by Peter Weddle (Higheredjobs.com)
The journalist David Brooks once famously opined that “Human beings are over-confidence machines.” We aren’t as smart as we think we are, nor are we as smart as we need to be. That’s especially true when it comes to networking in a job search.
Brooks bases his assertion on a survey done among executives in the advertising and computer industries. They were each given a quiz on their industry knowledge and then asked to rate how confident they were of their answers.
The advertising pooh bahs thought they were right 90 percent of the time, when in actuality, 61 percent of their answers were wrong. And, the computer hotshots were even more off the mark. They estimated their answers to be right 95 percent of the time, when in fact, 80 percent were wrong.
Now, some may say that such over-confidence is endemic among managers and executives, but not among the rest of the workforce. Regular people are much more self-aware. Or, are they?
These days, an awful lot of regular people are 100 percent confident that social media is the answer to executing a successful job search. They are absolutely certain that the path to re-employment runs through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
So, what do they do? They devote countless hours to meeting virtual strangers on the Web and ignore the many connections and friends they have right in their own backyard. They rely on contacts when relationships will serve them better.
Network With the People You Know
Networking on social media sites is important, but it is not the only or even the best way to tap the job market knowledge and connections of others. Where’s the proof that’s so? Ask yourself this question: Who are you more likely to help, a friend you met through your daughter’s soccer team or someone you’ve only met through an invitation to connect on LinkedIn?
The Golden Rule is golden because it represents the epitome of human behavior. We all may aspire to its lofty standard, but in our day-to-day interactions, we are simply more comfortable investing our limited time, effort and connections in people we actually know.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE: http://www.higheredjobs.com/articles/articledisplay.cfm?ID=376&utm_source=10_24_12&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=InsiderUpdate
