We stand on the shoulders of groundbreaking social capital research
In 1973, Mark Granovetter discovered that weak ties — people we don’t know well — make as many referrals to jobs as strong ties. We have far more weak ties and we build them faster, so weak ties can scale.
Strong ties
Close friends & family.
Weak ties
Casual acquaintances.
Our goal is to map how social capital actually works in practice — so we can help anybody land a good job.
Then we translate those insights into an irreverent AI experience that educational institutions and employers can embed into their curriculum and training programs.
Over the last decade we have learned a lot about teaching the art of relationships
Here are seven insights from our learning journey. We have many more - download the full PDF here.
1
Most learners don’t know why they should care about building social capital.
of learners don’t believe in — or don’t know what is — social capital.
2
There is a social capital funnel: ~13 outreaches become three career chats, and three career chats become one referral.
3
Career chats lead to more than referrals — they also help with career exploration and navigation.
CAREER CHAT OUTCOMES
-
Referrals
-
Resources
-
Career insights
-
A sense of what the work is really like
4
After blending Goldi with human career chats, students had far more concrete ideas about careers they could pursue.
Before
~5%
of learners mentioned a specific job
After
of learners mentioned a specific job
5
The hardest part of having a career conversation is asking for the career conversation.
Before
“Fear of rejection.”
“Fear of being a burden.”
“Feeling like an imposter.”
“This isn’t my cultural norm.”
6
What works is assigning mandatory career chats, which kick-starts new habits.
2
Mandatory career chats
3
Average career chats conducted
7
Repeated exposure to social capital concepts during a program leads to more real-world action.
Single exposure
+1%
Repeated exposure
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