Pay No Attention

To the Man Behind the Curtain

In the Wizard of Oz, the wizard admonished the intrepid heroes to pay no attention to “the man behind the curtain.” Self-serving advice, to be sure. But you’re not Dorothy; you’re not in Kansas; you’re certainly not in Oz; and, you don’t have three quirky associates to aid you in your job search.

But you do have one friend who’s looking out for your best interests: a recruiter. Recruiters come in all types but they can be beneficial – for a variety of reasons – some of which we’ve discussed previously in this space.

Another case of someone hiding something

There is one advantage of working with a recruiter that is nearly impossible to appropriate on your own. They know where some of the best jobs are hiding… and they’re not behind the curtain.

Back in the day when one of the first places a job seeker looked was the newspaper want ads, job-search experts noted that no more than 10 percent of all job openings were ever advertised in the classified section. For the overwhelming number of jobs out there, you had to scour other sources.

The same holds true today… sort of. Not all jobs are posted on the jobs boards like Indeed, Monster, etc. Most jobs aren’t even listed on LinkedIn.

However, through their extensive web of contacts, good recruiters will learn of jobs that are not being advertised. Many times, the employers will approach the recruiter unsolicited. If anything, some of these jobs are held in such close confidence that the other employees at the target companies aren’t aware of them.

Why? There a many reasons. They don’t want their competitors to know that they are trying to fill a particular position. Or, they may be replacing someone in the company and don’t want that person or co-workers to know. Or, they may just not want anyone to know that they are losing employees which could be viewed as a sign of trouble or weakness.

Regardless of their reasons, you need to know about these opportunities and even if you were fortunate enough to secure an interview there, they may not be willing to disclose their true intentions. That said, they very possibly may divulge to a trusted recruiter that they are looking to fill a spot.

And, with the help your recruiter, there you are: johnny-on-the-spot.

More tips.