Six Degrees of Separation

Did You Know? Six Degrees of Separation

Written by: Haleigh Portillo

Most people know about the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” also known as “Bacon’s Law.” This is the principle that anyone in the world is connected to Kevin Bacon within six degrees of separation between people, or less. You can even find most celebrities’ “Bacon number” here. But did you know that this doesn’t only apply to Kevin Bacon or other celebrities? The six degrees of separation is a universal principle. We are all only six degrees (or less!) away from another person on the earth, with some studies proving that social media has reduced the maximum separation to an average of less than 5!

So, what do you do with this information? Just because you may only be three or four degrees away from your favorite celebrity doesn’t really mean anything, right? While that may be true, and you can use the fact that you’re only three degrees away from Taylor Swift as an icebreaker fun fact, this principle is actually incredibly powerful because of its utility in the world of networking.

Did you know that around 85% of jobs are filled through a networking opportunity? Or that 70% of jobs are never published publicly, meaning you have to find out about the opportunity through someone else? Or that 40% of hires are made from referrals? These statistics can cause anxiety around the job-searching process if you are only cold-applying without researching who may work at a company or organization, but you can use the power of your own network to help you get ahead in the game. You may only be three, four, or even only two degrees of separation away from getting a great job referral or meeting a hiring manager at your dream job!

At face value, your networking path to get to your dream job looks like this:

You (top left dot) are connected to people who are connected to people (and so on) until you get to the person you need to meet for a great opportunity (far right purple). There could theoretically be six degrees, at most, of separation.

However, in reality networks really look more like this:

It may look messy, but networks are very intermingled! This actually gives you even more networking opportunities, both for meeting even more people and connecting to someone of interest even more quickly.

Because of this reason, if you look closely at this “messy” network, you’ll actually see that there is a much easier path to meeting the person you need to get your dream job:

You are only three degrees away! Your “friend of a friend” can possibly introduce you to a hiring manager, executive director, or even give you a referral. This is the power of networking.

So, next time you are researching a career, internship, or graduate school opportunity, make sure to find out who works there. Search for them on LinkedIn and see who you may know who is already connected to them! You never know – your classmate or friend can help you get one step closer to an amazing opportunity in only six “hellos” or less.

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