To better understand the unpublished job board, let’s take a minute to look at the more traditional published job board first to better understand the difference between the two.
The published job board is where we usually look for available published jobs, you know, the newspaper ads, job boards, recruitment or recruitment agency job postings, and job fairs.
But did you know that published jobs only account for about 30% of all available jobs at any given time? Some experts in the field even claim that this job market represents only about 10% of all available jobs.
So the logical question is, where are the rest of the available jobs?
The unpublished job market
The unpublished job market, also known as the hidden job market, is where vacancies are filled without being advertised, or at least not in the way we’re used to, as we’ll see in a moment.
The unpublished job market represents approximately 70% of the available jobs at any given time. But there is more; 85% of six-figure salary positions are filled through this unpublished job board. That means the executive jobs we see in high-end publications like The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, or the Financial Times, to name a few, only account for about 15% of the six-figure salary positions available.
Then the question arises, why does this hidden market even exist?
Why isn’t there just one place where we can find all the available jobs in the market?
To help us answer these questions, let’s take a quick look at the mechanics of both labor markets.
This is how the published job market works
In the case of the more traditional job market, we conduct our search based on available vacancies to determine what positions we would like to target. Then we send our CV to either the employer, the recruitment agency or the headhunter, depending on who is posting the ad.
Once your CV is received, the recruitment team will conduct an initial review of the CVs received. The resumes received are then sent to the hiring manager for review and the actual interview begins.
First, the HR department or recruitment agency conducts an initial round of interviews to see if the candidate fits into the company culture and to validate the resume information. The hiring manager then interviews the vetted candidates to select the most suitable one. Once the interviews have been conducted and the best candidate selected, the job posting process begins.
When the hiring company carries out the process, the HR team presents the offer. The HR team presents the offer. In the case of a headhunter, it acts as a sort of intermediary between the hiring company and the candidate, ensuring that the candidate gets good offers as their commission is usually a percentage of the final salary.
This is how the unpublished job market works
In the case of the hidden job board, the process is a bit more streamlined and or even more discreet.
The job fulfillment process in this market is more company-driven, sometimes using external resources, but in a different way than in the traditional labor market. In this market, job referrals are more common as companies looking for good candidates ask for referrals from business partners, suppliers, contacts at other companies, or even their own employees.
Some companies even have employee referral programs; After all, who knows better than the employee whether the recommended candidate fits the corporate culture they live by on a daily basis. In fact, at a Fortune 500 company I used to work for, the employee referral program paid a cash incentive for every referred candidate who was hired and completed their first three months on the job.
When you compare how both markets work, you might think that the unpublished job market is not as easy or convenient as responding to published job ads. But when you look at the number of opportunities available, the hidden job market is definitely something to consider as part of your overall job search strategy.
Thanks to Ramon Torres | #Discover #hidden #opportunities #unpublished #job #market
