It’s common knowledge that the majority of jobs are never advertised online. The exact percentage of hidden jobs is hard to pin down, but most agree that well over half of the jobs out there are filled through word-of-mouth. Even if the proportion of hidden jobs is exaggerated, being on the grapevine will give you a head start when opportunities come up.
So, what exactly is the grapevine and how do you get on it?
Get networked
Your grapevine is the group of people that you know who are actively involved in your area of interest. They’ve studied similar things to you, they work in organisations that appeal to you, they have the same skills and experience as you, and they share certain values with you. Most importantly, they know what is happening in their industry and they know before anyone else when job opportunities are available.
If you’re not sure who is in your professional network, take some time now to map it out. Consider your friends and family, your classmates, colleagues, and teachers. Who do you know working in a field that you’re interested in?
Social media is a great tool for networking. Linkedin and Facebook have company pages and professional groups, while Twitter has industry specific hashtags and Twitter Chats to connect professionals.
Go out and meet people in your area of interest. Meetup.com lists a host of very specific events and activities. These can be informal gatherings over a drink, or they may be more formal discussions or presentations.
Joining a professional organisation is a great way to instantly access a highly relevant professional network.
Get involved
Networking can never be a passive activity. You need to engage with people and share, discuss, debate, and collaborate. Start or join discussions on Linkedin and Facebook. Contribute to newsletters or blogs. Volunteer your time for your professional organisation. What ever you do, your goal is to spend time getting to know people in your network, and more importantly, letting them get to know you.
Is there someone in your network that you would like to get to know better? Someone who you think you could learn from? Contact them with a request for an informational interview, in which you buy them a coffee in return for answering a couple of key career questions.
Look for opportunities to get your foot in the door at your target organisations, in the form of part-time, casual, or project work. From there it will become a lot easier to transition to more permanent positions, as internal candidates have a significant advantage in the job application process.
Get vocal
For some reason, many people keep their job search secret, telling only their closest confidants that they’re looking. This is completely backward, as the more people that know that you’re looking, and what you’re looking for, the more likely it is that someone will know about relevant opportunities. Post about your availability on social media. Tell people you meet at networking events what kind of opportunities you’re looking for. Consider sending a few well researched and well crafted speculative applications to your target organisations.
The Careers and Employability team can help with ideas for expanding your network and using it to search for opportunities. Check out our website for details on how to find us.
