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How to Connect with the Hidden Job Market
If you follow career industry trends, you know that only a small proportion of jobs are advertised. The vast majority of positions are filled within the unadvertised or hidden job market through connections and word-of-mouth.
Personal referrals continue to be much more effective than online job boards, social media announcements, corporate websites, etc. for landing an offer.
Employee Referrals Work
A recommendation to the hiring decision maker from a fellow employee is a huge advantage; it makes you more trustworthy and gives you the chance to better understand and then adapt your personal marketing materials (usually a customized resume) to exactly match the employer’s needs and requirements.
CareerXRoads Ninth Annual Sources of Hire Study author, Gerry Crispin, quotes a startling finding about the critical role that inside contacts play in the recruiting process.
“An employee [connection produces] a 50 times greater chance of being hired. That’s right, 50!”
That fact alone is sufficient to justify that job hunters should focus on making connections with company insiders such as current employees, former staff, outside consultants, those with vendor relationships, corporate partners, etc.
Personal Connections Access the Hidden Job Market
The absolutely preferred, top job search strategy focuses on how to access the hidden job market using personal connections.
There are three sectors to the hidden job market:
- Existing and budget-approved positions
- Positions that are currently filled with incumbents who have announced plans for leaving
- New positions created only when the right candidate is presented
The ability to access leads to positions before they are publicly announced is a clearly competitive advantage. It puts you on the exclusive inside track so you are among the first to address an employer’s challenge and show how you have the solution.
In job search strategy terms, this means you should spend 95% of your job-hunting efforts making personal connections, networking with a purpose, to generate either a direct job lead or referrals to more inside contacts.
Increase Network Strength
You can increase your number of personal connections using traditional networking techniques, seek introductions and referrals in-person, by phone, by email, and, in addition, you can leverage online social media to reach more people, more frequently.
Today, social media provides the ability to market yourself 24/7/365 to prospective new career opportunities by attracting attention and demonstrating your expertise.
Combining both networking methods, traditional and new media, is by far the best way to improve job searching results - cultivating new contacts and demonstrating your value even when you are not actively looking for a new position.
In today’s job market, the most effective job search strategy is career marketing, and not limited to those times when you are an active job seeker.
- You should be continually promoting yourself to those who can appreciate you and hire you so that they are aware of your potential and will remember you when they need your help.
- More than just sending out an occasional email or connecting at a live event, you must have an online persona and be part of the virtual world so that you are visible, available, searchable, and accessible to prospective new career opportunities.
Leveraging personal connections to unearth potential opportunities is definitely preferred over applying (along with innumerable other equally qualified respondents) to job boards, corporate websites, classifieds , etc.
Public Tweets, LinkedIn announcements, association discussion groups and other mentions in social media may be more privileged than jobsites, member-only listings, etc. However, these are still less exclusive than a private email, phone call, text or other communication or direct message sent only to you. All the more reason to prize your relationships and keep them growing.
Personal Relationships - The Critical Differentiator for Success
As more and more people use social media, there will be as much job-hunting traffic on these platforms as there is in traditional print and electronic media. Therefore, the importance of personal relationships (not one-time networking transactions) is critical to standing out and being selected for plum new positions. Relationships continue to be the best advantage for career success.
Personal contacts include both traditional connections and also relationships developed and maintained through social media. Once you have a solid online connection, deepen it with more frequent interactions, sharing personal information and insights. When feasible, arrange a phone call or in person meeting. Take the relationship offline to strengthen it.
With the vast majority of jobs in today’s job market filled via personal recommendations and referrals, strong relationships with those who have hiring authority is the key to success.
Your future and ability to land a great new job at the right time depends not only on what you know or even who you know, but who with hiring authority knows you, remembers you, and appreciates you, or will recommend you to decision makers who trust their recommendation.
If more hiring decision makers are aware of you, trust you, and keep you on their radar, you are more likely to have direct connections into the hidden job market. Being the first to learn about leads to newly created roles, organizational restructurings, new challenges, unexpected vacancies or authorized openings should be your career marketing/job search strategy goal whether you are in transition, thinking of a future move, or happy with your current status.
Career Marketing
Every job is temporary. Protect your future career: stay connected to be privy to insider information about potential new leads and make sure hiring managers keep you in mind. Your network is like career insurance.
Your career marketing strategy/job search strategy should include:
- Being generous, i.e., seeking ways to offer assistance, support, resources, ideas etc.
- Promoting yourself using social media: posting updates on your LinkedIn status, Tweeting, commenting on industry blogs, blogging, guest blogging, initiating discussions, answering questions, having conversations online, dialoguing on Facebook, etc.
- Volunteering to host a conference event, man a trade booth, organize a meeting or luncheon, deliver a presentation, produce a webinar, etc.
- Attending conferences and related professional events and serving on association committees and boards.
Bottom Line
The strategic objective is simple: show you are credible, and be remembered as a remarkable individual who offers a distinctive value as the go-to expert, first choice candidate. It is much easier to be invited to evaluate new opportunities when you are not a candidate than to have to initiate contact with employers when you need or want a new job. For this reason, your job search strategy should be a personal marketing strategy.
The next article in this series will show you how to make strategic contacts to accelerate your career.
© Copyright, 2010, Debra Feldman. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About This Author:
Debra Feldman is the JobWhiz™, a nationally recognized executive talent agent and job search expert who designs and personally implements swift, strategic, customized senior level executive campaigns. Connect with Debra on LinkedIn or on Facebook. Follow @Debra_Feldman on Twitter. You can also email her (DebraFeldman @ JobWhiz.com), or contact her via her website, JobWhiz.com.
