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Day 15: Social Networks

Help rearrange classroom

Get a role sheet and make nametag with that role name

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Checking In

Questions about anything class related?

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Rule Updates and Reminders

Employers must only interview 3 people before can start offering jobs (reduced from 5)
Meet new people through introductions from mutual friends
Role sheets only include college and GPA (no longer what kind of major)

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Go (try) to get a job!

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#	Name	GPA	College	Connected to Employers?	# of interviews	Job Offer?	Salary
1	Sophia	3.9	UNC	Yes, parent and family friend
2	Jackson	3.8	UNC
3	Emma	3.7	UNC
4	Aiden	3.6	UNC
5	Olivia	3.9	UNC-G
6	Lucas	3.8	UNC-G	Yes, (unspecified how)
7	Ava	3.7	UNC-G
8	Liam	2.8	UNC
9	Mia	2.9	UNC
10	Noah	3.0	UNC
11	Isabella	3.1	UNC-G

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3 minute break—thank friends for coming!

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Connecting to Personal Experiences and Reading

How did you hear about/find out about your most recent job?
How does this discussion relate to today’s reading?

Have students share their examples of how they heard about their most recent job. Share the examples below if they remained unconvinced.

Examples:

Teaching position that is open but never posted on website—can only apply if you know the opening exists
Even if posting is online, need to know to check the website for the posting—more likely to if someone directs you there
Many college students are able to get internships for companies when those positions didn’t officially exist beforehand; sometimes they are created for the student, but generally only so if have a direct connection to the employer so they are incentivized to give it to you

(My reading: Cosmo article about why women shouldn’t change their last names:
Will be much harder to connect with people if they don’t know who you are anymore; in this example, it was coming right out of college, when most people won’t change their names yet, but within a few years, many women will get married, most will change their names, and they will be at extreme disadvantage for networking, especially with more distant people who they don’t keep up with very much)

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Social Networks Terminology

Dense vs. loose networks

Dense= most people in network connected to each other
Loose= most people in network have connections to different people

Loose networks are better at:

Spreading information more quickly
Providing new information to people in the network

Questions to ask:

Which networks were dense vs loose? (flip back to map slide)
Why can’t dense networks spread information well or provide new information?
(Answer: because everyone knows the same things quickly and then no new source of information)
Think about high school gossip as an example. How is it that the whole school can know something, even if they’re not all friends with each other?
(Answer: while most students are not friends with most other students, if the network is loose enough, a few people will be friends with people in other groups which will allow new information to spread)
So if you are part of a really close-knit group of friends (a dense network) why won’t they be as helpful for telling you about new job opportunities as asking acquaintances?
(Answer: because they likely all know the same opportunities and information whereas people you don’t know as well as likely to have heard about different opportunities)

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Social Networks Terminology

Weak vs. Strong Ties

Weak= distant connections in social network
Strong= close connection in social network

Strong ties more likely to go more out of their way to help you
Weak ties more likely to provide new information

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Social Capital

Access to resources based on your network connections to other people

Can you think of examples other than jobs?

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Big Picture: Social Networks and Inequality

Why are social networks important for job attainment?
Why do you think some people have better social networks than others during college?
How do social networks cause structural inequality in the process of sorting into jobs?

Why is hard work/good qualifications not always enough to overcome this?

Answers:

They are important because they help you hear about opportunities, introduce you to employers, and possibly have those people vouch for you
People have better networks than others for many reasons:

Family connections they are born into
Having money and status to fit in with more popular people
Not needing to work for pay so that they can spend more time hanging out with students
Coming in knowing that it is important for them to make friends and network
Having higher class family background so that they can more easily make friends with other higher school class people (think about rush process for Greek life)

Causes inequality in labor market because some people are positioned so that they are more likely to know employers (or know people who know employers) and those people are therefore more likely to get hired and get better salaries not because of their hard work but because of people that they knew
Hard work/good qualifications aren’t enough because you have to know about job opportunities to be able to apply for them

Example: socially isolated achievers worked hard but didn’t know that it was important to make friends with other people during college and so they were much less likely to do as well on the job market compared to the achievers who did prioritize making friends in college

Other questions to ask as time allows:
So far we have talked about gender and social class. How do you think that this story varies by race?
What do you takeaway from this class on a personal level?
Based on this, what advice would you give you friends that they don’t already know?

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For Next Class

Be working on your presentations (will get a few minutes at beginning of next class to check in with group members, ask me questions, etc.)
TSEL Chp 10
Second half class choice day!