What Is the Hidden Job Market?
With Blind Bytes on "The Blind Ambition with Jack Kelly" podcast, Jack Kelly and Rick Chen reveal insider tips about professional life, which you can use immediately to level up your career. In this episode, we take on the "hidden job market."
Jack explores why some jobs are never posted on job boards or a company's career page. He explains what some companies are doing to get around New York City and some states' pay transparency laws, which require salary listings to be included in job descriptions. Finally, Jack outlines why it's best to work with a recruiter who specializes in your job function or industry and why internal referrals are still crucial to getting the fast track in the interview process.
Today, what I want to share with you is about the hidden job market, given what's happening now in the economy where we all know there's just been what, like 140,000 layoffs in the tech space alone. And now we're seeing this contagion where it's going to everywhere. It's going to the media companies, it's going to Wall Street, the cryptocurrency exchanges, Pepsi Cola. Now, I don't know why Pepsi has to lay off, but whatever. So, we're finding out that it's a much more challenging marketplace than it has been a long time, and being an executive recruiter, I've run a search firm for the last 25 years, primarily placing people on Wall Street, private equity, hedge funds, fintech, all sorts of financial institutions, investment banks, to a certain degree, some tech and Fortune 500 companies. So that I feel, given the current market, given what's happening here, I could offer... focus on how to help you with your career.
I want to talk about the hidden job market. And you've probably heard this term before. You know, it sounds kind of mysterious... hidden job market, but really, like a lot of these things that the media puts out there, the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, acting your wage, to just putting a label on something that we all know exists.
So, the hidden job market is this: Companies, sometimes, they don't want people to know that they're hiring... You know, it could be where let's say, there's a manager who's been working at the company for 10-plus years. Great guy. Everyone loves him; however, he's not so great. He was, maybe back in the day, but not so much, and it's awkward because the company wants to kind of really let that person go. They don't want to embarrass him and make him feel uncomfortable. So instead of putting out a job listing somewhere where it can be very easy for that person or someone with the organization to say, oh, wait, I see this job. That's Bob's job. What's up? What's going on? What's happening? And it can be really uncomfortable for the organization, so what they do is they don't post the job.
Similarly, let's say there's a team, and there's an opening to lead the team, but for whatever reason, leadership feels that there's no one who could really step up. Once again, they don't want to post a job to the public because they feel the people on that team are going to rise up and say, wait a minute. Why are you putting it out there? Why don't you give us the first crack? You know, we're working there. We know the company. So why take an outsider... and then... let's be frank, it pisses people off because they think, hey, why are you just completely overlooking us? You know, maybe I'm going to get my resume updated and start looking for another job with the new salary laws, particularly in places like New York. When you post a job, you have to put the salary down and the salary range. Sometimes, companies don't want to do that.
So, what ends up happening is there are a lot of interesting, cool jobs that you're not going to see on Indeed. You're not going to see it on LinkedIn. You're not going to see it on other job boards.
Now, here's how you can get to them, and I'm going to it's not really a crazy secret. It's it's pretty straightforward... One of the best ways is to find a recruiter in your space, you know, a headhunter who specializes in your area.
So, let's say you're a software engineer, software developer, or even you're a marketing person. You want to find a recruiter who knows that space, that niche that you do, and the reason why you want to specialize with that person is because they're going to know the companies. They're going to know the corporate culture. They'll understand what compensation will be. They know what hiring managers are looking for, so, instead of spinning your wheels, you could find somebody who could do it for you.
And what happens is this: When a recruiter gets the job... listing from the company, they could go out to candidates, prospective candidates, and share the opportunity. And if the recruiter has a great reputation, they could go out and say, hey, Christine, I have this role. Here's what's going on. We have to keep it confidential. I can't tell you the name of the company, but here's what they're looking for. And hopefully, because of the reputation of the recruiter, that person, Christine, will feel comfortable saying, okay, Jack, I'll send you over my resume. I trust you. You're not going to send me to a crazy place. So relying on recruiters is a great way to find it.
Now, I know some people roll their eyes. Recruiters are jerks. They suck... You're not wrong, but it is what it is. Same thing with lawyers, accountants, you know people who sell cars. You know there's going to be good, there's going to be bad, but looking for recruiters in your space who do that.
Another thing you want to do is this, you want to get an internal employee referral. Hiring managers, HR love internal referrals. They feel, hey, if Mike is working at the company, and he knows that somebody is looking, if you can get that person to get a foot in the door because it's the person's recommended, that's a great way to do it. So... Mike knows there's a job that's been posted at his company. No one else really knows that. So if he refers me to that job, he gets in there.
Another way to do this is you want to network. And you know, when you see network, you feel God, it's like it harkens back to, you know, you're in this big room with a with a name tag on your chest, and you got nice to meet you. How are you? Here's what I do.. But really networking is this: You want to tap into your people, maybe who you grew up with, people you went to college with, people within your town, co-workers, former co-workers, because then, you could find out—and this takes a little bit of, you know, being bold, having a little chutzpah—but you want to go to these people and say, hey, I'm looking for a new job. Can you help me? And you want to find these people who have access to the jobs, so they could say, hey, yeah, Jack, I'll be glad to help you. We have an opening here. And then you'd say to them again, this is you got to be a little pushy sometimes. Then you say to the person, hey, thank you. Can you make sure my resume gets in front of the right person? And then not only get in front of the right person but to have them have a good recommendation and say, hey, I know Jack. He's great. He's awesome. He's wonderful. You know, you've got to bring him in, and then, if it's possible, if you have two people internally, who can kind of recommend you. Oh, my God, that's the best because then they feel this guy, Jack, has to be great. I'm hearing from several people within the company that he's looking really good. Let's bring him in so you see.
It's nothing really crazy, what I'm saying. It's just one of these things that's kind of a quirk in the system, you know, because the companies want to keep it quiet. They don't want to kind of blow up the spot of a person they're trying to replace or get somebody new to take over a group, or they don't want to talk about the salary, so they don't want to kind of put it out there.
So you find ways to get a recruiter, an employee referral. Tap into your network to find somebody.