As anyone who has searched for a job recently can attest, sending out resumes in response to published job ads has become a very frustrating and low-return strategy. Not only are a healthy percentage of published openings not even real to begin with, but thanks to the rise of the internet, AI, and remote work, most knowledge-based professionals are now competing with talent all around the globe—and we no longer enjoy the protection of being [...]
While younger professionals might not realize it, a common element of job hunting in decades past involved joining dedicated “networking groups” where people would band together to share job hunting ideas, review progress, access moral support, and get direct feedback from their peers around their job hunting approach. Back in the eighties and nineties, for example, there was a very popular group called “Forty Plus” that had chapters all over the country and that was [...]
As discussed extensively in many of my networking-related posts over the years, one of the hardest things to do for many job hunters is stretch beyond the "reactive" world of responding to published job ads and add in the more "proactive" component of working through personal connections to uncover unpublished and newly-created opportunities. Sure, millions of job hunters land new roles each year by responding to published leads, but at the same time -- and [...]
There's an old saying that goes: "all dogs love to chase cars, but they have no idea what they'd do if they actually caught one." In one sense, I see a similar paradox taking place when it comes to job hunters and networking these days. Without question, the bulk of hiring taking place is happening under the radar through networking and word-of-mouth introductions -- and even in cases where a job is publicly advertised, there's [...]
While LinkedIn has now been around for over 20 years, and more than a billion professionals have joined it, I still find that the vast majority of people aren't truly grasping the importance of the tool in the modern job market -- and how much of a role it can play in improving one's odds of ongoing career success. Love it or hate it, LinkedIn has established a near-monopoly on the online networking game and [...]
Networking is a funny thing. While it is unquestionably the most important factor in job search success, as well as career advancement in general, it's a subject most people are sick to death of hearing about -- and also one (when you bring it up) that causes a lot of job hunters to roll their eyes and say "Yeah, I'm doing all that, but it's not working." Part of the problem, however, is that there [...]
For many decades running, one of the most commonly cited "truisms" about looking for a job is that you shouldn't rely on published advertisements alone for finding your next opportunity – with the statistic often cited being that only 15-20% of all jobs are actually advertised and the remainder of roles (often called the "hidden" job market) are filled through networking and word-of-mouth. I've certainly expressed this sentiment many times over the years, myself, and [...]
Wayne Gretzky, widely considered the best hockey player of all time, famously once remarked "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." In truth, this mantra doesn't just apply to the athletics arena. It's also not a bad philosophy to adopt for one's entire life, as well, and has a particularly strong application within the job hunting arena -- since when you're looking for work, there are going to be a lot of cases [...]
Looking back over the past two decades, during periods of both economic prosperity and decline, one of the most uplifting things I’ve witnessed is the willingness of many people – at times, even complete strangers – to lend a helping hand to others when they’re looking for work. In truth, there are literally hundreds of stories I could share about good Samaritans in the workplace. Situations where anxious job hunters were given just the right [...]
Ah, the irony of it all. In an age where everything is "digital this" or "digital that" it's been fascinating to watch the importance of personal relationships increase, not decrease, in terms of the job hunting process. It's almost as if there's now SO much access to talent -- and so many zillabytes of content floating around the web -- that hiring managers just don't want to mess with it all. Instead, when they've got [...]