In part one of this post, we looked at the facts and fallacies of the hidden job market including why you should consider tapping into it, why you should consider sending your resume to a company that has not advertised positions matching your skills and the level of experience you should be at in order to benefit from the hidden market.

Now I bet you are wondering precisely how to tap into the unadvertised market. There are three strategies to quickly get you started focusing on and finding great jobs that will never see a major job board.

Tip #1: Create a plan

If you are going to launch a proactive job search (i.e. knowing precisely what you are looking for, then reaching out to get it) vs. a reactive job search (i.e. passively scanning posted jobs, waiting to find the one that fits you) then it’s crucial you know the following things:

Your target markets

(e.g. Construction, commercial healthcare development, pharmaceutical, medical device, etc…)

Your titles & positions

(e.g. sales executive, VP of sales and marketing, business development director)

Your geographic parameters

(e.g. can’t leave Minneapolis, all of US, California only)

Your timeline

(e.g. need a job NOW, in the next 30 days, would like to make a change in the next 6 months)

Tip #2: Choose three main job search strategies for tapping into your market

Now that you have your plan, you should be crystal clear on what you want! Here are just a few unadvertised techniques you can utilize:

Growing/changing or moving companies: These are companies that are expanding, merging, acquiring other companies, are rolling out new products or services or are moving. These companies that are actively changing and/or growing offer you, the job seeker, an opportunity to offer your skills and strengths in order to help them.

Executive recruiters: Identify executive recruiters that are familiar with your industry and/or level of position. They often have contracts to fill positions of which the majority will never be advertised. Recruiters probably won’t be helpful to you if:

You are radically changing industries, a recruiter may not be the best source for you as they will be looking for “a match.”

Recruiters may be helpful if:

You plan on staying in your current industry, you have had less than 3 jobs in 10 years and you look fantastic on paper.

Direct company contact: The secret here is in the numbers. Contacting a company directly (fully knowing they probably have multiple open positions that are not advertised) is a great way to take leadership and control over your job search. Are you interested in looking at the higher education market in your state or the top organic food manufacturers in the US? Or maybe the fastest growing healthcare oriented businesses in your city? All of these “lists” are accessible to you and allow you to easily tap right into your market of focus!

Tip #3: Manage your job search like a professional project

Once you have your plan and have determined the best place to gather your resources and your general strategy, you must make a simple plan to move forward. Depending on your timeframe, pick the hours and the days each week that you plan to invest in your next career move. Block out those times and stick to them! Honor your commitment to your job search just like you would honor your commitment to your present employer to show up on time each day.
During your job search activity, keep things really simple and focus on the actions you are taking, not the results!

This way you can celebrate your initial “successes,” which in the beginning are the completion of each of your daily and weekly goals. The results will unfold elegantly and abundantly and you will enjoy feeling that satisfaction of success whether you are investing in marketing yourself or basking in the warm glow of landing your third or fourth interview!

Be careful not to devalue the importance of this tip. This strategy is one of the main points to averting thoughts of despair and feelings of overwhelm.

I love the hidden job market. I have built my career showing professionals how easy it is to shorten their job search, get more quality interviews and bigger offers using a very simple yet powerful system to tap into it.

A statement I often hear is “isn’t tapping into the hidden job market just networking?” In short, no. It’s about going direct – and cutting out both “internal” and “external” middle men. Internal within the company (i.e. HR) and external outside of the company (i.e. recruiters).

Let’s begin by dispelling a few other myths about the hidden job market:

True or false: With all the jobs listed on the internet today, I don’t need to concern myself with any “hidden” job market.

False. That is, if you care about getting more than a measly 1-to-3% response rate from the resumes you send out using major job boards.

In other words, did you send out 50 resumes using job boards and you still haven’t heard anything back? Well, by these standards your only problem is you haven’t begun to send out enough resumes, yet…yikes!

The good news about these stats is that there are a whole bunch of job seekers out there that just started to feel a whole lot better about themselves. The bad news is that this proves job boards are a really depressing, hard and painful way for the majority of us to land great jobs.

True or false: I should only answer jobs that are advertised because I will look stupid if I send my resume to a company when I have no idea if they need someone like me.
False. Way back when I had my own executive recruiting firm I remember client companies telling me, “We don’t have any immediate needs right now, but if you find a superstar, please don’t forget about us – we want to see their resume!”

Not only do companies always make time for people who are “superstars” (and a lot of this has to do with the way you market yourself to them), but most companies go through at least five steps to fill a position before they will post the position to a major job board.

Think about it. If you have a key position that just opened up in your company, is the first thing you do pick up the phone and call Monster? No, of course not!

You get on the phone to a few trusted colleagues. You look through your resume file to see if anyone fits the bill. You look to see if anyone already on board is qualified to be promoted to it or alert your staff to refer someone they might know. You launch an intimate grass roots campaign to try to fill this position waaaay before the general public is notified. And if after a few weeks, the position is still not filled, perhaps you contact a related association to post the job on their members-only job board or you contract a recruiter.

True or false: I have heard the interview process is shorter and the salary package can be significantly higher with unadvertised opportunities. True! Why? Because when you pursue unadvertised jobs you are almost always talking with the company key decision-makers right from the start. You have more creativity to sell your skills and build the value of who you can be to the company. And finally, because these interviews usually lack the formality of a full blown human resource driven candidate search, your competition is significantly lower AND the salary terms are less likely to be chiseled in stone. I have seen this play out in my clients’ favor time after time!

True or false: I am not “high enough up” the ladder to seek out unadvertised opportunities. The hidden job market only applies to executives.
False. ANYONE (and I mean even if you are right out of college) can enjoy the benefits of the hidden job market. These jobs are available on all levels and in virtually all industries.

The trick is to hone your focus so you actually achieve the results you want (more on that later!)

So why should you care about the unadvertised market? Because for you, it means more job opportunities, more market leverage, less competition, shorter interview processes and bigger offers. Golly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to keep pumping out resumes via the internet when you can have all of this control over your next career move!

So, want to start to turn your job search around? Here are some steps you can take right now:

1. Get focused on your target markets
2. Research companies in your target markets – get key decision makers names
3. Make sure your resume is designed to penetrate your target markets
4. Send your resume directly to the key decision makers

…the secret is going direct!

Most of my clients secure offers and jobs pretty fast…but some job searches take longer. One of my executive clients had a variety of interviews and it took him a year to change industries and secure a pay increase. But he did it… to the tune of a $50,000 salary increase and the opportunity to partner with an exceptional company in a wonderful position. He just started his new position and he is walking on air!

I asked him to reflect on this last year and offer me some gems of advice to pass on. Here is what he told me:

1. He surrounded himself with supportive and positive people

2. He reached out for advice and didn’t try to do everything himself

3. He didn’t succumb to negative self talk when his job search seemed to be going too slow…

4. He stuck to the strategies I had taught him and didn’t shift to something new just because things weren’t happening as fast as he would have liked

5. He took time to be with his family and he took “extra” time off to balance out his job search and the extra stress that naturally creates

6. He let me coach him through his interviews and offer negotiations and used the strategies I suggested

7. He didn’t spend a lot of time listening to depressing statistics on the news about how tough it was to get a job. He just stuck with the program and did all he could to stay positive

8. He went direct and used strategies to tap the hidden job market

…I couldn’t have added anything to this list!