If you have been feverishly launching a job search that seems to be getting nowhere, I want to know, "What have you been doing?"
If more than 50% of your time has been spent online responding to job postings or posting your resume to various career sites, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these are the facts:
- Your emails are most likely being deleted. It is simply
overwhelming to the hiring managers because they have too many emailed
resumes from solicited and unsolicited resources.
- There
are over 40 million (that's right) resumes posted through the major online career sites and the success rate is only between 1% to 3%! Still wondering why you are not getting responses?
- Seventy to eighty percent (70%
to 80%) of job opportunities are filled through networking and personal contacts. No, your dream job is not waiting online at a career site for you to find it....furthermore, every 2 to 3 jobs you find online do not compare to the 7 to 8 other jobs out there you have not seen. If everyone is chasing the same jobs, how can you expect to succeed?
- Recruiters
usually charge companies 30% of your salary to the companies who hire them, so what about the companies that want to hire without a recruiter? You cannot know about those opportunities unless you are actively networking.
Landing your "dream job" is going to take a lot more than online job search expertise. You have to be proactive and being proactive translates to researching companies, finding contacts through online social/professional sites like LinkedIn, networking at annual events and industry conferences, and finding the hidden job market.
One of my colleagues, Sue Campbell summarizes it well:
"There has been a lot of discussion over the last decade regarding the "Hidden Job Market." Does it exist? And if so, where is it and how can you get a piece of the action? The truth is, the "Hidden Job Market" isn't really hidden, and tapping into it simply requires a bit of outside-the-box thinking.
It doesn't mean you can forgo the routine procedures and protocols of an ordinary job search. It does mean throwing your net as far and wide as you're willing, in order to gain the largest amount of exposure and opportunities possible. Tapping into the "hidden job market" requires real effort and legwork on the part of the job candidate."
