Find your own job network
By Jim Bright | smh.com.au | 03 October
Annie from Coogee asked me how to break into a tight job market. She writes: "I know what I want to do and I send CVs off for positions when I see them but it seems most jobs are not advertised in my area."
Annie's question goes to two issues in job hunting: firstly, are most jobs advertised; and secondly, how to break into the right circles.
The first issue turns out to be a matter of some guesswork and a commonly quoted estimate is that 70-85 per cent of jobs are not advertised.
However, I am less and less convinced of the accuracy of such statements. I wrote something similar in my book Should I Stay or Should I Go? (Pearson) a few years back, citing the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Then I recently got a call from the bureau asking where I had got my numbers. It turns out I had cited a survey the ABS no longer conducts that used to ask job hunters how they got their jobs.
About 80 per cent said they got it from methods other than using ads. This does not mean those jobs were not advertised, merely the advert was not the primary method used.
My second reason for doubt is the increasing number of companies with websites where it costs little or nothing to advertise a role and the comparatively low cost and ease of placing their vacancies on a site such as mycareer.com.au.
Finally, based on 2005-06 budget statistics, the Australian public sector employs 16 per cent of all wage earners. Nearly all of those jobs will be advertised somewhere.
The most recent ANZ survey estimates there are 130,326 ads a week or 6.8 million a year. The ABS reckons about 1.7 million people looked for work during the year to February 2009.
This works out as about four job ads for every person looking for work. It seems unlikely there were another 27.2 million jobs not advertised at that time.
So maybe we can consider consigning the "80 per cent not advertised" claim to the myth bucket. Lesson: keep on the lookout for job ads.
That said, I recommend to Annie and to all job hunters to get networking. Networking is about giving, not taking.
It is about developing a reputation and a name through kind acts such as being helpful and supportive and impressing others as competent, reliable, pleasant and good.
This can be done by showing up to as many professional or social events as you can. It means reaching out to people in your chosen field and making yourself memorable by volunteering or sending useful information, tips or snippets to people who could use them.
It is about maintaining regular contact with people in your field and spending time finding out what they do, what is useful and helpful to them and what they expect in and of others.
If the job is based in a community, raise your profile in that community by helping out. See networking as a long-term and ongoing exercise in developing a reputation.
Do not expect immediate returns or quid pro quos. Rather, consider your interactions with others and whether your behaviour enhances or diminishes your reputation.
This was brought home to me one Saturday morning at children's cricket, where a person was discussed in very negative terms.
Then, on the Sunday afternoon in a location 20 kilometres away at a birthday party, the same person was mentioned by a totally different group but in similarly negative terms. The person in question was not a celebrity but in some sense they became one through their reputation.
Jim Bright is professor of career education and development at ACU National and a partner at Bright and Associates, a career management consultancy.
brightside@jimbright.com. For more workplace advice, visit mycareer.com.au/advice.
First published by Smh.com.au on October 03 2009
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