Foundation: Career Search

Hidden Job Market

The hidden job market consists of the jobs that are not posted yet or may never be posted. They are filled through word-of-mouth, referral, and internal promotion. 

The standard recruitment process is costly for a business/organization. It is an onerous process of writing and posting the job posting, reviewing applications, coordinating interview panelists and candidates, debriefing and checking references, and negotiating the job offer.

The recruitment process can also include a multi-step process of an initial phone (screening) interview and two to three subsequent interviews depending on the company’s procedures, the level and type of position. 

As a result, an employer often tries to hire internally or through referral by casting their net out to their community/network, before recruiting publicly. Remember—people hire people who they know and trust.

If you ask around you might be surprised to discover how many people obtained their positions through this door.

The hidden job market exists and is active, if it's not on your radar, strongly consider expanding your purview. We advocate for developing your connections/network because we know this is an effective way to obtain work and progress in your career. The Discovering Connections Unit pertains to building your community, which is a precursor to targeting an application to the hidden job market.

Career Search

While we strongly advocate for utilizing as many strategies as possible when conducting a career search! Such as building your community/network, participating in work integrated learning like internships and submitting online applications.

Even though it may seem easier sitting behind your computer, submitting online apps, and bypassing direct rejection—finding the courage and making the effort to connect with people leads to possibilities and is good for your mental wellbeing.

Another reminder, keep your social media accounts clean. Employers review profiles, which can influence their decision-making.

Here are three high level, career search steps:

1. Know the type of work you are looking for. Wandering aimlessly in a career search can prolong the search and exacerbate frustration.

If you do not have direction, please take the time to go through the Determining Direction Unit. 

2. Identify 10-15 companies for which you would like to work, and research specific information about each one..

• What are their values, vision, and mission?
• Review and follow their social media and news feeds.
• Search employees via LinkedIn.
• Research businesses who are in direct competition with the organization you are applying to.
• Look up the companies of interest on Glassdoor; read anonymous reviews (but make your own opinion) and find salaries.
  

This research is important for a few reasons:

• Should you reach out to someone on LinkedIn or request an information meeting (discussed in the Discovering Connections Unit) you will be informed and prepared for the meeting.
• In your cover letters and interview answers, you could express an interesting piece of information you found (to show your interest in the business) or your alignment with the organization’s values.
• You can confidently answer the interview question, “What do you know about our company?” or "Why do you want to work for "X" company.

3. Make a plan and commitment. Decide how many people you will contact each week. We highly recommend completing the Discovering Connections Unit. This unit outlines how to prepare to connect/build your community/network as well as taking on a 26-WEEK Challenge.

There are many words of wisdom that can be gleaned from Steve Jobs in this 2011 interview. The relevant point here is, ask and take action.

(Santa Clara Valley Historical Association, 2011) [video] (1:29)

Sidebar: Ask to connect to build your community/network. Most importantly! Do not ask for a job when you meet with your network. We invite you to go through the Discovering Connections Unit for more on this subject.

Optional

You could consider engaging “Emma” to analyze your LinkedIn profile.

Emma is a Chrome extension powered by artificial intelligence that analyzes LinkedIn profiles.

As a job seeker, you can run your LinkedIn profile through Emma to learn how people perceive it.

One caveat: LinkedIn does not like extensions that scrape data from their system. Technically, that violates their terms and conditions. So control your use, turn Emma off when you don’t need her, and hope LinkedIn ignores you (Svei, 2019, para. 1, 9, 15).

Professional Applications

The purpose of a cover letter and resume—your professional application—is to attain an invitation for an interview. 

Your application is an opportunity to:

• introduce yourself,
• express your knowledge and alignment with the company/organization, 
• highlight your qualifications, 
• demonstrate your written communication skills, and
• utilize the stories and examples that you have developed throughout the Resource (Skills Employers Want module; and Determining Direction, and Discovering Connections Units).

As well, the aim of cover letters and resumes is to create rapport—just as you would if you were in person. This is akin to meeting someone new, you would introduce yourself. 

Reflecting the same (or similar) words the person uses and/or in the same tone (e.g., corporate vs. casual) is an active listening skill that builds rapport. Researching the company is key as well as analyzing the job posting—to know your audience. You should add keywords from the posting (in a selective way) as a way of active listening and producing rapport. 

This will also help your application make it past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or the first reviewer, and catch the attention of human resources (HR) and/or the hiring manager.

Research shows by incorporating statements that express how you align with the organization can generate a positive response to your application (Waung, McAuslan, DiMambro, & Mięgoć, 2017).

Show, Don't Tell

Adding skills statements such as “Excellent communication skills” or ”Strong time management” in your resume or cover letter does not show or prove your competence with this skill. Moreover, this could increase the possibility for your application to be eliminated from the competition. Instead, include stories and examples that provide evidence. Or write results-oriented statements that include your skills, experience, and knowledge that address the listed qualifications. 

Your drafted stories/examples from the Career Planning and Skills Employers Want modules provide the foundation for your cover letter and resume and interview preparation.

Do not include all the responsibilities for each position you have held in your resume; instead, align your experiences to the job requirements.

Add specifics and quantify as much as possible, and integrate your transferable skills explored in the Skills Employers Want module.

Consider that employers' are trying to gauge your fit for the role and the company from your written application. Essentially you are a stranger to an employer and they are learning about your abilities to execute role responsibilities as assigned.

• How do you demonstrate trustworthiness? 
• How do you keep yourself accountable and motivated? 
• How do you collaborate virtually?

For the most part, all these pointers can be applied to both cover letters and resumes.

Cover Letters

Simply put, cover letters are formal letters with an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Your cover letters are an opportunity to incorporate your examples and stories that we prompted you to create throughout the Resource. Furthermore, you can tie in a company’s values and their language style in your letters too.

Additionally, your cover letters ought to include answers to:

• Why do you want this job? 
• Why do you want to work for the company?
• Can you do the job? [technical skills and knowledge]
• Can you work collaboratively with staff and stakeholders? [transferable skills]
• How do your values align with the organization (aka, how do you fit in the corporate culture)?

Here are a few basic guidelines,

• cover letters must not exceed one page,
• avoid the use of acronyms,
• do not use abbreviations, e.g., "I’m." Instead write, "I am,"
• use the same letterhead for your cover letter as your resume (for consistency and professionalism).

Resumes

Resumes encompass a fusion of self-awareness, reflection, critical analysis, evaluation and comparison, concise written communication, graphic design, and marketing.

You will need to analyze a posting, evaluate, and compare your experience to the required qualifications. You then need to know and be able to concisely convey your skills, strengths, values, and experiences that are relevant to the job posting. 

A resume ought to be presented on the page in an inviting way. Memorable resumes include evidence-based examples (or stories) that demonstrate your ability to do the job independently and collaboratively with others. 

Beware of using templates! There are elements like margins that are hard-wired and cannot be changed. Further, the order in which sections are placed may be fixed. You need the flexibility to shift sections to tailor your resume to postings and to move sections as your experiences develop.

Beware of using text boxes, tables, and columns. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are not always in favour of these elements and may or may not ‘read’ the text within these elements.

Interviews

To follow are some general points and insights about interviews, which include:

• live and pre-recorded virtual tips, 
• pandemic-related questions, 
• closing questions.

General points

Answer the question. Although this sounds simplistic, it is critical. 

Stories can answer interview questions in a relational, memorable way (it would be rare for two stories to be identical; or that a situation is approached in the same way). These concrete examples demonstrate the required qualifications the employer seeks. Herein lies the reason for the prompts and ways to develop stories/examples throughout the Resource.

Usually there are several interview questions that pertain to transferable skills, however they can be addressed (asked) indirectly.

For example, describe a time when you had a conflict with… a colleague, a client, etc.

[Identifiable transferable skills: collaboration, communication, possibly creative problem solving]. 

Or, tell us about a situation when an employee on your team was not completing their projects on time. How did you approach the situation and what was the result? 

[Identifiable transferable skills: collaboration, communication, possibly creative problem solving].

Be mindful of your body language—based on the anglophone, Canadian workplace context:

• Lean in,
• Do not cross your arms or fidget,
• Make eye contact, and
• Smile.  

Live and pre-recorded virtual interviews

Live virtual interviews are conducted like face-to-face interviews, except via a video conferencing platform like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

Pre-Recorded virtual interviews are one-way recorded interviews.

• An email from the employer will include detailed instructions with the time of the interview, a link, and other particulars the employer wishes to share
• There will be a set of questions. Normally, there will be a certain amount of time given to formulate your answer, as well as a specific time allotted to answer the question
• It is common practice to be given at least two attempts to record your answer.
• Your recorded interview will be reviewed either by a human (manager or human resources) or artificial intelligence (AI). More on the ins and outs about AI and recruitment in this module.

For live and pre-recorded interviews pay attention to:

• Lighting (above and/or towards you, do not have the light source behind you facing the camera).
• Ethernet connection (stronger than Wi-Fi).
• Background, no clutter (for Zoom, you can change your background image).
• Quiet space (put your cell on do not disturb).
• Distractions (pets, kids, cell phone).
• Dress (as you would for a face-to-face interview).
• Look into the camera or webcam (not the monitor).
• Sit in a stationary chair (swiveling in your chair is distracting)

Potential interview (pandemic) questions 

Following are a few potential pandemic-related questions.

• What lessons did you learn from your experience through the pandemic? What changes have you made from the lessons you learned?
• Can you tell us how you fostered collaboration with your team/colleagues through the pandemic?
• Describe how you demonstrated a flexible and adaptable mindset through the pandemic.
• How do you maintain your motivation and focus working remotely?
• Describe what happened for you, your position, your department/team when the first wave of the pandemic shut everything down. How did you manage all the changes

For leadership roles,

• How did you lead your team(s) through the pandemic? What measures did you take to ensure the mental health and wellbeing of your staff? 
• What is your process for virtually onboarding new employees and integrating them into the team?
• Describe influential considerations and actions to cultivate positive and meaningful team dynamics remotely

Closing Questions

At the end of the interview, when asked, do you have any questions for us? This is code for: tell us how much you know about us and the role by asking a few strategic closing questions. 

While these final questions may seem insignificant, they can be equally weighted/valued as any other interview question. So, if you do not have any questions to ask, you could potentially lose ‘points.’ In addition, you miss out on an opportunity to portray your interest in the company or glean additional information about the position that was not presented in the job posting or interview.

Closing questions can be about the position, corporate culture, management, product or service delivery, and/or the hiring process. Here are a few examples of potential questions to ask at the end of the interview.

• Could you please describe the onboarding and training processes, and expectations within the probation period?
• What would you say are the most challenging aspects of this position?
• How would you describe your management style?
• How do you/the team acknowledge successes?
• Could you describe the attributes of the company's high-achieving employees? What do you see brings out their best?

Recruitment—AI Style

Next is a spotlight on recruitment—artificial intelligence (AI) style.

One of the topics in the Determining Direction Unit was trends. A current and possibly long withstanding trend is the infiltration of AI in recruitment. Here are some quotes of interest that feature two AI recruitment software businesses with overviews of their processes.

Pymetrics is one firm that develops AI recruitment software:

HireVue is another AI development recruitment software company:

Other insights about HireVue:

In general, since the development of AI is on an upward trajectory, it would be likely that AI will continue to expand in recruitment practices. 

We include this video as a starting point for preparing for an interview with a bot and suggest continuing to research this recruitment method if you are invited for a pre-recorded interview.

HireVue Video Interview: How To Beat The Algorithm and Get The Job [Video, 5:33]

Negotiating Job Offers

To negotiate job offers, it is wise to be prepared. This ought to start even before submitting a job application so you are aware of: 

• the type of position you want, 
• your highest professional and personal priorities, 
• what you have to offer, 
• the labour market,
• and most importantly, know your career goal or vision.

This aligns with the research conducted by Bowles & Thomason, “Our research and our work coaching executives suggest that negotiating your role (the scope of your authority and your developmental opportunities) is likely to benefit your career more than negotiating your pay and benefits does” (2021, para. 2). They suggest starting with your career goals and working backwards.