Many jobs aren’t advertised at all or listed in places unknown to most job seekers. My article will help to ensure that you explore every opportunity in your job search efforts.
1) Career networking
Some employers wouldn’t mind to hire the right person. It means that they have enough people working for them right now but a good extra employee would definitely help. Such companies rarely place ads in newspapers or online. They either let their employees and acquaintances know that they are looking, or in some cases they just wait for the right person to come by.
The only way to find out about these positions is by asking people around. There are former coworkers, friends, relatives and neighbors who might know about employment opportunities in your field.
Unfortunately many people are shy to ask others for help. Of course it’s much easier to respond to a job ad by sending resume. However, career networking is one of the best ways to find work for one simple reason – since these jobs are not advertised, there is much less competition.
2) Small newspapers, secondary professional sites and companies’ web sites
Numerous job seekers tend to ignore small town and neighborhood newspapers, and less popular professional web sites. It’s a mistake to overlook these job search sources.
Smaller newspapers don’t offer sizable employment sections, but they are still worth looking at because some of the jobs they have are not listed anywhere else.
You probably know top professional job sites in your field. For example, JobsInTheMoney offers positions for finance professionals and Dice is a site for IT specialists. At the same time there are professional web sites that offer small lists of jobs. The best way to locate such web sites is to search leading search engines such as Google and Yahoo. I suggest that you browse through at least 5 pages of search results. Once again, the advantage of finding such sites is that they are visited by less people and therefore your chances to land a job are better.
Many businesses have a list of employment opportunities on their web sites. It is a good idea to find companies that you might be interested in working for and check their web sites for job openings. There is an excellent site, Job-Hunt.org, where you can find about leading employers in your state. Other options include searching Yellow Pages or go to your local library and ask if there is a business directory that lists companies in your area.
3) Think outside the box
Many people search for a job in their professional category only. For example a software engineer would look for a position in computer programming or financial analyst might think only in terms of a job in equities research. However such professionals can also manage, teach, consult, test or provide customer support.
You have to think in terms of applying your skills in different professions. Once you start thinking this way, you can discover new employment opportunities.
There is nothing secretive or extraordinary about hidden job market. You just have to think outside “read ad – send a resume” job search model. Using above strategies will certainly help you to discover more job opportunities.
