's/team members/supervisors) in order to be more useful and efficient?
I completely agree with you. I feel like for the past two years we have been bombarded with this word "networking" and now more than ever as we continue to search for jobs is it most important. You would think in the world of social networking sights that finding who you need to know would be easiest--simply look at your friends friends and their friends friends--solving the whole six degrees of separation because you don't have to actually ask people who they know anymore, you can just look them up on facebook. However, like what you said about maintaing quality relationships with these networks is important or they are useless. I guess that should be a homework assignment for me this week--reach out to those NUMEROUS facebook friends that I quasi know whats going on in their life but haven't spoken to them in years. Good post--it has got me thinking :-)
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