Rethinking How You Land a Job: Beyond Networking

by Arpit Chaturvedi

I have been getting many queries on job search, both within and outside the GPODS circles. I am inundated with these. I feel that a lot of the folks are applying tactics that are bound to fail. A key tactic is just applying to a lot of jobs and then hoping one will convert. The world is more complex than that.

Mark Granovetter, a leading theorist who wrote his thesis on how people get jobs made some interesting headway. He popularized the idea decades ago that “networking” gets jobs.[1] He coined the concept – “the power of weak ties” – essentially meaning that (a) most people get jobs through networks and (b) weak ties are more useful than strong ties, especially because they get you fresh information and opportunities – if you keep hanging out with the same people, your information will be stale.

However, I realize this insight is in itself half baked or at best partially useful. Blind networking does not work. Moreover, I know a lot of people who are tired of the networking routine. They have spent countless hours on coffee meets with partners in firms, attended conferences and have received nothing in return. Networking is costly and therefore it is difficult to employ it successfully unless you have all the time and resources in the world. Young professionals lack both. Further, there are many networkers who are not able to convert their networks into anything. You do not want to be that.

One of the most important pieces of research for you is a paper by Sudipta Sarangi et al. - their work on influence and counter influence in networks [2]. Without going into many details, the import for the paper in job applications is that:

1.      When you apply for jobs, check which ones you can muster some references and by that, I mean not the references you put in the application but real references of people who may have prior goodwill and influence over the decision-makers. Assuming for most jobs you do not have such references (ideally as a GPODS Fellow you must go through your mentors), you go to the next step.

2.      Do not meet only one person in the organization. Your effort should be to meet at least 3 and those three should be connected to each other.

a.      This is tougher than you might think. Getting in touch and building rapport with three decision-makers in the same organization is extremely difficult but still a better strategy than meeting 3 people a week for “job networking”.

b.      If you can't do this with 3 people, it should almost work equally well with 2 of them, especially if both are key decision-makers and are senior enough.

Hiring decisions look something like this (not completely accurate that all situations look like this but this is a useful mental model to have – I am not describing the details here, you can read the paper, but the broad discussion here would still work):

(Source: Bravarda, Christophe, Durieu, Jacques, Sarangi, Sudipta and Touati, Corinne, Influence and Counter-Influence in Networks, Cornell Research Academy of Development, Law and Economics (2024))

3.      To the extent possible, do not ask for a job. It is implicit. However, provide free value first. In the job market, the companies are a buyer and in consumer behavior language, hiring someone is a high involvement exercise (it is expensive and has significant implications for the firm) and there are at the same time few differences in the options available (you may think you are unique but there are a thousand other applicants which makes the differences in profiles miniscule in the mind of an employer). This leads to dissonance reducing behavior. Look at this model developed by the NYU professor Henry Assael:

(Source: Assael, Henry, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action, Kent Publishing Company, Boston, 1987)

You’re dealing with the bottom left quadrant here and therefore are in the same category of products such as home appliances, insurance policies, IT purchase/CRM software, bathroom fittings etc. Seriously. And that means that the “buyer” is making important decisions under uncertainty, followed by a strong need to justify the decision. The recruiters are really seeking  reassurance to justify their decision and reduce psychological discomfort (cognitive dissonance). I can feel this from my conversations with recruiters – including alums from my MBA schools. So what does it mean for you and how can you reduce dissonance?:

a.      Offer free value first. This is almost necessary but insufficient. But very necessary. Without getting a proof of the pudding, it is impossible to hire now. So even work samples help but there is nothing like initial free work no matter how much you hate it.

b.      Show social proof. “If he/she is good enough for “X (a prestigious figure/organization etc.)” they’re good enough for me”. Is what you’d want to establish.

c.      Invoke post-purchase pride before the purchase. Pride is heightened when others recognize the smart choice—social acknowledgment reinforces identity value. Obama’s hiring story is instructive in this manner. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama didn’t immediately accept a firm’s offer. Instead, he asked them to wait a year—he wanted to finish writing Dreams from My Father. He signaled that he will be a big deal whether or not he is hired. In the meantime, he kept meeting potential recruiters over lunch for a year. The same subset of people over and over again until one day he asked one of them, who had become an admirer of his – “So when are you going to give me a job?”. That is how it is done.

Essentially, you should do all of the following:

1.      Target at least 2 or 3 decision-makers in the same organization who know that the other decision makers also know you and like you. A should know that B and C know you and like you, B should know that A and C know you and like you and so on.

2.      Show social proof. They all should know that people outside who are credible in their eyes know, like, and value you.

3.      Offer free value without asking for a job.

4.      Invoke post purchase pride (before the decision to hire you) – signal to them that you are going to be a valuable and sought after member of the industry regardless of them hiring you – so they should better hire you. Do it humbly though.

There is a high likelihood you will miss at least one of these strategies. However, there is also a high likelihood that only when you suffice on all four of the strategies and employ them, you will get the role that you are seeking.

[1] Granovetter, Mark S., Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1974.

[2] Bravarda, Christophe, Durieu, Jacques, Sarangi, Sudipta and Touati, Corinne, Influence and Counter-Influence in Networks, Cornell Research Academy of Development, Law and Economics, 2024.

[3]Assael, Henry, Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action, Kent Publishing Company, Boston, 1987.