Avoid the find jobs online mindset and be hired quickly

A top job seeker question, “don’t you only find jobs online?”

My brother-in-law was in Wausau (our home town) for a class reunion with his wife. We had brunch with them on Sunday. His wife asked how things were going.

It was a pretty broad question but since I am the one working and my business is fun to talk about, I told them September was a fantastic month but earlier in the year it had been a bit slow. Earlier in the year, we redid the website. After the final website designed by Raul Colon’s team at Limonade, Inc. launched, my Design Resumes business has been incredible!

I thought my brother-in-law might ask about the website. However, I’m the one in the family who lives and breathes technology so I wasn’t totally surprised when he didn’t ask. He asked instead, “I’ve been retired now for nine years but isn’t everyone finding jobs online now?”

Perhaps he was trying to gently break it to me that if the year had been slow, it might be because people are applying for jobs online.

Do you only find jobs online?

It is so easy to assume that every job is online. I coach my job seeking clients how wrong it is to assume that all jobs are posted online.

Alison Doyle explains in her article What is the Hidden Job Market?

The hidden job market is a term used to describe jobs that aren’t posted online or advertised in any other way. Employers might not post jobs for a number of reasons. For example, they might be trying to save money on advertising, or they might prefer getting candidates through employee referrals.

Alison goes on to say:

Many employers choose to use the hidden job market to avoid the lengthy and expensive process of open online applications.

Susan Joyce talks about Tapping the Hidden Job Market (PUSH)

When you tap into the jobs in the “hidden job market,” you avoid the intense competition of the jobs on job boards and employer websites.

Employers receive an average of 250 applications for each publicly posted job. That’s a lot of competition!

These are the jobs in the “visible job market” — the jobs everyone can easily find and apply for.

We all hear that “most jobs” (75% to 85%, reportedly) are not posted on the Web or advertised in print.

Even though Susan and Alison’s advice is spot on, many job seekers fail to do anything but try to find jobs online. I tried to explain this to my captive family audience at brunch but I quickly realized they had no real desire to learn the best tactics for successful job search.

Why does it matter?

If you are an active job seeker, you are wasting valuable time if you think you find jobs online exclusively. Even worse, if you apply online and never follow up, your job search is most likely doomed to failure. Job seekers who do not have exceptional high demand skills struggle if they only try to find jobs online.

Since much of my client base is Director to Executive level job seekers, I encourage them to find those more exclusive job leads by leveraging networking and actively using LinkedIn to find connections into the companies they desire.

It is scary to market to a company when there isn’t a posting but consider yourself valuable. My clients know they are valuable after they read their new resume stories showing how they helped employers solve problems. Every employer is searching for employees and leaders who will solve their problems and drive up their revenue. I help my clients show exactly how they did it:

Organizational Transformation 

• Oversaw restructuring of the sales team and process as company moved into a Software as a Service (SaaS) business model.
• Redefined infrastructure to bolster company’s growth strategies, incorporating redesign of staffing, implementation, and onboarding programs to identify talent for leadership roles.

OR

PIVOTAL SUCCESS

Shaped explosive growth from $6.8B to $10.1B

• Increased overall square footage by 1.5M sq ft
• Expanded R&D labs, data centers, and complex communication rooms by 750K sq ft
• Pivotal in creation of robust electrical distribution and mechanical systems for new business units (semiconductor chip designs)

Obviously, telling your resume story is half the battle. The other half is leveraging the hidden job market to make sure you are not spending all your time applying online. Jobs are plentiful but you have to let the right people know you are on the market.

Are you ready to learn cutting edge job search skills and have a resume and LinkedIn profile that draws people to hire you? Let me help position you for success. Learn more here.