I am sure you know that advertised jobs represent only a small portions of jobs available. You should assume that 70-80% of jobs available today are unadvertised on places like Monster.com or Craigslist or any other similar job board.
Why?
Employers don’t want to receive hundreds of resumes from applicants. For example when we look for a people at my Curves, most of the resumes we get are unqualified people or resumes that are so bad, I feel embarresed for the people.
Since this is about you, how does this affect your job hunt?
- You can assume for every job you see posted that is perfect for you posted on Monster.com there are 7 to 8 jobs like it somewhere else.
- Spend 70 to 80% of your time looking for jobs in what you consider a “hidden” market (by the way Guerrilla job hunters know all about this market) of unadvertised jobs.
- Last Thursday (in my article about overcoming the 10 most common marketing failures article) I wrote about identifying your customers, this is another reason you want to be in contact with personal departments and managers at your target companies.
What is your goal of this exercise?
Demonstrate that hiring you is a terrific businesss investment, one that will make the company money or saves them much more money than what they pay you in salary.
Step 1: Make a list of people responsible for the hidden job market.
The first thing you could try is Google with “List Of All People With Jobs That Are Not Advertised”.
While that will an interesting exercise its not going to help in your job hunt at all, and in fact will be a total waste of time.
You will have to create your own list.
Fortunately, it’s fairly simple to do. In fact its one of the first things an aggressive Guerrllia Job Hunter does.
(This is one of the steps detailed in the Guerrilla Job Hunting System)
Step 2 – Define the level of decision maker to contact
Contact an individual two levels up from the position you are applying for.
Why?
Because this person has has the bigger picture and may need to be planning the replacement of the person below them, who would be your boss.
A second reason is that when you are skilled and capable and you contact the person you would be working for there is some risk. If that person has limited vision or capabilities your credentials and resume (especially a Guerrilla Resume) will you could be considered a threat which means you won’t even get in the door.
On the other hand, if the person you may work for is sharp and is looking to replace themselves. your resume might give them the freedom to move to their next position. And the fact that you came from their boss and you were hired, means the boss is happy because your boss hired you, your new boss is happy because he made the boss happy, and you are happy because you got a great job.
In the bizzare world of Darwinian office politics, contacting your next bosses boss works well.
Step 3: Define The Titles You Should Be Looking For
The largest market is companies with 250 or fewer employees. In that case, you will want to target the president, owner, or a vice president in the group that you want to work in.
The next market is companies with over 250 people but less than 1,000. In this case, you will need to target the VP of the department you want to work for.
Companies with over 1,000 employees are organized into divisions. In that case, you want to contact the senior director or the VP.
Seems, easy enough, but make sure you know their name.
The first and simplest approach is a visit the company’s Web site.
When that doesn’t work try try a Google. Search with the following three items together:
- the name of the company;
- the words “Vice President;”
- the name of department you want to work in.
Example Google search: Ace Novelty Company Vice President engineering
This usually gives a whole bunch of intelligence about the company, including the names of current and former employees in the role of Vice President of that department.
You may find their resumes, their names mentioned in press releases, or their listings in social networks like LinkedIn.com
Another intersting tool is Google Alerts.
www.Google.com/alerts for instructions on how to set up automated searches for the keywords you choose. Google then alerts you by email.
I have alerts for my name and for ZaleTabakman.ca – its amazing who is talking about me. And nobody is saying anthing too bad.
Google Alerts will seek out the latest information from blogs and news stories online. You can create a Google Alert to search every day for such keywords as “Ace Novelty Company Vice President Marketing,” for example
This kind of intelligence can unearth all sorts of opportunities at your target companies. (Target companies is a Guerrilla Job Hunt Tactic which will significantly shorten your job search.)
When you are looking for a job title at a company, any time anything comes up regarding that company, they start rolling in by email every morning from Google Alerts.
The final step after you find the names and titles of executives is to reach out and touch them with a customized resume and cover letter, printed and sent by mail. (Using a Guerrilla Job Hunt Resume of course)
And if you have used the Alerts, you will have some great content to add to your cover letter and your resume can be tailored to capitalize on the intelligence you have found.
The intelligence will give you much to discuss in your job interview.
The faster you make your job hunt connected to a real person the faster you’ll find your next job. I assume you understand the cost of not working.
As a side note, there is an in between the Advertised Job Market and Unadvertised Job market. That is the closed job board like Ivy Exec.
To access the closed job board you are screened prior to being allowed access. And then your resume is only provided when its suitable for the job opening. Places like Ivy Exec are where the more senior and higer paying jobs are placed. You can check out Ivy Exec here.
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