Networking

The word "network" entered English from the textile industry, describing interlocking threads. By the mid-twentieth century, it had migrated into sociology through the work of scholars studying social connections. The sociologist Mark Granovetter's 1973 paper "The Strength of Weak Ties" provided intellectual scaffolding for what would become the networking industry, demonstrating that job opportunities more often came through acquaintances than through close friends.

The term "networking" as a professional verb gained traction in the 1970s and 1980s alongside the rise of career self-management literature. As corporations began dismantling the long-term employment contracts that had defined the postwar era, workers were told they needed to maintain a portfolio of contacts that could survive any single employer. The cocktail party, the industry conference, and the informational interview became tools of professional survival.

By the 1990s, networking had spawned an entire infrastructure. Organizations like Business Network International, founded in 1985, formalized referral-based networking into weekly meetings with structured formats. The launch of LinkedIn in 2003 digitized the practice, turning a professional network into a quantifiable asset displayed on a profile page. The word "connection" acquired a second meaning, one that could be counted and compared.