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Concept

Weak Ties

Weak Ties are the acquaintances in your network, people you know but rarely see, who are more likely than close friends to bring you new information and job openings, an idea from sociologist Mark Granovetter that Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha apply in The Start-up of You.

Close friends tend to move in the same circles as you, so they mostly know what you already know. Acquaintances, such as a former classmate, a colleague in another department or someone you met at a conference, belong to other circles, which means they hear about openings, ideas and people you would never come across yourself. The sociologist Mark Granovetter made this point in his 1973 paper "The Strength of Weak Ties": in his research on people who had changed jobs, the contact who led to the new position was more often an acquaintance than a close friend. Hoffman and Casnocha draw on this to argue that a career network needs both layers. Strong ties, your allies, give trust and support; weak ties give reach and new information. The practical consequence is that keeping in loose touch with many people is real career work, not idle socialising, and it takes little: a congratulation when someone changes jobs, a useful link, a quick coffee when you are in the same city. The authors also point out that your network extends to the friends of your friends, so a weak tie can introduce you to someone you could never reach directly, provided you make the request specific and easy to grant.

A real-life example

Ece, an architect in Eskişehir, wanted to move into urban planning but knew nobody in the field. Instead of sending out dozens of applications, she went through her university class list and messaged a classmate she had not spoken to in years, now at a district municipality in Istanbul. The classmate introduced her to a planning consultancy that was quietly hiring. The opening was never advertised; it travelled through a weak tie.

How to use it

  1. 1List twenty acquaintances from past jobs, school and events whom you have not contacted in the past year.
  2. 2Each week, send two of them a short, genuine message: a congratulation, a useful link or a question about their work.
  3. 3When you need help, ask a weak tie for one specific, easy thing, such as a short call or an introduction to a named person.