The Popularity Paradox

A friend of a friend—maybe?—asks to connect with you on LinkedIn. For recruiters, executives, and HR leaders, it happens dozens of times a day; for the rest of us, it’s a constant trickle. The question is what to do about it. In the back of your mind, you might think, “Well, if I ever became unemployed, I’d hope this person would help me… but I don’t really know them.” It’s a quandary.

Welcome to a new and intensely awkward challenge, at least for career development. Millions of workers—many of them managers and other white-collar employees—say the current job market has frozen them out, and they’re turning for help to the only places they can think of: job sites. Indeed, various sources reveal that membership at the world’s biggest job site, LinkedIn, has soared to more than 1.1 billion globally. Every day, nearly 25 million connections are made on LinkedIn, according to company data. The result: a deluge of messages that leaves many workers unsure how to respond. “I sometimes get 15 to 20 invitations a day,” says Renee Whalen, North America consumer market leader for professional search at Korn Ferry. “When someone loses a job, it’s such an emotional piece of their life. They don’t know what to do.”

Seeing a job posting creates a natural urge to reach out to someone at the firm, or even someone who knows someone at the firm. Experts say Gen Z—which makes up a quarter of the workforce—is driving much of the traffic to job boards. In one study, 88% of Gen Zers said they use the boards to find work. For their part, older workers report experiencing increasing difficulty in finding jobs: It takes nearly 26 weeks, on average, for people ages 55 to 64 to find a job, compared with 19 weeks for people ages 25 to 34, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With so much time on their hands, experts say, candidates do their best to expand their networks.

But for those who are employed, the flood of requests to “chat” or make introductions has become overwhelming and exhausting, particularly since most workers won’t know of a suitable opportunity for the candidate—or even know someone who does. Recruiting experts, meanwhile, say that many candidates, in their rush to find help, are reaching out and asking to connect blindly, which can backfire. Dennis Deans, vice president of global human resources at Korn Ferry, recently received a message that referred to an acquisition that never happened, then referenced the current work of a beloved executive who had recently passed away. “A little homework will help,” says Deans.

For many,  the dilemma of the day has become whether or not to accept a LinkedIn invitation, and specifically whether there’s time to write a response. Responding insensitively or not responding at all can reflect both on you and your firm; further, any of today’s job seekers could be tomorrow’s key professional relationship or job candidate. Assessing the invitation, especially if it’s from someone you do not know well, becomes an anxiety-inducing challenge. Kate Shattuck, a Korn Ferry managing partner, says a network is only as valuable as the people in it.

For her part, Whalen says she will try to dash off a quick note whenever she can, but many pros say it’s best for candidates to avoid one-way requests. Executives are much more likely to accept a request that includes a line like, “How can I help you with your business?” At the end of the day, mutually beneficial relationships are the gold standard, says Shattuck. “They are valuable to everyone involved.” 

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