When people ask how they access the hidden job market, I often suggest they take up the strategy known as guerrilla networking.
Hang around near the location where you want to work around about lunchtime, or at the end of the working day and notice where employees go for snacks and drinks. Install yourself in the cafe or takeway and approach a friendly looking person.
Say something along the lines of ‘ Hi, hope you don’t mind me asking you this, but you look friendly and I couldn’t help noticing you came from the direction of company X. I would love to have the chance of working ’t give me any quick suggestions, could you?’
Now you must be prepared for snarling dismissals or to be the butt of humour here. But here is proof this pays results:
Nathan came on an Employability programme with a first class degree and experience of leading climbing expeditions up the Matterhorn. He also had a distinguished naval career behind him. But his social background was not one where he had encountered networking and the hidden job market – his ethos was you work hard to do your very best and hope your merit gets spotted.
Unfortunately, Nathan hit the job market as the last recession was fully kicking in over here in the UK and no matter his best endeavors, he couldn’t find anything in his sector, engineering.
Against the odds Nathan had already achieved a great deal, but now he was thwarted in a way he could not understand and felt he did not have resources to overcome. Despite being self-disciplined and proactive about keeping fit and job hunting, he started to find himself feeling extremely stressed and running a very short fuse with his girlfriend, snapping at her frequently.
Nathan approached guerrilla networking with the same thoroughness he did everything else. He found several different companies of various sizes and specializations and hung around in their vicinities, hoping to find people prepared to offer friendly advice. Employees of the largest company repeatedly said ‘We’re just not hiring now’ but then qualified this with info about a competitor who was.
Thrillingly, within six months of loitering with intent Nathan had three excellent job offers, one from this large business, one from a mid-sized consultancy and one from a boutique eco engineer.
A word of caution here (which you probably don’t need) but your approach needs to be respectful and considerate. You are doing mild research and it’s probably helpful to let people know that early on. Your presentation will matter here of course and we go into this in further detail in part three. To be safe, dress on the conservative side (unless you’re after fashion or design work) and behave sensitively. The key skills here are attentiveness and listening.
You are involved in a PR campaign here to show that you are valuable, available and keen to get involved.
This guerrilla networking is also helpful to find out about the enterprise’s culture. What do people wear, how do they behave, does it seem bureaucratic, easy-going or do they carry themselves like crushed flies, regimented and compliant?
Other ways of getting to this hidden job market are by immersing yourself in Google+, Facebook or Linked In sector groups, getting into Twitter conversation with leaders in your field and also by volunteering for work experience.
There is much debate currently about exploitation of using interns to work for free (I know in some countries it is illegal). This is something to weigh up, the value of the work experience and isolation being the lethal enemy of keeping motivated through job search. If you do decide to work for free, monitor in an ongoing way, and regularly, the benefits for yourself and your positioning. There’ll come a point where the experience will suffice and it will be time to get something where you get properly rewarded according to market rates.
