Senior Communications Specialist for Insperity Recruiting Services, specializing in employment branding and recruitment marketing.
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If you have been a job seeker within the past decade, chances are you have heard of the “hidden job market.” This is a catchy term used to refer to jobs that are not advertised. For years, career experts have estimated that the hidden job market accounts for 70-80% of all open positions. Whether or not this is accurate, two things are certain: There are plenty of job openings that are never publicized, and job seekers who ignore them limit their chances of employment.
There are a number of reasons why employers may choose not to advertise job openings or post them on career pages or social media. For some, advertising costs are not in the budget. Others may be looking to fill a role that has not been made public or backfill the position of an employee who has yet to leave. Still others may hope to avoid the influx of résumés from unqualified candidates or to capitalize on employee referrals.
Whatever the reasons, job seekers looking to tap into the hidden job market must do two things: 1) identify companies that are hiring or positions of interest, and 2) contact a recruiter, hiring manager, employee or someone who can provide information on how to apply. While these both require an investment in time, candidates can gain an inside track to prime opportunities. However, the mass exodus of millions of employees from the U.S. workforce during the Great Resignation now offers additional incentive to seek out these unpublicized roles. Let’s look at a few ways job seekers can benefit from embracing the hidden job market.
Less Competition
In 2021, 47 million American workers quit their jobs, with 11 million jobs still unfilled as of December 2022. While some have chosen to retire or start their own business, others are gradually rejoining the workforce. Furthermore, a hiring spree in the tech sector during the pandemic has led to recent mass layoffs due to recession concerns. As these workers search for new roles, many will naturally gravitate to online job boards and career websites as a quick and easy route back to employment. This can create enormous competition for posted jobs, with each job posting likely drawing hundreds of résumés from interested candidates.
Conversely, those who target roles from the hidden job market will likely encounter far less competition in their search. Employers that opt not to post job openings are likely to recognize and often reward this strategy by prioritizing these applications over the hundreds of résumés they receive from job postings.
The Power Of Networking
For nearly two years, COVID-19 put a damper on social gatherings. While small gatherings occurred less often, large events such as conferences and career fairs transitioned to a virtual platform, allowing individuals to attend without ever leaving home. Now that gatherings have resumed over the past year, some have discovered that networking requires practice to stay sharp, and after months of isolation during the pandemic, their skills are rusty.
However, strong networking skills are essential for tapping into the hidden job market—in searching out both jobs and company contacts. Those who are strong networkers can use this to their advantage by ensuring their networking skills are on point. By expressing interest in a role or company during a face-to-face or online conversation, candidates demonstrate the sourcing and social skills that can set them apart from the competition.
Soft Skills
Though most roles require a number of specific hard skills, there are also several soft skills that employers look for when hiring. Effective communication, creative thinking and the ability to solve problems are all universal skills important for career success. For most job seekers, there’s no way to demonstrate these skills until after hire, and for employers, there's no way to know whether candidates possess them until they have started working.
However, when leveraging the hidden job market, these skills are not only essential, but job seekers demonstrate them in their initial outreach. Candidates looking to make a strong first impression on employers should remember to highlight their soft skills whenever possible when inquiring about unadvertised job openings and communicating interest to a company representative.
Employee Referrals
Employee referrals are still the top source of hire, and considering the cost of backfilling a role, employers want to ensure they find the right candidate the first time and retain them. When job seekers apply to an online posting, their résumé and application are added to the virtual stack and they become one of many hoping to get noticed.
But as stated above, the hidden job market requires networking up front, and candidates who connect with employees gain an advocate within the company who can guide them in the right direction. This contact may not know them personally or be familiar with their work history or experience, but when competing with hundreds of other applicants all hoping to land the same job, even a superficial referral can provide a huge advantage. Candidates should prioritize establishing these connections with employees at their target company who can advocate for them in their job search.
The truth is that the hidden job market isn’t so hidden. The term allows people to believe they are given secret access to a treasure trove of job listings. However, in reality, the hidden job market refers to the networking, sourcing and connection-building that should be a part of every job search.
Just like a good investment portfolio, a successful job search strategy should be diversified, combining job boards and career websites with online and in-person networking in order to take advantage of both publicized and unpublicized job openings. Considering the increased competition for jobs created by the post-pandemic migration back to the workforce and recent tech company layoffs, those who are willing to seek out roles in places others aren’t can increase their opportunities—and their chances of success.
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