A LinkedIn career expert says the biggest reason job seekers strike out isn’t their resume. It’s how badly they handle networking.
Quick Take
- Catherine Fisher, a career expert at LinkedIn, appeared on CBS Mornings on October 29, 2026, to break down common networking failures.
- LinkedIn survey data cited by CBS News shows 38% of hiring managers give extra weight to job applicants who come with a referral.
- Separate LinkedIn research found 46% of professionals say networking makes them anxious, a big reason many people avoid it or do it badly.
- Decades of labor research back up the core idea: personal connections shape who gets hired, how fast, and how long they stay.
A LinkedIn Insider Names the Mistakes Job Seekers Keep Making
Catherine Fisher works as a career expert at LinkedIn and is a familiar face on CBS Mornings. In the October 29, 2026 segment, she walked through the networking failures that quietly sink job searches. The clip ran about four minutes, short by design but packed with practical advice aimed at viewers trying to land their next role in a tight market.
This was not Fisher’s first rodeo on the show. CBS has brought her back repeatedly to discuss layoffs, interview prep, and tough workplace situations. That pattern matters. It shows networks, not just resumes, keep coming up as the thing separating people who find work quickly from people who stay stuck.
Why Referrals Still Beat Cold Applications
The numbers back up Fisher’s focus. CBS News reported that 38% of hiring managers surveyed by LinkedIn say they give extra consideration to candidates referred by someone already at the company. That’s not a small edge. It means a warm introduction can move an application to the top of a stack full of strangers’ names.
Academic research tells the same story from a different angle. A widely cited firm-level study found referred applicants were more likely to get hired, started at a pay advantage, and stayed in their jobs longer than those who applied cold, though that pay edge faded over time. Roughly half of all workers say they found their current job through a friend or acquaintance, not a job board.
The Anxiety Problem Nobody Talks About Enough
Here’s the part most career advice skips. Networking doesn’t fail because people are lazy. It fails because it terrifies them. A related CBS segment cited LinkedIn research showing 46% of professionals say networking makes them anxious. That’s nearly half the workforce dreading the exact activity most likely to get them hired.
That anxiety explains a lot of the “failures” Fisher describes. People send generic connection requests instead of personal messages. They reach out only when they need something, not before. They treat LinkedIn like a resume dump instead of a place to build real relationships over time. Each mistake traces back to discomfort, not ignorance.
What the Research Doesn’t Settle
None of this means fixing your networking habits guarantees a job offer. The data shows referrals and recruiter consideration go up with better networking, but it doesn’t prove that correcting one mistake causes a hire. Career advice like Fisher’s works best as a nudge in the right direction, not a formula with a guaranteed payoff.
There’s also a fairness wrinkle worth naming plainly. Academic research warns that referral-heavy hiring can quietly favor people who already have well-connected friends and family, which can shut out equally qualified candidates who simply don’t know the right people yet. Good networking advice helps individuals. It doesn’t fix that structural gap on its own.
The Bottom Line for Job Seekers Right Now
Fisher’s larger point, repeated across her CBS appearances, is simple: a strong professional network carries people through their entire career, not just one job search. That’s common sense dressed up in survey data. The hiring managers quoted in LinkedIn’s research aren’t rewarding charm. They’re rewarding trust built before the opening ever existed.
For anyone feeling stuck in today’s job market, the advice boils down to something your grandfather could have told you for free: show up, build real relationships, and don’t wait until you need a favor to ask for one. The platforms have changed. The principle hasn’t.
Having a strong network will “carry you through your entire career,” @linkedin career expert Catherine Fisher says.
She shares some common networking mistakes to avoid and tips for building relationships. pic.twitter.com/BeSWinkUhY
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) October 29, 2026
Job seekers who take that advice seriously, anxiety and all, put themselves in a stronger position than those who keep firing off applications into the void and hoping an algorithm notices.
Sources:
cbs.com, yahoo.com, cbsnews.com
