If Jobs Are Hidden, How do We Know They Are There?

by Duncan Mathison

I met with a group of job seekers the other day to talk about the hidden job market. When I asked how big people thought the hidden job market is, people pretty much agreed that 70-80% of all jobs out there that get filled are never advertised, published or posted. But why? Why would employers not want to broadcast open positions, casting the widest net possible to find the best talent available on the market?

The answer is simple. It takes time and money.

HR people know how to recruit. But when times are tough, HR recruiting budgets and staff are slashed.
Hiring managers do not have enough time to recruit and are often reluctant to pay for recruiting out of their own budget because they are measured (and compensated) on their own P&L performance. This is a big issue in the age of stretch goals and shrinking economies. Besides, managers often prefer to quickly hire someone who was recommended by people they trust than wade through countless and time consuming resumes and interviews.
So when we think about all the steps there are between the time an employer has a need, discovers a their need, thinks up a job position, sits down with HR to approve it, document it, publish it and post it, wade through the hundreds of resumes, do screening interviews, then selection interviews as well as the offers and acceptances, it is no wonder that the right person, at the right time will be seen as a godsend to the manager who needs YOUR help and would love nothing more than to get one more critical issue off their plate so they can move on to the next critical issue.
This is why so many jobs, and frankly the best jobs are in the hidden job market. It is also why more jobs are hidden when times are tight than when times are booming. It is time to look into the hidden job market.

Tags: Duncan Mathison, hidden job market, prospective boss

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.