Once you are networked into the target department, it is a question of staying in touch with the departments where the jobs you want reside. This way, when they need to hire, they think of you right away. They don’t need to worry about posting the job, as you are readily available to help them.
Remember that the jobs reside in these individual departments, not in a general job board overall or even in a specific organization’s job board. You want to get as close to where the job originates as possible.
A good example of finding a job in the hidden job market by getting close to the job originator is Luisa B.
Luisa had an interest in health-care finance, specifically working in the accounting area of hospitals. She joined a trade association that focused on health-care finance issues. She researched the market of hospitals in her area to determine all of the hospital names, the department names where they handled finance, and the names of the finance officers. She conducted informational interviews of these finance officers and kept in touch with news from the trade association. A few weeks after starting this process, one of her early interviewees called her back: there was a position opening up and they thought of her. She got the job.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Research is helpful in all stages of your search.
- Research can drive your search forward to networking meetings and interviews.
- Research into the hiring departments and managers can help you access jobs that aren’t posted—the hidden job market.
EXERCISES
- Do you know decision makers who hire, even for jobs you don’t want? If you have a friendly relationship with people in a position to hire, ask them about the reporting structure within their own firm. Ask about decision making during the job search process. Practice with them filling out an organizational chart. Of course, this is just a sample for an organization and role you may not want, but it’s good practice.
- For jobs you do want, do you have a basic understanding of how you might find your way to the decision makers?
- What research resources will you use to get an organizational chart that reveals the decision makers for the jobs you want?
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