5 Facts About The Hidden Job Market

Michelle St. Onge — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:45:48 +0000

It really exists. The fact that some jobs never get posted can be a tough pill to swallow for a job seeker who is relentlessly combing the internet for leads. Unfortunately for those who rely solely on that tactic, it is a reality.
It is legal. Some people assume that companies who do not post their positions to the public are engaging in shady or even illegal business practices. Larger companies are more likely to have favorable rules for public postings, but many of them will post internally first before taking the job opportunity to the streets.
It saves time and money. The process of reviewing resumes and hiring the right employee takes an incredible amount of time, energy, and money away from the day to day operations of a business. If a current and well-respected employee walked in with the resume of a contact and a glowing personal recommendation, that just might be the key to freedom from a pile of resumes from would-be applicants.
It is not fair. Your Mother was right, life is not fair. When it comes to the hidden job market, it is all about who you know and how often you are getting your name out there. People with larger personal and professional networks have the advantage.
It is accessible to everyone. The good news is that you can continually grow your own network. The bigger it gets and the harder you work at it, the more likely you are to be talking to the right person at the right time. Regular readers know that the team at Messenger Associates, Inc. are big fans of social media, and LinkedIn in particular for this purpose.

Michelle St. Onge

Filed under: Job Leads, LinkedIn, Networking, Resources for Job Seekers Tagged: hidden job market, job search, LinkedIn, networking

3 Communication Tools You Must Manage Well

Michelle St. Onge — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:56:43 +0000

It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the technology you have to manage during a job search. Between your home phone, cell phone, email, instant messaging, conference calls, live virtual meetings, and text messages, staying current with your inboxes can be difficult.

While these tools are all necessary to make it through a career transition, all of them need to be managed correctly or they can sabotage your productivity.

The irony here is striking – the very tools that were designed to help speed up communications and save time can become the enemy they were designed to fight. Networking, researching job openings, and polishing your resume are important tasks that require uninterrupted focus. Jumping back and forth between checking email and thoughtful cover letter writing is tempting, but ultimately a mistake.

Here’s the message, loud and clear: manage your tools or they will manage you. Here are some ideas to help gain control over your inbox and get you back to work on what really matters.

Email: Resist the temptation to stop whatever you are doing every time you hear a beep announcing a new message in your inbox. Better yet, turn that feature off completely and close your email program down. Schedule several blocks of time throughout the day to check messages and return them so that you are not constantly concerned about missing an important message.

Phone calls: Phone calls can be interruptions that keep you from doing important work. When you need uninterrupted focus time, let voicemail do its job so that you can do yours. Don’t be afraid to forward your phone directly to voicemail and go offline for an hour or more while you focus on other projects. Just be sure to check your messages when you are done.

Mobile devices/texting: These gadgets have virtually made the phrase “sorry, I am away from my desk right now” obsolete. If you carry a smart phone, you are effectively carrying your home office with you. It is important to give the person you are talking to your full attention and not constantly be glancing at your buzzing or beeping phone. Develop guidelines about when you want to be interrupted by incoming messages, and stick to them by silencing or physically turning off your phone when you need to.

In the end, it is up to you to control how much your communication tools affect your ability to be present in the moment, and get real work done. If nothing else, remember one thing: just because you CAN stop working to check your messages doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

Michelle St. Onge

~Michelle

Filed under: Job Leads, Networking, Organizing a Job Search Tagged: communication tool, e-mail, job search, smart phone, text

A Success Story

Michelle St. Onge — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:54:38 +0000

Lately I’ve come across a lot of blogs with topics like “15 Habits for Success” or “9 Things Successful People Do Differently.” I am a sucker for self-improvement articles, so I usually stop and read them. I get a few good ideas from them and occasionally walk away fired up to implement a change.

What I’ve come to realize is that reading about what “successful people” do can only take you so far. Most of us don’t realize how hard you have to work at success in order to achieve it, so most of the techniques we read about stay superficial.

An in-depth almost case-like study of one truly successful person’s story would give a much different perspective on what it takes to be successful. Choose a mentor, or someone who has worked hard to achieve something you want. As a job seeker you might pick someone who has recently successfully landed a position in your industry.

Ask that person if they are willing to tell you their success story with all its ups and downs over the course of a month or so. Then dig in. Questions like, “what challenges were unexpected, and how did you overcome them?” and “when the goal seemed out of reach or impossible, how did you convince yourself to keep going?” will help get to the root of the successful outcome.

If you can’t identify a suitable person to take this journey with right now, a readily available next best option is to look for inspiration in the pages of the biography of a famous leader whom you admire.

Michelle St. Onge

~Michelle

Filed under: Self Awareness, Staying Motivated Tagged: job search, mentor, motivation, success