When it comes to the job market at any level, and especially when it comes to executive positions, you have a choice.

The choice is to follow the crowd and react to opportunities you’re given, or to proactively pursue what you really want whether it’s currently advertised or not.

While the majority obsess over their CV / resume and then position it on job boards and in front of professional recruiters, the minority explore opportunities in the ‘hidden market’. The hidden market is the place where high-probability career opportunities always exist before ever being advertised or positioned by recruitment companies.

Finding success in the job market doesn’t start with your CV / resume. Success begins with strong foundations of environment and psychology, which are then closely followed by planning:

• Environment – understanding how the job market really works.
• Psychology – how what you believe, impacts how you think and the consistent action you’re prepared to take.
• Planning – defining the job you really want and then putting a plan in place to uncover it.
• Process – all of the things you would normally expect to hear about when it comes to successful job search – CVs / resumes, cover letters, social media strategies, interview technique and offer negotiation, but done differently to secure the opportunity you’ve uncovered ahead of your competition.

With that said, let’s take a closer look at how the job market really works, because until you understand your environment, it’s difficult to position yourself correctly. Put another way, until you understand the rules of the game and how it’s played, it’s very difficult to win!

In explaining the job market environment I’ll consider three things – why the job market exists, the players and their motivations, and the three conversations employers have that reveals the hidden market.

Why the job market exists

The job market exists to connect those looking to hire with those looking for a new position. Organisations need to recruit for a multitude of reasons, for example, replacement of someone who has left or to acquire new skills. On the other side of the fence, individuals seek new opportunities due to redundancy, skill acquisition or simply the desire for a new challenge.

The players and their motivations

Employers and jobseekers are the primary or key players in the job market. They are the people directly engaged at the front end of any recruitment process and have a number of things in common. Recruiting or finding a job can be painful. It takes time, is full of uncertainty and with people on both sides of the transaction it can be one big headache!

The supporting players (job boards and professional recruiters) facilitate a market where there is imperfect information and play an important role in connecting employers with those looking for a career move:

Job boards – online platforms where employers (and recruiters) advertise positions and jobseekers are invited to apply.

Professional recruiters – these range from large international enterprises to very small and sector-specific boutique operations. They are businesses focused on making a profit through the generation of recruitment fees. Recruiters can be risk averse and want to please their clients to get paid. With limited places on a shortlist it’s often square pegs in square holes. If you don’t quite fit the mould, you could find yourself on the shelf, not because you’re a bad candidate, but because they’re not handling any suitable opportunities for you right now.

The three conversations employers have, which reveals the hidden market

Before ever placing an advert on a job board or engaging the services of a recruiter, employers often have conversations closer to home to try and find the person they’re looking for. These conversations are designed to reduce the time and financial outlay of any recruitment process, and to reduce the risk of making the wrong hiring decision.

Conversation one – takes place with their peer group or friends – who do they know that might be right for the business?

Conversation two – with their extended network, including professional advisors – who do they know that they could recommend?

Conversation three – with job boards or professional recruiters – paid services if conversations one and two fail to yield results.

Employers often prefer conversations one and two because referrals here come with an implicit recommendation. We generally avoid making an unqualified recommendation within our networks, as if we did, our network would cease to be our network fairly quickly.

The first two conversations can also yield quicker results and often result in a successful hire at zero cost. This is the hidden market, where a high proportion of opportunities are positioned and filled before they’re ever made public.

The big game changer in recent years has been LinkedIn. Employers now have a database at their fingertips that gives them direct access to the hidden market. Here LinkedIn ‘recommendations’ and ‘contacts in common’ serve as the implicit recommendation. If you’re seriously looking to advance your career, having a LinkedIn profile is absolutely essential. As I said in my first book: ‘If you don’t exist in cyberspace, you don’t exist at all!’

To summarise, as someone looking for a career move, in addition to registering online and talking with recruitment companies, you also have to position yourself in the hidden market. This is where high-probability career opportunities always exist and where you’re often only in competition with yourself.

If you rely solely on job boards and professional recruiters you are potentially missing a multitude of opportunities, and are simply doing what everyone else is doing.

Positioning yourself in the hidden market as part of your job search is one of the strategies you can use to stand out and get hired!

Bio:

Simon Gray FCA is a chartered accountant, former professional recruiter and founder of Career Codex Limited: http://careercodex.com

He works with executive clients from across the world to help them navigate the executive job market successfully and is the author of Super Secrets of Successful Executive Job Search – Everything you need to know to find and secure the executive position you deserve: http://careercodex.com/books

To find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simongrayaca