9 Secrets to Cracking the Hidden Job Market

Technology was going to save everything, remember? Machine learning and artificial intelligence were supposed to make all jobs findable, easy to understand, and immediately accessible. Don’t hold your breath.

I keep hearing about the hidden job market — how big is it?

On this, no one seems to agree. One of the reasons is that there are many definitions. Many recruiters say that the hidden job market is a myth because they are required to post their jobs. Some career coaches will tell you that 80% of jobs are hidden (implying that without their help you’ll never succeed).

The reality is that in a modern job search, most jobs ARE posted somewhere, but it might be for a very short period of time, you must know where to look, and you need to be able to figure out if they are a good fit for you.

Why can’t I find ALL jobs on big job boards? It would be SO much easier.

It would be easier for job seekers for sure, but when recruiters post a job, many unqualified applicants flood them with poorly put-together applications. It can be overwhelming to evaluate all those candidates, even with the help of Applicant Tracking Systems.

How should I think about the hidden job market?

Like a scavenger hunt? Or maybe a game of hide and seek. Expect to do some work to unearth jobs that are a good fit for you.

• Some jobs are out in the open for all to find. Those are the publicly posted jobs that everyone applies to.  
• Some jobs are so well hidden that most people will never see them. These are the jobs that are rarely advertised, such as high-level executive jobs.
• Most jobs fall somewhere in between. Any job seeker who looks hard in the right spots and can decipher the requirements can access them. During a period of high unemployment, there are MORE of these elusive hidden jobs, because recruiters don’t need to post them broadly to find plenty of applicants.

Got it. How and where do I find these elusive hidden jobs?

Open yourself up to adjacent or non-standard job titles

Doing a bit of reflection before you start your search will help you to find jobs you might not otherwise have seen.

1. Your skills may have broader applications. Before you search, talk to your network (including colleagues, family and friends) to see if they have ideas for types of roles that may be a good fit for you.
2. Companies use a variety of job titles for essentially the same job. Do some research to make sure your search is broad enough to capture these variations. For example,
3. Talk to a career coach to make sure you are headed in the right direction.

Use your network. People are WAY smarter than algorithms

You may not think you have a network, but there are loads of people out there who want to help you.

The last time I was looking for a job, I was living in a new city and didn’t know a soul. I looked up people with similar jobs, connected with them on LinkedIn, then started asking them questions, sometimes via LinkedIn but often over coffee (never asking for a job). Someone in a similar job told me about a great job a couple of towns away that was publicly posted, but I hadn’t seen it because the geography I had specified in my searches didn’t cover that town. It WAS a great job, I applied and landed it!

Your connections will be able to unearth hidden job market opportunities:

• Before they are publicly posted.
• That is a good fit, but the job post might be so poorly written that it’s not obvious.
• That you could do remotely even if it doesn’t say so.
• In locations, companies, or industries you hadn’t considered.
• That have poorly written job posts in which the company has specified more skills and experience than they need (so go ahead and apply). This is especially true for entry-level and early career jobs.

Your connections can not only FIND jobs for you, but they can also REFER you for those jobs and often get a hefty referral free. Win/Win.

Companies have found that applicants referred by current employees are more likely to be successful, because they are a known quantity, and those applicants also understand more about the company culture.

Use a job search engine. Algorithms aren’t as smart as people, but they are still helpful

Job search engines like Indeed.com and Google for Jobs scrape the web for posted job opportunities. These are different from job boards, where recruiters pay to post a job. Job search engines are also called aggregators – they aggregate (or collect) jobs from a variety of websites into one place.

Indeed.com

Indeed is a job board, a job aggregator, and a source of job seeker advice all in one.

1. Create an account.
2. Fine-tune your search using the available filters.
3. Save your search and create an alert so that you are the first to know.
4. Post your resume with caution – you will be contacted about a lot of sales jobs.

Google for Jobs

This is another cool widget in the Google search universe that will appear any time you enter a search term with word “internship,” “job” or “jobs” in it.

1. At first you will just see a few results. Click “XX more jobs” at the bottom of the box to see an expanded list.

• Fine-tune your search using the available filters. Pay attention to “Date posted” as more recent jobs are much more likely to be available.

• Save your search and create an alert so that you are the first to know about newly posted jobs. Being among the first to apply will greatly increase your chances of getting an interview if you are a good fit.

• Google does not index jobs posted to Indeed.com, so use both.
• Click here for a full tutorial on using Google for Jobs

Use niche or specialty job boards

The opposite of mega job boards that cover every industry, specialty job boards can be a great place to find jobs. Companies post here when they want to promote an opportunity, but not to the entire world. They get fewer, more targeted applications this way. They are part of the hidden job market because they are much less visible — but they are there.

Most industries have some type of targeted job board. They can also host specialized job search tips. Find a list here and Google “job board [your industry].”

Develop a target list of companies and use their career sites

You’ll have much better luck if you can narrow your list of target companies. Concentrating your efforts is always better than a scattershot approach.

Almost every company, even very small ones, has a section on their websites where they post open jobs. They often have them on their LinkedIn company page as well. You may be able to register for a job seeker account and get automatic updates. They MAY keep your resume on file for future opportunities but don’t count on it. It’s an extra step for them to go back to review old resumes. See the site map or use the search bar to find the “Careers” or “Work for Us” page.

Use third-party recruiters and/or staffing firms

Many companies are too small to have their own HR or talent acquisition staff. They may subcontract out the recruiting function to an outside firm that will find candidates to present to the client. These firms find people in a variety of ways: they do sometimes advertise, but they also source applicants from LinkedIn and their own networks.

1. Note the names of recruiting firms as you search, or Google “recruiter+[your industry]+[your target job titles]+[your location]”, or search LinkedIn (in the People category) for the term “recruiter” and your industry.
2. Go on 3^rd party recruiter websites to find other opportunities they have posted that you have not seen.
3. Ask around for the names of specific people who have been helpful to others. There is a wide range of helpfulness among recruiters, since they are paid by and work for companies, not candidates.

Attend career or job fairs, especially if you are early in your career

You can find career or job fairs at colleges and universities (for students and alumni), through Workforce Development Agencies, and companies, professional associations, and industry groups run them too. Just Google “career fair” and see what comes up. Recruiters attend these fairs to make connections with committed job seekers. If you attend and make a good impression, they can tell you are highly motivated. Jobs at university career fairs are often on a separate recruiting track from other jobs at the company and may not be posted, making them part of the hidden job market.  

Use social media

The Jobvite Job Seeker Nation survey found that 42% of survey respondents said they found out about job openings through social media, a 10% jump from the previous year. Companies often post them here first to avoid the flood of applicants they get when posting more broadly.

• Search LinkedIn for recruiters. When you unearth a potential recruiter’s name, connect with them on LinkedIn so that you will see their posts in your feed.
• When recruiters post an industry update, be sure to like or comments.
• Follow your target companies on all your social media channels. Like their posts.
• Find groups on Facebook that cover your industry or that focus on job seekers. Other people in the group may post jobs you’d never hear of otherwise.

Keep timing in mind and beware of zombie jobs

There are few things more frustrating than spending hours on a job application only to discover that the position has been filled. This is the flip side of the hidden job market – there are some jobs that are visible, but they aren’t really available jobs. Let’s call these zombie jobs.

Recruiters don’t keep advertising to be cruel. They may just have paid for a 30-day ad, but got enough resumes in the first week to evaluate, so they close the position to new applications.

• When you search, always look at the posting date. If it has been more than a week, don’t apply until you know for sure that it is still available.
• Find out if it is still available by asking your connections or reaching out to the company directly.

What all of this reinforces is that you need a job search strategy rather than a scattershot approach. If you need help developing your own personalized strategy to find a great job faster, let’s talk. Learn more about how I work with clients to help them find great jobs faster.