We all hear that most jobs (75% to 85%, reportedly) are not advertised in the newspaper or posted on Web job boards. These invisible jobs are the infamous "hidden job market," and you reach this gold mine of jobs by networking your way into it.

Networking is not a "quick fix" (nothing is, if you haven't already noticed). "Givers get" is the mantra of successful networking. Help others succeed or find what they need, and they will return the favor. Establishing a good network will make your next job search easier - just don't drop it as soon as you find your next job.

Techniques for Tapping into the Hidden Job Market?

PUSH: Reach Out To the "Hidden Job Market"

Reach out to potential employers and potential co-workers, but reach out socially as a student, colleague, business colleague, or mentor not as a job seeker.

Volunteering

One of the most effective ways to reach out is to volunteer to help a cause (or a candidate) important to you. There are many benefits to volunteering. Particularly when you are unemployeed, volunteering can be a great way to add new skills and experiences to your resume, meet new people with whom you share something important, and get out of the house for a good reason. It's good for your spirits to help someone else, and it gives you something concrete to discuss when an interviewer asks you about what you did during "the gap" between jobs.

It can also be wonderful networking! You'll be meeting and working with new people for a common cause. See Job-Hunt's (Political) Party to a New Job article about working on political campaigns (ususally unpaid).

The Media and Business Press

These are great sources of information! Look for companies that are entering into new markets, announcing new products and services, hiring a new senior manager or CEO, and/or buying large ads or commercials. They may need more people, even if they haven't announced or advertised their expanding needs.

Most business publications research and collect information on businesses in their area which are frequently published in "lists" (e.g. every edition of the weekly Boston Business Journal contains a list of the top 25 somethings in the Boston area - top 25 law firms, top 25 hospitals, top 25 advertising agencies, etc.). These are collected in an annual book of lists which is very handy. Every year Fortune magazine does a list of the largest employers in the U.S. - the "Fortune 500®." (See Job-Hunt's lists of links to the Fortune 500 by sales rank and the Fortune 500 by state.) Every year, Forbes magazine does it's own list of the largest employers. Think of those lists as additional catalogs of potential employers.

Find local and national business press at NewsDirectory which has each state's newspapers organized by telephone Area Code. It also has newspapers outside of the U.S. are organized by country.

Real - and Virtual - Social Groups

Even if you consider yourself to be very shy, these groups can be very helpful in connecting you with potential employers and co-workers, and they can also help you stay up to date with what is happening in an industry or profession.

1. Social networking Websites are becoming more and more popular as ways to connect with people you know and even, carefully, to meet new people.
   
   The sites work by offering people the ability to create, or to manage, a public profile telling people who they are and what they do and reaching out to friends and colleagues to enable them to reach people they may need to contact for their business, their job, or their job search.
   
   Recruiters do use these sites to find qualified people for their open jobs, so they can be a variation on job boards, particularly with LinkedIn which uses job postings from job aggregator SimplyHired. Remember that when you create and add to your profile - don't post anything that would make a potential employer avoid contacting you.
   
   The proper etiquette is developing right now, and seems to vary by site. Talk to friends who use the site, observe what others are doing, and check out these new books on the subject: Liz Ryan, Job-Hunt's Networking Pro, wrote Happy About Online Networking which covers several of the sites, and Jason Alba has written I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What??? and I'm on Facebook -- Now What???. They should help you get started and avoid most of the major virtual land mines.
   
   
2. Professional and industry associations and societies are usually plentiful and very useful for job seekers. They can help you in more traditional situations when you add the association's name to your resume (in a professional or industry affiliations category, for example), and that name is used as a keyword by a recruiter searching through an applicant database on a Web search engine. Job-Hunt links to over 800 national and international associations, most of which have local chapters where you can meet people face-to-face.
   
   See the job search networking articles from Liz Ryan, Job-Hunt's Networking Pro for ideas and strategies on meeting people and becoming comfortable attending meetings, particularly if you're a bit on the shy side.
   
   
3. School Alumni/ae Associations - your college alumni/ae association can be a very useful resource (your high school, too, if they have an alumni/ae network). Many schools offer the use of the career center to alumni and tap into the network represented by all the other people who attended the same school. It's also an opportunity to connect, hopefully, with old friends as well as meet new people you share an important life experience with.
   
   If you don't know the URL for your college or university Web site, find it in the University of Texas directory of U.S. Higher Education, Maricopa Community College's Community College Web, or Chris Redmond's list of Canadian Universities. For a college or university outside of the U.S. and Canada, check out the Yahoo! Web site for that country.
   
   
4. Employer Alumni Associations - many groups are forming of people who are former employees (a.k.a. "company alumni" groups). Sometimes, they are supported by the employer who sees them as a good source of trained and qualified applicants if needed. More often, they are just groups that get together occasionally or exchange e-mail, and stay in touch. Check out Job-Hunt's Company & Military Alumni Network.
   
   
5. Join a job hunting support group - members of these groups provide moral support and assistance to each other as well an extension of that critical personal network. Need a contact inside a specific company? Ask the members of your group if they know anyone there. Need another set of eyes to look at your resume? Ask the members of your group for help. Of course, you can also demonstrate your intelligence, professionalism, ethics, experience, etc. by helping members of the group in return.
   
   It probably goes without saying, but don't be a "user." Look for ways you can help other members, and the help will come back to you. Support groups can be a win/win situation, and, sometimes, the critical link between you and the perfect job in the Hidden Job Market.
   
   To create a support group of your own, check out the excellent advice in Through the Brick Wall: How to Job Hunt in a Tight Market by Kate Wendleton. And, Barbara Sher's Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want (free!) provides a how-to guide for creating your own "success team" - a small group of people who mentor (encourage, assist, and - yes - nag) each other to reach their individual goals - excellent for job searching or help reaching any other goal you have. Your success team is your own personal board of directors, and you are their's.
   
   In the U.S., ask your local state Employment Office for assistance in finding an existing support group, or check with local churches to see if they have any groups meeting in their facilities. Also, visit your state's page of job search resources in Job-Hunt and try the Networking and Job Search Support Groups links.
   
   Bring copies of your current resume and a list of employers you want to reach. Ask other attendees if anyone knows the organizations and can help you identify and reach the appropriate hiring managers. Have agendas, action items, and a focus on positive action to find a job.
   
   
6. Online discussion groups - there must be hundreds of thousands of email discussion groups, each based on a topic. Find a topic that interests you, and join the list. They can be an excellent source of information and also mis-information, so be cautious about believing everything you read.
   
   If they allow members to post comments or questions, "lurk" for a while (just monitor the postings without participating) to see what the rules of conduct seem to be. When/if you decide to participate, be sure that your posting is relevant to the subject and well-written (good grammar and spelling).
   
   Find searchable lists of groups to join at Google Groups (groups.google.com) and Yahoo Groups. Even LinkedIn Groups. As usual, be very careful of your privacy when you join any of these groups.
   
   Use a throw-away e-mail address for participation (e.g. a Yahoo or HotMail account), protecting your privacy when you register for your account.
   
   You'll have the greatest success with most groups, online and offline, by being a resource to others. If you pursue others for assistance but don't provide assistance (or provide poor assistance) in return, you don't present yourself as an ideal co-worker. Don't be afraid to ask for help, but be careful if that's all you do.
   
   Whatever you do, don't send a "nastygram" to someone on the list! People have lost job opportunities because they have demonstrated an apparently nasty temper in an open discussion.
   
   Tip: If you wouldn't be comfortable having your mother, grandmother, or new boss read your message on the front page of the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, don't hit the "send" button! These messages are very public! Employers and recruiters do "Google" job applicants so be careful to leave a good impression, even in a so-called "private" group.
   

For additional networking tips and ideas, see the great articles about job search networking written by Job-Hunt's Networking Pro, Liz Ryan, a former Fortune 500 HR director, creator and moderator of the giant AskLizRyan Yahoo! Group, and all around networking guru.

Next - PULL - Bring the Hidden Job Market to You!

You've learned ways to reach out to potential employers (PUSH, above). Now, learn PULL - making yourself visible in the right areas and the right ways so that employers reach out to you.

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About the author...

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

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