Computers Don’t Give People Jobs- People Do.

A recent LinkedIn group posting by a job seeker asked the question, “Tons of  applications vs. networking (in a new place) – Which might work best?”

While applying online for openings is a necessary component to job search, I think this chart and table answers the job seeker’s question clearly:

Mark S. Granovetter, a sociologist at Harvard, investigated how people get jobs. His study included professional, technical, and managerial workers who recently found jobs, and the chart shows the methods by which jobs were obtained.

Granovetter’s data also indicated that of the people who found jobs through personal contacts, 43.8% had new positions created for them.

Granovetter concludes: “Personal contacts are of paramount importance in connecting people with jobs. Better jobs are found through contacts, and the best jobs, the ones with the highest pay and prestige and affording the greatest satisfaction to those in them, are most apt to be filled in this way.”

Recommended Job Search Effort Allocation

 

Priority	Method	Recommended Effort Allocation
1	Unpublished Sources	70%
2	Advertisements	10%
3	Executive Search Agencies, Job Fairs	5%
4	Present or Former Employer	5%
5	Targeted Mailings	5%
6	Other	5%

So if you are searching for a job, spend the majority of your time focusing on networking to find out about most of the jobs- the unpublished ones.

Next week, we’ll give some recommendations on how to network and provide you with a tool for planning and tracking your networking efforts.