Only 20 to 30 percent of current job openings are publicly advertised. Why is this so? How do employers expect to fill vacancies if they do not advertise them?
Put yourself in the shoes of a department head with an opening. Say you are the head of advertising for the local newspaper. You are looking for a new salesperson. You have three positions in the sales department, one of which is now vacant. Your company is a newspaper; so of course, the first thing you do is place an ad in your paper, right? Wrong! The first thing you do is ask the two remaining salespeople if any of their friends are looking for a job. You do this because a great concern of any employer is to hire qualified people who get along well together. If you hire a friend of a current employee, you have a head start. They should get along on the job, and the current employee has a good idea about the friend's qualifications. In other words, by hiring a known quantity, you have cut the risk of hiring someone who will have to be fired because of incompatibility or poor performance. This is the "hidden job market." The key that unlocks the door to the hidden job market is networking.
Networking is the process of reaching out to relatives, friends, and acquaintances and asking them to support your search. Your "network" supports you by providing leads and referrals, and by arranging introductions to others who can provide such information. As your network grows, you come into contact with more people who give you more leads resulting in more interviews and job offers.
You start this process by telling a selected group of your relatives, friends, and acquaintances that you have decided to make a career change. You ask them if they know of any openings in your chosen field, or if they know of anyone who might have such information. This is your primary support group. The people you come into contact with as a result of this primary group become your secondary support group. The contacts you make through the secondary group become your third, or tertiary, group. In this manner your network keeps expanding. Imagine the ripples caused by tossing a pebble into a pond. You are the pebble. Your network is the ever-widening circle of ripples caused by you seeking out contacts.
You may have reservations about this process if you are shy, if you believe people don't like to help, or if you fear a breach of confidence. Fortunately for the human race, particularly for those involved in a job search, people like to help and are usually good about confidentiality. Approached in the right manner, most people are happy to give you information and help you on your way. Why? Because it makes them feel good and they know they may need your help someday.
For example, you are about to telephone a secondary contact for the first time. He is a friend of a friend, a person you do not know, but who your friend thinks may have information to help you in your job search. You hesitate to call because he is at work, the head of a department, a very busy man. What you may not know is that this very busy man is a really good friend of your friend. He is busy at a job that keeps him at a desk seven hours a. day. Your call may not be an unwelcome interruption; it may make him feel good to be able to help someone who is a good friend of his good friend. In other words, you just might make his day.
Tips for Successful Prospecting
Never call upon employers before 9:30 in the morning. If you call earlier, they probably are still trying to get their day organized and won't want to be interrupted. Plan beforehand, to end your calls at 11:30 so that you don't interfere with the lunch routine. Afternoon calls are best made between 1:30 and 4:00. Don't appear right after lunch; there may be business that came up requiring immediate attention. Calls made after 4:00 will interfere with closing the workday. The best days of the week to make personal calls are Tuesday through Thursday. Monday afternoon and Friday morning are all right-if you have a full week of calls to make. Mondays and Fridays can be very hectic days for many employers. Friday can be busy getting ready for the weekend. Monday is busy with all the things that did not get finished on Friday. This is especially true of companies (such as retailers) that are open for business on the weekend.
A good technique to use for organizing your prospecting calls is the geographic system used by territorial salespeople the world over. The system is called block calling. Get a map of the city you are prospecting and divide it up into blocks or areas. A block should be an area that you can cover in one period of time, such as an afternoon. Number each block and then take out your calendar. Write down a block number for each day you will devote to your search. Now when you look at your calendar, you will know where you intend to be each day for that month. Then you can set up appointments within a block for the same day. You won't have to run to one side of the city for an appointment, and then back to the other side for another. Block calling is systematic, resulting in better coverage. Of course, an important interview may have to be scheduled at the employer's convenience, not yours. You can just change the block calling sequence on your calendar.
As you gather information, you may learn there are no openings within a company. Don't stop there. Make sure to ask if the contact is aware of any possible openings with any other companies. If you make a good impression upon a prospective employer, he may become part of your network. He can give you information about positions in other companies, or forward your resume to another prospective employer.
From time to time you will come upon an employer with a few minutes to spare. If you've made a good impression, he will want to talk to you. Employers call this a pre-interview, and it is best avoided if possible. By not being prepared, you may answer the questions poorly and blow the possibility of a more detailed interview at a later time. If a pre-interview cannot be avoided, just do your best. One way to avoid this is to tell the prospective employer you have an appointment; then you can set up an interview for a later date.
