Anyone looking for work know that the process can be frustrating. Getting a job is a job in itself, and it feels like if you don’t apply for a job quickly, you will be buried under hordes of people trying to land the same position.
In reality, unless you have very specialized skills, it’s much worse than that.
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I recently posted about a job opening on LinkedIn. It wasn’t a formal post, just a note saying that I was looking for entry-level travel writers at a certain hourly rate for 20 hours per week,
There was no formal job post, but my post received hundreds of responses in the first few hours. It’s now almost a month later, and I still get 4-5 people a day applying.
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Now, most of the applicants weren’t qualified, but those that were found themselves competing with dozens of similar candidates. I gave a quick writing test to try to weed out the better candidates, but even that was hit or miss, as nobody stood out all that much.
At least in my case, the job was real. In reality, the deep and dirty secret of job boards is that they mostly post jobs that you have very little chance of getting.
Most jobs are not found via job boards.
Image source: Shutterstock-fizkes
Most advertised jobs are already filled
Monster and CareerBuilder, two legendary names in the digital job board space, recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The more specialized Jobs.com, and its family of job boards filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June as well.
Indeed.com, the arguable top dog in the job board space, is cutting 11% of its workforce as it combines some operations with sister company Glassdoor.
Those bankruptcies and Indeed.com’s struggles likely come at least partially from the fact that their core product does not work.
“In conversation the other day, I heard a startling statistic that only 20% of employment is found through direct applications – that is, simply submitting your resume to job postings on company websites or job boards. I am not brilliant at maths, but that suggests that 80% are found through other means, and so people need to either quadruple up their effort applying directly, or, better, find ways to,” expert Timothy M. Jones posted on LinkedIn.
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That’s a hard number to prove, but there are multiple studies that show that anywhere from 70% to 85% of jobs are filled through networking. Meanwhile, online job applications have an average success rate of about 2%, Brian Fink posted on LinkedIn.
Job boards exist because many companies have a legal obligation to post jobs. By the time they get posted, the hiring manager has internal candidates, friends, and people recommended internally ahead of random applicants.
Here’s how you get a job
Applying for jobs on websites like CareerBuilder, Monster, or Indeed will probably not work. That does not mean you should not apply.
Part of your day should be spent applying in the traditional sense. It probably won’t work, but you never know what an internal candidate will fail, or they simply won’t be the right body to fill the position.
Sending in applications is also a form of networking. Every cover letter is an opportunity to introduce yourself and make an impression.
Most of your job search effort, however, should go toward networking. That may not be fun, but it’s important to reach out to every person you know and let them know you are available.
If you have people in your network who have hiring responsibility or travel in the right circles, it’s important to be in front of those people. Not every job goes to someone who’s actually known by the hiring manager.
In many cases, the hire might be a recommendation, a friend of a friend, or some random dude who made a good impression via an unsolicited reach-out.
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The entire job board industry has been based on an assumption that hasn’t reflected how people get hired for many years, if ever. If you want to actually be hired, it probably takes more than cover letters and resumes.
You have to network and make yourself a known quantity.