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3 Ways to Find Your Next Job in the Hidden Job Market, with Caroline Ceniza-Levine

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Are you aware that the jobs you see posted are only a small fraction of the available positions on the market? The hidden job market is a real thing, and Find Your Dream Job guest Caroline Ceniza-Levine is here to explain how to find those hidden jobs or even create one. Caroline explains why some companies don’t publicly post open positions, as well as how to use your network and research to discover your dream job, even if it’s hidden. If you spend the majority of your time applying to jobs, learn why that shouldn’t be your top priority when searching for your next job.

About Our Guest:

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a speaker, a writer, and the founder of the DreamCareerClub.com

Resources in This Episode:

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 461:

3 Ways to Find Your Next Job in the Hidden Job Market, with Caroline Ceniza-Levine

Airdate: July 31, 2024

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

Many openings never get posted on job boards like Mac’s List, Indeed, or LinkedIn.

These positions are part of what’s called the hidden job market.

Caroline Ceniza-Levine is here to talk about three ways to find your next job in the hidden job market.

She’s a speaker, a writer and the founder of the DreamCareerClub.com.

Her company helps experienced professionals find work they love and earn more doing it.

She joins us from Northeast Florida.

Well, let’s get going, Caroline, and let’s start with a definition. What exactly is the hidden job market?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

The hidden job market is the universe of jobs that are not publicly posted. That’s what makes them hidden. You can’t search for them. You’ll have to hear about them or discover them through other means.

Mac Prichard:

Why does this hidden job market exist?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

There’s nothing nefarious about it. There are really good reasons why employers don’t post a job. Someone might be in that job, and they want to potentially start looking for a replacement before they move that person out. If the job is open but it’s a critical role, they might not want their competitors to know that they don’t have someone doing that job, or maybe it’s a brand new role, and they don’t want to signal to their competitors or the broader market that they’re moving in that direction, moving to a new region, or offering something new.

Mac Prichard:

How big a market are we talking about? What’s the size, potentially, of the hidden job market?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

You know, I would say, I’ve been recruiting for about 30 years, and I’ve seen different estimates that it’s the majority of jobs; it can be up to 80% of jobs, at some point, are not posted. Sometimes, they ultimately get posted, but initially, they’re not, so if you count those, it can be as high as 80%. I know for the clients that I have hired for, a lot of times, by the time a job is posted, it had been circulating in people’s minds; it had been in that hidden job market first.

I do agree with that high assessment of 60-80%.

Mac Prichard:

How did these jobs get filled if many of them aren’t eventually posted at all? What are employers doing when they have these vacancies?

Caroline Cenzina-Levine:

Well, many times, if it’s, let’s say, a large company that has a large job candidate database, because people are always applying, let’s say your Google or your Walt Disney or your other brand name company, they have candidates who have written in in the past, or maybe they’ve interviewed people in the past, or their employers are referring people and so it’s that direct outreach, it’s that word of mouth, it’s that staying in touch with hiring managers and recruiters that really gets candidates into play for that hidden job market.

Mac Prichard:

What happens in your job search, Caroline, if you don’t pay attention to the hidden job market, if all you do is look at publicly posted positions?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, it limits you. Again, even though sometimes a position will be posted eventually, there’s always going to be that initial time when that hiring manager is just thinking about hiring someone, and maybe they’re waiting to get budget approval, but they start telling their friends, people in the department are going to know about it, that they’re thinking about hiring someone, so then those people are going to start telling their friends, “Hey, sounds like something is going to be opening up soon.”

People who are in the know, who hear about potential opportunities, they’re always going to get the job and be first in line when something officially opens.

Mac Prichard:

In your experience, again, you’re a recruiter, and you’ve been doing this for many years; in your experience, do most candidates understand how the hidden job market works?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

I think most candidates understand that some jobs aren’t posted. I think it’s unfortunate that many candidates get discouraged by that and think that there’s something wrong with that. When, again, there’s many reasons why it happens, and then just naturally, in the course of a search, where you don’t get instant head-count approval, you don’t get instant budget approval, there is always going to be some part of the search that is not public, and yet there’s an opening, potentially, that’s there.

Mac Prichard:

I want to talk about that point, Caroline, just because the job isn’t publicly posted doesn’t mean that the employer isn’t open to candidates from the outside. Has that been your experience as a recruiter?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Yes, 100%. The employer has a need; that’s where the hiring comes from, and that need, initially, it’s a pain point, and maybe they try solving it by moving someone internal. Sometimes, they think, “Well, this will pass. We’ll get some extra resources for it.” Maybe they’ll bring in a freelancer or a temp or a consultant, and it’s really only after trying certain things, sometimes, that they know that they’re going to hire. So, even when someone leaves or says that they’re going to leave and gives their notice, the company might think, “Well, I don’t know if we’re going to fill that role. Maybe we’ll try some internal movement, or maybe we’ll try a freelancer or temp or consultant.”

The employer doesn’t always know exactly what their hiring need is, so as a candidate, if you can get into that sweet spot where they’re feeling some pain, and they might not yet know what the best solution is, and you can put yourself out there as that solution. That’s great for you.

Mac Prichard:

I know we’re going to talk about this in a moment, but I think the point that I want to underscore here that you’re making is there’s one way to apply for a job, which is to look on a company’s career page or a job board, find a publicly posted position and send in your application, but hiring managers who have jobs that aren’t publicly posted, they are open to hearing from candidates that they don’t know, but that communicate to them in other ways, aren’t they, Caroline?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Yes, they are, and it’s helpful to them; it gives them ideas on what they’re looking for. As they meet with people, they start really formulating what that job is going to be, and if they like you and they see your value, they might formulate that job description against you and your profile and your background.

Mac Prichard:

You mentioned that many candidates can get discouraged when they hear about the hidden job market and the fact that there are positions out there that aren’t publicly posted. What other common misconceptions do you see among applicants when they think about the hidden job market?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, I think that they think that it’s only for the true insider, that it’s so hard to get in. That it’s hidden in the deep recesses of the world, but it actually isn’t. As I mentioned, employers are suffering some pain; they have a problem that they need to solve, and they want, actually, nothing more than for the solution to fall out of the sky, and so that outreach, if you can solve that problem, that’s actually a really good thing for them and they will welcome that.

Mac Prichard:

Again, we’re going to talk about that in a moment because you have very specific tips about how to do that. But what mistakes do you see applicants make who try to tap the hidden job market? What, while well-intentioned, thing might they be doing wrong while not knowing that they’re doing so?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Yeah, so you mentioned the first one, which is to not try at all. It’s to only look at the universe of posted jobs, and then I would say the second thing is to only look at recruiters and people in HR as your entry point into the hidden job market.

Because that sweet spot is identifying a problem that you can solve, unless you yourself are a recruiter or working in HR, the person that’s going to be most amenable to you solving their problem isn’t a recruiter or HR; it’s the actual hiring manager, the person who if you’re a marketer, runs marketing, or if you’re a salesperson, runs sales, or if you’re an accountant, runs finance.

You need to go to the people who understand what it is that you do and understand what your value is so that you can hear directly from them, what’s keeping them up at night, and where the two of you might be able to collaborate.

Mac Prichard:

Again, we’re going to talk about three very specific tips that you have for cracking the hidden job market, but how much time do you recommend a candidate spend on pursuing publicly advertised jobs versus jobs that haven’t been posted? What’s a good division of labor?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Yeah, I tell my own clients 80/20. 80% in researching companies to uncover places that you might not be thinking about, to talking to people who might not be posting jobs outright. 80% to try to tap that market versus 20% on public postings. Now, keep in mind that public postings give you an idea of who’s hiring, so they’re great for research, but you really want to limit it. If you’re spending, let’s say, ten hours on your search, that’s 2 hours on postings and 8 hours researching, reaching out, talking to people, doing the more proactive stuff around the job search.

Mac Prichard:

Well, let’s talk about those specific steps in the second segment.

Stay with us. When we return, Caroline Ceniza-Levine will continue to share her advice about the hidden job market, and we’re going to dive into the three ways she recommends you find your next job in that hidden job market.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Caroline Ceniza-Levine.

She’s a speaker, a writer, and the founder of the DreamCareerClub.com.

Her company helps experienced professionals find work they love and earn more doing it.

Well, Caroline, before the break, we were talking about the hidden job market, and I appreciate you walking me through what it is, how it works, how big it is, why employers rely on it for positions, and let’s turn to your three tips for how to get a job in the hidden job market. I want to walk through them one by one.

Your first tip, Caroline, is to tap into your network. Tell us more about this. Why is it important to do this, and how do you do it?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, what’s great about having other people know that you are looking for a job and, even more importantly, what you’re looking for, having other people know that enables another set of ears, and ideally 10, 20, 30, 40 plus sets of ears, listening also for potential opportunities for you. It’s not just you that’s doing all of the work, and if you have people in your network who are influencers, who are well-connected, they might be people who just have a lot of professional colleagues or a lot of experience in the areas that you’re interested in, if you’re a career changer and you don’t have a lot of contacts yourself in certain industries or in certain roles, you know, putting your network into play, if they have those contacts, that’s clearly a way for you to get those introductions and hear about those opportunities.

Mac Prichard:

How do you do that specifically? You’ve got a database of contacts, you’ve got people that you’re connected with on LinkedIn. How do you reach out to these people? Who do you reach out to? And what do you ask them to do?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, I think that the most important thing when you’re starting, and you’re not quite sure who might be amenable to helping you, or just if you’re not used to networking, I would just get started by connecting with your network, not about your job search. Really force yourself to, and I give my clients a homework assignment called “Network of 100” to force yourself to rekindle 100 connections. Go line by line through your resume, remind yourself of everybody that you know, and just reach out and say hello.

This will force you to just start talking to people again. Naturally, people will get back to you and say, “What’re you up to?” You can explain to them what’s going on with you, you can ask them what they’re doing, and in that way, you’re going to hear about what people are working on and what they might know about. You might find out that someone’s at the dream company that you’re targeting or that someone has moved into an industry that you’re really interested in, and they’re also going to learn about you and hear, “Oh, you’re in transition, you’re interested in moving into XYZ.”

It’s your chance to explain what it is that you’re looking for.

Mac Prichard:

What do you say to a listener who might think, “Well, I don’t know 100 people”? Is that still going to work for me?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, you start with 10, 20, 30. That’s 10, 20, 30 more contacts than you’re going to make before. While I say start where you are, I will push back, Mac, and I will say, challenge your listeners to get to that 100. I tend to work with mid to late-career professionals, and maybe they haven’t kept in touch with 100 people, but that’s why I’m saying to rekindle those connections. Just say hello. Don’t start with your job search; start with just figuring out what they’re up to. Springtime is coming, people want to get out of their homes and maybe do more outside.

You can ask people what their plans are, and so it’s always a good time to get in touch with people, and we do know 100 people, honestly. If you’ve been alive on this earth for 20, 30, 40, 50 years, you know 100 people.

Mac Prichard:

So you reach out to 100 people, maybe even more, you have coffee, or maybe you swap emails or text messages, however you like to communicate. What happens next? How is this going to help you find and get a hidden job by doing this?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, you know, why I tell people to target 100 or more is because, naturally, there’s going to be run off. There are going to be people who don’t get back to you. Maybe there’s an email that you thought was updated, and it bounces back, and you can’t find that person.

Forcing yourself to reach out to 100 doesn’t mean that you’re going to talk to 100 people, and then even if you talk to, let’s say, 50 people, some of those people, maybe they’re retired, maybe they are in a completely different industry or role than you thought they were in, maybe they’re in a completely different geography now, and they’re not necessarily going to be related to your search.

Although I will tell you, we don’t know who or what people know, so don’t be so quick to assume, but let’s say that of that 100, you end up with 10, 20, or 30 that are in the area that you’re interested in, that you’re having a back and forth, and you feel like you can tell them what you’re interested in, that you can confide in them that you’re in a transition, and it’s a chance for you to explain what it is that you’re looking for.

Again, they have their set of ears to the ground around opportunities.

Mac Prichard:

What should you do if you’re not clear about what you want to do next or where you want to work next? Should you still reach out to people or can these conversations help you get clarity about those two issues?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

I think you should still reach out to people because you can’t really control how quickly networking is going to happen, so it never hurts to start reaching out and just focusing on that genuine rekindling relationship. I think that, in some ways, talking to people can help you get clarity, but I caution against that.

I think that you should try to get clarity by doing your own secondary research, reading about different companies, reading about different roles, and reading business magazines and business articles to try to think about what are the problems that you like to solve. What are the industries that I like to read about? So that when you talk to people, you can at least mention, “You know, I’ve been reading a lot about AI, and I’m really interested in how that’s going to impact XYZ.”

So that you have some sort of idea so that the people that you talk to can have a starting point. Otherwise, you’re really just asking them to think about the world, and it’s just too much.

Mac Prichard:

The second of your three steps for finding a job in the hidden job market is to use LinkedIn to find companies that are hiring. Now, unpack this for me, Caroline. If a job isn’t advertised, how can LinkedIn help you find it? What do you have in mind here?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

If you follow companies, if you follow people, you’ll see these notifications, “So and so is celebrating a work anniversary.” Or, “So and so updated their title or their photo or commented,” or whatever it is, and so if you use LinkedIn at all, you know that it notifies you when there are changes, and so with individual people that you are connected to, and you might not know them very well, but as they move into different jobs, again, maybe they’ve moved into a company that you’re interested, or they’ve moved into an industry or role that you’re exploring.

You can do the same thing with companies. If you’re interested in Google or Disney, to continue with those examples, and you follow them, it will ping you when there’s news about those companies, when they hire, when people leave, so the comings and goings, and when someone comes, they might be building a team. Maybe they’ve already built their team, but since you don’t really know, you can congratulate them on the new role, you can start following them, you can then see if they post anything about what they’re working on so that you can start uncovering, using LinkedIn, which is so powerful and has millions and millions of participants in there updating their information, you can start to piece together a picture of where people are going, what they’re doing, and maybe see if there’s a possible role for you.

Mac Prichard:

The third of your three steps for finding a job in the hidden job market, and you talked about this in the first segment, is to identify pain points that you can solve and find people that have that problem and talk to them about what you can do for them. How does doing this, identifying these pain points, finding employers who have those problems, and talking to them help you get a hidden job?

Carolina Ceniza-Levine:

Well, I had mentioned in the very beginning that all jobs in some way are hidden because, in the very, very beginning, an employer just isn’t 100% sure how they’re going to solve the problem. They might hire internally, they might move someone internally, they might hire a freelancer, temp, or consultant, or they might get the headcount and the budget to hire someone full-time.

Up until that decision is made, it’s just a thorn in their side, it’s a problem to solve, it’s something that’s keeping them up at night, and they’re not 100% sure. I’m going to couple that with what I said about LinkedIn and the comings and goings, you see someone has moved into a new position, and they may or may not have a team, but a general pain point of someone moving into a new role is, “Hey, I have to get some quick wind here and I have to build out my team and figure out how to hit all of the targets that were set for me and this is why they brought me into this role.”

That’s a general pain point that people have at the very beginning. If you can come to somebody and say, “Congratulations on your new role. I can imagine that you’re looking at XYZ,” and you have thought about three issues that are facing the typical company in that industry, and you talk about your own background and how you might contribute to one or more of those issues, they might want to have a conversation, and that’s a start on figuring out what is exactly the problem here, what is the pain point? Is there something that I can do? Maybe I can make myself a job.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a terrific conversation, Caroline. Now, tell us, what’s next for you?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, I’m still with dreamcareerclub.com. I have a number of free resources on there, so there’s a free resources tab. I just encourage job seekers out there to take advantage of that and look and see. I write from the recruiter’s perspective, so the behind-the-scenes of the hiring process.

Mac Prichard:

Well, terrific. We’ll be sure to include that URL, dreamcareerclub.com, in the shownotes and on our website so that people can find out about those free resources and more about your work.

Now, Caroline, given all of the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want a listener to remember about the three ways that you’ve outlined today to find your next job in the hidden job market?

Caroline Ceniza-Levine:

Well, if you remember those three things, what they all have in common is to be proactive, so tap into your network, reach out, you’re being proactive, and you’re reaching out. You’re looking at LinkedIn, and you’re staying active there; you’re being proactive. You’re pitching yourself as a solution to a pain point; that’s being proactive.

The control of your job search isn’t in a faceless company, it’s not in any one recruiter or hiring manager. It’s up to you.

Mac Prichard:

Next week, our guest will be Linda Marak.

She’s a recruiter and a career coach.

Through online classes, Linda shares with job seekers her insider knowledge of how hiring works.

You likely won’t meet with a hiring manager until you’re offered an interview.

And before you’re invited into the interview room, you have to compete with other applicants.

But there is a way to bypass your competitors altogether.

Join us next Wednesday when Linda Marak and I talk about how to go past the gatekeepers and get hired.

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.

Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.