80% Of Jobs Are Found Through Connections

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80% of jobs are not found through any website.  So, if you are like over 90% of job seekers, you are wasting a lot of time searching for positions that everyone else wants.  You might as well go out and buy $100 worth of lottery tickets this weekend with the hope of believing that you have a chance of winning millions of dollars.  Of course, I am only being sarcastic about buying lottery tickets, but I just want to point out how much of a time waster it is to solely apply to website post alone.

I have spoken to a few people that have spent many years searching for a job.  It pains me to see so many people unemployed in this economy.  Quite a few people believe that they can just ride out this economy and wait for jobs to open up or just keep aggressively searching for positions online.  Sadly, these same people will be searching for a position for a very long time if this is the only job tactic that they have.

The key to tapping into the hidden job market is to rely on people that you know or you have met to get you into the next level in your career.  It may seem very tedious at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature to you.  The people that will help you are the very people that know you by name.

In the past 7 years, I have had a total of three jobs.  Getting these jobs would have been extremely difficult if I did not know someone who had a contact within any of these companies.  The first position that I got was from a Director of Hr who happened to be a close friend of a former professor, who I was introduced to at a coffee shop.  I obtained the second career opportunity through a referral from a friend for a position at Fortune 500 manufacturing company.  The third position was obtained through a referral who knew a corporate recruiter who was looking for a regional recruiter.  Guess What?  Only one of these positions was actually posted.

In order to find the job of your dreams, you can not solely rely on job postings on a company website.  If you wait until the job is posted on a website, you might be too late.  The people that you call friend, family, associate, or even acquaintance will help you with your job search.  If you just rely on applying to company postings, you may be frustrated.  Do not be like the majority of those who are only using online postings as a resource or you might be waiting a very long time to find your dream job.

How to Network Internally

When doing a career search internally, within your place of employment, remember that no one cares more about your future than you, not even your supervisor. This might seem to be common sense, but it is surprising the amount of people that I have spoken to that actually thought a supervisor really cared more about their career than they did.

Of course, there are supervisors that want to see their employees get better and possibly go to the next level within the organization. However, these supervisors are a rare breed. Ultimately, the purpose of the supervisor is to ensure that the department or team that they are responsible for is doing a great job and delivering results. Obviously, there are very subjective reasons for this.
First, the supervisor will be commended by her manager and secondly, this can lead to a pay increase got that supervisor.

In order to do a career search internally, you have to be willing to go on your own and do your own networking. You might want to start out by having lunch with decision makers of departments or teams that you want to be a part of. It wouldn’t hurt to have about 20 questions memorized that you would like to ask during those meetings.

How do you find these decision makers? You can either be introduced to them via other coworkers, which is the best option or send an email to them stating your interest in the department and that you are interested in learning more about their individual department. This might seem very uncomfortable, but please remember that to be successful you have to get out of your comfort zone.

You have to be very active in your career search. Do not expect your supervisor to assist you with going to another department. If you are an excellent worker, more than likely your supervisor will want to keep you in your current position. True success lies in ensuring that you take your career search by the horns and ensure that you direct your career the way that you want it.