The published market is readily accessible to you and thou-sands of other job seekers. Competition is stiff from applicants whose credentials are as good or better than yours. The hidden job market openings occur as the result of: retirement, resignation, promotion, illness, expansion, relocation, mergers, government regulations, and product changes to meet customer demands. Some jobs become public knowledge through the media; many other positions never become widely known.
What are the common reference sources of the hidden job market? To begin with there are the industry magazines or newsletters that exist for just about every business sector in the United States and Canada. Your local public library probably has many of these publications, and college libraries may have many more. Many additional publications are associated with the professional organizations you might consider joining. The Occupational Outlook Handbook, a publication of the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Encyclopedia of Associations, published by Gale Research Inc., are good sources for locating these business organizations. Trade and professional organizations are an excellent source of job leads through their own placement services. By becoming active in such organizations and attending their monthly/annual meetings, you find out what is happening in local commerce and industry, meet colleagues with similar interests, and thus begin your personal networking activities.
Networking is important, but it is an activity we must do throughout our careers, not just during a job search. Networking is a lifeline to a profession; it keeps you in touch with reality. Information gathering is the primary goal of informal networking. This involves casual calls to friends and colleagues, attending social and cultural activities, participating in various events, and meeting and talking with people wherever you are. Another networking strategy is the information interview, an informational conversation with a professional to inquire about an industry, company, or job prospect. One of its primary goals is to ask for names of other contacts you might call for additional information.
Ultimately you will discover that people are the best conduit to the hidden job market. You may hear about openings or promotions at an informal gathering or when making an information call to a local trade association office. Developing good interpersonal skills is an essential part of your career development job search.
The primary information sources in the open job market are the classified ads that are run in daily newspapers as well as special interest magazines and newsletters. Ads come from companies, employment agencies, temporary services firms, search firms, and career counseling firms. These classified ads are either real, phony, or blind. Some companies run ads, not because they have job openings, but because they want to see what the current applicant pool looks like. Blind ads are usually just a practical tactic for reducing paper and phone work. When using classified ads, track a number of publications in addition to your local newspapers.
PREPARING YOUR RESUME
The primary objective of the resume is to present your back-ground and qualifications in a clear and concise way so that potential employers will read it and conclude that you are worth interviewing. Do resumes work? Draw your own conclusions based on these very interesting statistics:
- AT&T and IBM receive more than one million resumes each year
- Johnson & Johnson gets 300,000 resumes a year
- During November through April, the peak recruiting period, many large companies receive an average of 1,000 resumes a week
- Apple Computer and Sun Micro systems get close to 3,000 resumes a week
With so many resumes circulating, you might wonder what happens to them. Human resource folks admit to: "spending 30 seconds reviewing a resume," "skimming every 10th one," "trashing a resume if it doesn't grab my attention in 15 seconds," "using resume-scanning software." Are there alternatives to a good resume? One method supported by many successful job applicants is to:
- Research companies you want to work for.
- Find a person or intermediary who actually does the hiring or who is one of the decision makers.
- Send a combined letter-resume.
Your letter-resume should tailor your experience to the employer's needs, be brief and focused, present facts and figures to document your accomplishments, and be addressed to a specific person.
INTERVIEWING SKILLS
Think of an interview as a professional dialogue, a conversation, for which you are well prepared. Knowing about the company you are interested in helps you determine what aspects of your professional background the employer will value most. Remember that first impressions count. Employers consistently rate these issues as most important:
- Arrive on time
- Wear a neat, appropriate outfit
- Provide an easy-to-read, up-to-date resume tailored to the position
