How to Crack the Hidden Job Market

Q. I’ve been out of work for six months and still don’t have any prospects. I answer all the appropriate ads, search the job sites and send out resumés. Nothing. Are there things I can do differently in this economy? --James B.

A. Yes. A new book just published has a fresh approach that could help. Cracking the Hidden Job Market by Donald Asher reveals some surprising job-hunting facts:
• All industries are always hiring
• You get a job by talking to people
• Most jobs are never advertised
• You may have to move to keep your career on track
• Your best opportunity is in small organizations
• Looking for work takes at least 40 hours a week
• You have to bug people to get hired

Asher says 50 percent of the jobs posted are already filled; employers post them simply to appear democratic and look like equal-opportunity employers.
“When you look for openings, you’re always a little off center for the assignment; with hundreds if not thousands of applicants, someone else will always be dead center,” he explains. That’s why you may be better off with a fresh approach, and hunt for the jobs that aren’t yet advertised. So, how do you do it? “You pick the type of job you want, and go after it until you’re sure it’s not for you, or you land a position.

Since most job-hunters apply for the jobs currently available, Asher says, job-hunters should begin by choosing a target industry, then a target job function, then the title of the job they want. In a job-search, you decide either the direction isn’t fruitful, or you land a job. Those are the only two outcomes you can allow to happen.

Seven Stages of a Job Search
Asher lists stages of a job search, in the order you’ll follow. Once your search gets going, you’ll do all of them simultaneously:
1. Identify job targets
2. Identify raw leads (organizations, people, ideas)
3. Convert raw leads into lists of specific people
4. Turn a name into an appointment
5. Sell yourself in the interview
6. Stay alive through the selection process
7. Close the deal

It’s clear that the focus is on talking to people—the “right” people. You identify a job target; find someone doing that job now; talk to him/her; repeat the steps until you’re hired. Asher says the fastest way to get a job is to pick up the phone and call businesses. E-mail also works, but not as well. Simply call or e-mail smaller companies and ask them if they’re considering hiring someone like you: “I wonder if you’re thinking about hiring a marketing assistant. Who would I talk to about that?” Then follow up.

100 Companies—40 Hours a Week
Sounds like a lot of work? It is. Here’s another challenge: Asher says you have to be working at least with 100 companies at a time to make the process work. Keep track of them on 3 x 5 cards, an electronic data base, Excel spreadsheet—whatever you need to stay on top of each lead. As soon as one lead dries up, add a new one. And you you’ll have to commit to working at least 40 hours a week in your search: all day Monday through Thursday; half a day on Friday and half a day on Sunday. Every Sunday, evaluate the prior week’s efforts, and plan the following week’s activities. (Asher says most job-hunters work only about six serious hours a week—hoping their mailed-out resumés and and inquiries will pay off. They rarely do.

Measure what you do. Track everything. And the most important thing to measure actual interviews for jobs. If you get interviews, you’ll get a job. If you’re not getting interviews, you need to find out why. Here’s what to measure:

• New people you’ve met face-to-face
• New people you’ve met online
• New posted openings you’ve applied for
• New organizations you’ve found that “might” harbor a job you want
• Interviews for information
• Screening interviews with a real, possible employer
• First interviews for a “possible” job
• Conversions (of half your screening interviews that lead to a full
interview)
• Follow-up interviews
• Dings—the “possible” jobs for which you are rejected, and open items
you now realize are dead
• Active (open) items—people you owe a phone call to; everyone you
agreed to follow up with; every job you’ve applied to where they haven’t sent you a “ding” letter; everyone who told you to callback
• Offers (If you do this right, you should start to get job offers (even though
some won’t be right for you