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Stop Looking for Jobs the Hard Way: Find Unadvertised Jobs in the Hidden Job Market
This chart shows how many more people look for advertised jobs than unadvertised jobs, and how many more unadvertised jobs exist than advertised. Learn to access the hidden job market.
Blue represents Unadvertised Jobs;
Red Advertised Jobs.
As you can see, the hardest way to look for work is to compete with 80% of the job seekers for the 20% of the (advertised) worst jobs in the county.
On the other hand, being one of the 20% that knows how to find and obtain unadvertised jobs creates an environment of almost no competition for the best jobs in the country!
The hardest way to look for a new job is to scour newspaper and online classified sections for advertised jobs, then spend an hour or 3 to apply and to have your application or resume disappear into a stack of hundreds never to be looked at by anybody.
When will you stop? Probably not until you know a better way!
Now, here's why most jobs will never be advertised:
How Job Openings Develop
There are four stages to a job opening:
Stage One - the GREATEST OPPORTUNITY
Nobody knows they need a new employee.
At this stage, if you could identify a potential job opening, showing the employer how you can solve a problem that they have, and showing them that you are well able to meet their needs, it would be very easy to simply be hired on the spot. This is the best time to approach an employer about working for them. There is zero competition! They probably do not even have a written job description for the position you would be filling, and you can name your own job duties, hours, and probably wage.
This is the stage that I target.This is the best of the hidden job market; the most productive unadvertised job market. This hidden job market is a real gold mine.
Stage Two - a REALLY GOOD Opportunity
One person has realized they will need to hire someone sometime soon.
Stage two openings are a great opportunity. Their need to hire someone has already been identified, it is still early enough in the hiring process to be able to negotiate things like job duties, hours, benefits, and even wage. Yet, there is as of yet no competition at all! This hidden job market is a good place to find a good, unadvertised job.
In order to be hired at this stage, you absolutely must speak to the one or two specific individuals who have already identified the future need to hire. Once again, if you talk to anybody else in your organization, you will hear that there are no openings!
Stage Three
Several managers had a discussion and old job descriptions have been dusted off.
Stage three opportunities are excellent for job developers and company insiders. This is this stage that almost all jobs are filled! Within a few hours everyone in the organization will know about the opening. Although it appears to still be unadvertised, it is only hidden from the public. The employees will apply for it themselves if they want it, or tell friends, neighbors, and relatives about the opening (if it is a good job for a good company), and they all have an inside track because either they are known by those in management or come recommended by a trusted employee.
If you are an outsider, the only chance you have of obtaining a job in stage three is if you have successfully networked with people who work in the company, and they let you know about the job opening, and they are willing to recommend you to their boss. Then, you have become an insider. Do not neglect networking extensively!
You are no longer mining the hidden job market; no longer going after unadvertised jobs.
Stage Four
If the position is still unfilled, it will now be advertised.If the job opening still exists a few days after stage three starts, the position may be advertised. Here's the big question, if people who work there and knew about the job did not want their friends, relatives, or acquaintances to get an inside track to the job, maybe you don't want to work there either! No maybe about it!
There are only six reasons a job gets advertised:
1. The organization is required by law to advertise (in which case they usually know who they are going to hire anyway, because it was discussed in stage one, stage two, or stage three). It is better to approach them long before any position becomes available. (That is mining the hidden market for unadvertised jobs.)
2. The hiring manager is a novice and does not know that advertising positions is not necessary. This is relatively rare, but it does pay to keep your eye out for this opportunity.
3. The the whole company stinks, or treats its employees badly. If the company has on-going difficulty with high turnover rates, do not consider working for this company in any capacity. If the one job opening is the nightmare job, consider using bait and switch, changing the job you are interviewing for sometime during the interview. (See the chapter on sales techniques.)
4. People with the needed skills are in very high demand. There are some professions where demand far exceeds supply, and almost everybody has to advertise. However, few of these in-demand employees respond to the ads; they know to investigate the employers carefully, and make them an employment proposition, negotiating almost everything. If they ignore the ads, maybe you should too.
5. When a company is opening up a new branch in a new locale, they will probably have to advertise to be able to fill all of the positions during that time frame allocated. These types of advertising are worth checking out, but would probably be amenable to direct job development, ignoring the formal recruiting process.
6. An otherwise good company has a few difficult positions. Talk to them about the OTHER POSITIONS, ignoring those advertised. Sometimes it is even worth taking the lousy position to start if most employees are promoted out of the bad jobs.
Now do you understand WHY unadvertised jobs are the best? Why you must learn to access the hidden job market?Questions? Comments? - Forum
