I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s – The Tipping Point and came across a section in which he talks about the a survey that shows the importance of having a strong social network. Here the excerpt from the book -
“In his classic 1974 study Getting a Job, Granovetter looked at several hundred professional and technical workers from the Boston suburb of Newton, interviewing them in some detail on their employment history. He found that 36 percent of those he talked to found their job through a personal connection. Another 18.8 percent used formal means — advertisements, headhunters and roughly 20 percent applied directly. “
Suddenly I could see lights flashing in my mind. I could easily agree with this theory as I have personally seen the importance of having an acquaintance and the power of “word of mouth”.
I could easily see a parallel between this book and the driving force behind the modern day social networking site linkedin.