Scale-free network theory based network building on LinkedIn (and in the real life)

I guess I should start with a confession. I have two antagonist parts in my personality. One of them is terribly introvert. It hates to being in the center, it loves work hard in the back-end, cares the flow of the job, it's a perfectionist and super serious in the tasks. We might can say in one word: workaholic. And I have another one which is trying to compensate the first part, it sells the ideas of mine, it's a talkative alter ego in safe condition. Introvert mentality in extrovert role? Yeah, it's not easy to me, and I am not selling "pig in poke" it's sometimes not easy to surrounding people too. However I can say I have/had some colleagues who I never understand why but they like to work with me. Thank you guys for your patience! :)

The LinkedIn campaign is part of this compensation. Be honest, I am the most happiest, if I can give room to the introvert default settings, but I am in the special situation now: our first kid is coming soon, and I will be unemployed on 1st September. It's not a really good combination, is it? So, I found out to start this campaign here, where I am able to be perfectionist (I already know, I will rewrite all text few hundred times..), and I can bomb you with my ideas at the same time. I believe everyone can use the internet for something, well I use it to selling myself instead to watch kitties in Facebook. My main priority is job now.

My strategy is based on the structure of companies and workforce market: on the formal and informal connections. The connections can be described by scale-free networks which are different from the fully randomized networks. There are some specific hubs in this type of networks which collect, deliver and distribute information, gossips and opportunities, they are the bones of the companies, some of them in high position of the hierarchy, but it's not necessary. They can work in several ways, they can be widely respected or feared or liked, they can work as physical workers around you or a well known manager. Two facts are always true: they gravity each other, and connection numbers of this hub not depending on the size of the company. They are the soft power in the companies, the leads of critical mass of the organisation or decision makers in the details.

But wait a moment, we stop here now, because I don't like the frontal presentation. Let me to involve you. So please, ask yourself, who has a most well defined professional network around you, who has direct connection to all departments in your company, who is the "official" connection hub. I know, it's not that easy question, because you might can say at first time it's your line manager or the CEO. Well, if it's not a small company where you work, it's not necessarily true. I tell you a secret if you see an organizational chart, you are not really able to see the real, relevant connections among the organisations, groups departments and people. There are some specific sub networks which separated from each other, the head of the organisation can't impact directly over three hierarchical level (too much middle persons, too counter interests), etc.

However if you said they are the HR partners, you won. All companies keep a specialized group of people to build, maintenance, renew and follow up the structure of the company. For example, when we are on the labor market, we are the products, they are the customers, their vendors are the headhunters and requiters. When I am on the interview they are quality control and the line manager is the final customer. When you are in the organisation, they are charged to follow up your hours, sick leaves and promotions or dismissal documents. So this group is in a privileged position in the companies' scale-free networks. If you wish good for yourself, you should have a good connections with these kind hubs. That was the reason, I targeted the people of HR in my first expansive network building step. However expansive gathering step doesn't make yourself a good, useful hub, you should do for it. That was reason for the fall of views on my posts and profile in last 3 weeks. Be honest, it was a good experiment to measuring this fact to me. From mathematical's point of view, it's a same alteration like when the physical-chemical system got of a short therm strong impact than it finds a new balance.

Let's return to the original topic. Do you ever think on your faith? Why do you send a tons of applications and you have no interview? It's clear, you can't break a the corporation's firewalls (Taleo, Workday etc.) Why can't you have that position what you deserve so much during your career? You know all gossips on the latest, or you feel your influence on the changes are limited somewhere. If you never thought on these question, you are a lucky person, you got special skills by birth, you are a natural leader. Well, I am not that lucky, so I spent a lot time with these questions. I believe I found good explanation for me, I don't think it's a perfect one, I don't think it's the only one, but a good one.

People has plenty of reasons why they are there, where they wake up, where they work, and where they go to sleep. There are some trivial: social background, psychological ability, luck, special unique performance, so on. If we look a personal destiny we can't pick up any general rules, all of them are so general, we can say some common sense only, for example: a member of a rich family can have easier a company, can be successful than a man from poverty. But it's not necessary coming from the money. It's one of the biggest misunderstanding of the economy, because the money is the derivative of a performance. It can't be independently from the performance, because it's just a yield of the actions. The actions are vectors between positions in the coordinate system: higher stock- lower stock, longer hair-shorter hair, brand, share/house prices changes, profit etc. In my explanation, the status in the sociological network is more important. A person who has the right talent can reach everything if he or she put right efforts to becoming a hub in a relevant network. In other words, you should have two from the money/talent/network holy trinity to being successful. I don't hide the truth, this is what I am doing now. I force to have network, and I try to prove my talent with contents here and the real life. I am actively working to have better state/position in a scale-free network. In summary, I want to be a successful hub which can lead to my personal goal: to creating stability and safe for my small family.

OK, so I created a new buzzword: hub. Now, I have a plan to fill up it for you. The hub is the first ranked meeting points any kind of network. They are the capos in the mafia, the lead of communities, the most popular girl/boy in the school, or someone who are able to launch programs based on her/his ideas, someone who trigger the changes like a good teacher, a good manager, or your favorite waitress or handy man. A hub should have some basic attributes: self-driven/independent thinker, who is listened and who is a good listener, a creditable, reliable person, he/she can easily make connections and sometimes there is something magic, the X factor in her/him. You even can't say it why those people who is known by everyone, but you can easily identify if you look around you. They are more successful, and they get more opportunities then the general, lower ranked dots in the graph. The good news you don't need to be born to be hub. The bad news, we all need to work hard to become a good hub. It's the art of selling, feel of own well-being and deep self-knowledge. The first step is to know yourself, to accept your weaknesses, strengths and your dark side/blindness. Then, when you made your homework, you are able to sell who are you.

Finally I have good-bad new: there is no general recipe. I wouldn't want to write one more self-helper book for you, the book market is full of them anyway. The mathematics is not good to prove soft skills, but it's good describe the problem/situation. About me, I am still introvert, so I needed to find a channel and the LinkedIn is good platform to express my ideas for you, and you can decide, it's a good to connect to me. From my side, if it's possible, I would have a personal touch to all 3280 people in my network at least once. I don't think it's going to happen, but I open my door to YOU my dear reader. Let me know, if you like, or you don't do my articles, or you would share your view. I am happy to see any discussion about personal, social roles in organisation in comment section too. See you soon!