While some job openings are advertised, “hidden jobs” account for 75 percent of the job market.
Leigh Deusinger, business development specialist; and Arlene Taich, Ph.D., graduate and postdoctoral career development specialist, both in The Career Center at Washington University in St. Louis, talked about power job search strategies to locate the unadvertised positions during a session at the American Association for the Advancement of the Science’s Annual Meeting in St. Louis Feb. 16-20.
“An organization or other hiring entity will only advertise a job when they don’t have any contacts to fill the position,” said Taich. “Advertising a job is often a last resort.”
To help job seekers discover the hidden, non-advertised jobs, Taich and Deusinger talked about power search strategies and ways to handle a job search in a project management fashion.
The interactive workshop provided tools, techniques, and practical application of search strategies to maximize access to the wealth of possibilities inherent in this market both in academe and industry. Taich and Deusinger also discussed how to read organizational culture as an integral tool in job selection and within one’s ongoing career management process.
“What I’ve discovered working with graduate and post-doctoral students on their job searches, is that most people, since they don’t search for jobs very often, don’t understand how to be strategic in the search,” Taich said.
Being strategic involves a lot of productive activity and a number of resumes sent to the right target. “Human resources is usually not the right target,” Taich said. “They can’t create a job for you. You have to send your resume to someone who understands your skills and appreciates what you can do.”
People looking for work at company or university should look for those that “always hire people who do what you do, or should hire people who do what you do” Taich suggested. “You need to apply for jobs that are a match for what you do best. If the companies you are looking at only have one position for people who do what you do and they aren’t hiring any more, that company is probably not as promising as a target as a company who employs 10 people who do what you do. There is a better probability that someone will vacate one of those ten positions.”
“We really hope that the participants at the session were able to glean insights into how to effectively manage their career strategies,” Deusinger said. “Getting people to tap into the hidden job market really is key.”