Working the hidden job market gives you an advantage over other job seekers, your competitors. If you are only concentrating on the newspaper, internet and recruitment consultants, you are missing a large slice of the pie.

The hidden job market is the opportunity that most candidates miss, as it requires the ability to sell yourself. It also overcomes the highly competitive nature of the other avenues of the employment search as it eliminates the frustration of being one of a few hundred applicants applying for a job.

The job market is made up of a number of parts, the most significant is the jobseeker approaching employers (77%) and the employer approaching a jobseeker (23%).

The revelation for most of us is that the hidden market, that is jobs that are not advertised, accounts for nearly 80% of the total.

In order to survive in the business or professional world you need to be self sufficient and by that we mean you shouldn’t rely on others to do your bidding. Nobody knows you better than you do and nobody is as interested as you are in succeeding. The need for you to achieve this is to take control, learn as much as you can and market yourself in preference to relying on a recruiter or headhunter.

We have created a number of exercises that you can use to assist you succeed and often remind yourself how you succeeded in being employed into your various roles.  Often the things you did well previously are forgotten, so here are the prompts.

You should create a list of targets. So where do you get the information?

Follow up is the key to utilising this new network of people you have communicated with. A phone call to an individual is now easier, you wrote to them and they remember you as they replied, even with no job interview offer. This person is more likely to take your call and they should be impressed at your tenacity.