plus 2, Look for a career, not a job - Los Angeles Times

Look for a career, not a job - Los Angeles Times
The Truth Behind the Hidden Job Market Myth - DVD Creation
Quintessential Careers investigates the existence of the "hidden job market" - Examiner

Look for a career, not a job - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 12 Jun 2010 12:22 AM PDT

I wouldn't blame this weekend's UCLA graduates if they're less than delirious with glee at their accomplishments.

They entered college when the country's job growth had just barely begun to slow. They are exiting into one of the toughest labor markets the nation has seen in more than a quarter-century.

Sure they're armed with diplomas from one of the country's most respected schools.

But they're also carrying in their heads a long list of things they can't do and jobs they can't get. I could feel the angst in the room when I served on a panel on writing careers at UCLA's Career Week this spring.

We panelists kept offering up versions of essential advice that has stood for generations: Find something you love and work hard at it.

I wondered how well it would serve them, given their anxiety, until a query in a quavering voice pushed past all those questions that began, "In today's economy…"

"What if," asked a slight young woman, "you don't know what your passion is?"

I didn't know how to answer to that. So I turned to the experts at UCLA's Career Center.

I'm an ENTP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving), according the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).

Journalism, it turns out, is a perfect career fit.

For 50 years, colleges, corporations and career advisors have used the MBTI to find employees who fit a company's culture and match students with majors and professions. It aims to measure "psychological types" — patterns in the way people perceive information, make judgments and respond to others.

It has been in heavy rotation this year at UCLA's Career Center.

Counseling manager Karol Johansen has seen a steady stream of students at the center, which is one of the nation's most comprehensive. Counselors lead students through a series of assessments to figure out their interests, learning style, personality types and set them on the right path.

Johansen says she is thrilled with the uptick in student requests, but troubled by the level of student angst.

Students are weighed down by the stunted economy not just as they prepare to graduate, she said, but from the moment they walk on campus. When the time comes to pick a major, "They're asking not 'What do I enjoy?', but 'Is this major marketable?' ''

That might draw a cheer from some parents wanting a return on their investment. But it's not the best way to choose a career or to chart a satisfying journey through life.

I stumbled into journalism because my mother knew somebody who knew somebody who ran a weekly newspaper in my hometown. Midway through college, I had scrapped plans to become a teacher after a summer spent tutoring wore me down. I graduated aiming for law school. But I needed to work for a few years first to pay for it, so I took the newspaper job.

Thirty years later, I'm still here. My career, as it turns out, found me.

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The Truth Behind the Hidden Job Market Myth - DVD Creation

Posted: 12 Jun 2010 05:15 AM PDT

The Truth Behind the Hidden Job Market Myth (June 12, 2010)

Kettle Falls, WA, June 12, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Is the "hidden job market" a myth? Career experts have for years touted the notion that the vast majority of jobs – published statistics have suggested figures ranging from 75 to 95 percent of the total job market – are never advertised. This portion of the job market that is hidden from public view is behind the rationale career practitioners use to promote the effectiveness of networking in the job search. But, based on a prominent consultant's assertion that the hidden job market is a myth, Quintessential Careers (http://www.quintcareers.com/), one of the Web's leading career tools sites, investigated the hidden job market concept and has published its findings in a package of three articles.

The consultant was Gerry Crispin, who in 2009 stated in a career-management discussion group that the hidden job market is one of the biggest myths of job-hunting; that, in fact, it doesn't exist: "Maybe a few thousand out of 20 million jobs are unpublished, and they are primarily at or near the C-level," said Gerry Crispin, who with partner Mark Mehler, operates CareerXroads®, which consults with corporations in career planning and placement, contract recruiting, executive search, recruitment advertising, and human-resource management.

With his permission, Quintessential Careers shared Crispin's opinion with more than 70 experts in the career-management, employment, recruiting, and hiring sectors. The majority refuted Crispin's opinion that the hidden job market is a myth, though few offered concrete evidence in favor of the hidden market. Some agreed with him. The experts, however, identified two problems with the hidden job market concept:

1. Definitions and interpretations of the "hidden job market" may not reflect reality. "Hidden" may not be the best term for this sector of available jobs since employers don't deliberately hide vacancies.

2. Those who are skeptical about the hidden job market generally admit it exists but dispute commonly bandied-about figures – that the hidden job market comprises 75-95 percent of the job market -- contending that the portion of the job market that is unadvertised is much smaller. The size of the hidden job market may also fluctuate based on the economy, some say.

In Quintessential Careers' lead article on the hidden job market (http://www.quintcareers.com/hidden_job_market_myth.htm), Is the Hidden Job Market a Myth? A Quintessential Careers Investigative Report, experts agreed with Crispin's assertion that employers generally don't purposefully hide job vacancies from the public, but suggested that situations such as the following may result in unpublicized openings:

**The employer needs to confidentially replace a nonperformer.
**The employer at a public company fears news of significant hiring will hurt stock prices.
**The employer does not want to reveal future plans to competitors and others, and publicizing openings could expose those plans.
**The employer wants to get referrals before or instead of publicizing the vacancy and being inundated with resumes from unqualified candidates.
**The employer hires a search firm or recruiter to conduct a confidential search.
**The employer uses social media or other non-advertising means to find candidates.
**The employer may be very small and does not have the resources to advertise the opening.
**Human error; the employer simply fails to publicize the opening (e.g., lack or time, forgetfulness) or has a poorly designed Website, where job-seekers have difficulty finding vacancy listings.
**The opening exists, but there's a hiring freeze, so the job cannot yet be publicized.
**The opening is still "in the pipeline;" it's unofficial, so it cannot yet be publicized.

Techniques for penetrating unpublicized openings like the foregoing is the subject of the second feature in Quintessential Careers' hidden job market package (http://www.quintcareers.com/unpublicized_job_market.html), How to Tap Into Jobs in the Unpublicized Employment Market.

Experts speculated on the size of the market and, in a sidebar feature in Quintessential Careers' hidden job market package (http://www.quintcareers.com/unpublicized_job_market_experiences.html), shared plenty of anecdotes in which job-seekers obtained jobs that had not been advertised. The only definitive statistics on the size of the market come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in a regularly issued report called Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. The Quintessential Careers' hidden job market report explains that, while determining the size of the hidden job market from these statistics depends on how the stats are interpreted, what they include, and the state of the economy, they clearly suggest the existence of the hidden job market.

"Regardless of the size of the hidden/unpublicized job market," said Quintessential Careers Associate Publisher Katharine Hansen. "The evidence is clear that networking is crucial to job-search success and remains the most effective way to land a new job. Job-seekers should consider tapping unpublicized jobs as just one tool in the job-search kit," said Hansen, who wrote the three hidden job market features.

About Quintessential Careers: For more than 14 years, this comprehensive career development site has been empowering job-seekers of all ages find their ideal careers and jobs. With more than 4,500 pages of content -- from articles, quizzes, and tutorials -- Quintessential Careers offers visitors no-cost content that can improve their lives.

About Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D. and Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.: Randall Hansen is the founder and publisher of Quintessential Careers. Katharine Hansen is associate publisher and creative director for the site. Both have been involved in the career industry for more than 25 years.

###

Contact Information:
Quintessential Careers/EmpoweringSites.com
Dr. Randall Hansen
509-738-9009
randall@quintcareers.com
http://www.quintcareers.com/

Click here to read the full story: The Truth Behind the Hidden Job Market Myth

Press Release Distributed by PR.com

Page: 1

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Quintessential Careers investigates the existence of the "hidden job market" - Examiner

Posted: 11 Jun 2010 07:14 PM PDT

Comment

June 11, 2010 - (QUINTESSENTIAL CAREERS: Kettle Falls, WA) - Is the "hidden job market" a myth? Career experts have for years touted the notion that the vast majority of jobs - published statistics have suggested figures ranging from 75 to 95 percent of the total job market - are never advertised. This portion of the job market that is hidden from public view is behind the rationale career practitioners use to promote the effectiveness of networking in the job search. But, based on a prominent consultant's assertion that the hidden job market is a myth, Quintessential Careers, one of the Web's leading career tools sites, investigated the hidden job market concept and has published its findings in a package of three articles.

2. Those who are skeptical about the hidden job market generally admit it exists but dispute commonly bandied-about figures - that the hidden job market comprises 75-95 percent of the job market -- contending that the portion of the job market that is unadvertised is much smaller. The size of the hidden job market may also fluctuate based on the economy, some say.

In Quintessential Careers' lead article on the hidden job market, Is the Hidden Job Market a Myth? A Quintessential Careers Investigative Report, experts agreed with Crispin's assertion that employers generally don't purposefully hide job vacancies from the public, but suggested that situations such as the following may result in unpublicized openings:

The employer needs to confidentially replace a nonperformer.
The employer at a public company fears news of significant hiring will hurt stock prices.
The employer does not want to reveal future plans to competitors and others, and publicizing openings could expose those plans.
The employer wants to get referrals before or instead of publicizing the vacancy and being inundated with resumes from unqualified candidates.
The employer hires a search firm or recruiter to conduct a confidential search.
The employer uses social media or other non-advertising means to find candidates.
The employer may be very small and does not have the resources to advertise the opening.
Human error; the employer simply fails to publicize the opening (e.g., lack or time, forgetfulness) or has a poorly designed Website, where job-seekers have difficulty finding vacancy listings.
The opening exists, but there's a hiring freeze, so the job cannot yet be publicized.
The opening is still "in the pipeline;" it's unofficial, so it cannot yet be publicized.

Techniques for penetrating unpublicized openings like the foregoing is the subject of the second feature in Quintessential Careers' hidden job market package, How to Tap Into Jobs in the Unpublicized Employment Market.

Experts speculated on the size of the market and, in a sidebar feature in Quintessential Careers' hidden job market package , shared plenty of anecdotes in which job seekers obtained jobs that had not been advertised. The only definitive statistics on the size of the market come from theU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in a regularly issued report called Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS. The Quintessential Careers' hidden job market report explains that, while determining the size of the hidden job market from these statistics depends on how the stats are interpreted, what they include, and the state of the economy, they clearly suggest the existence of the hidden job market.

"Regardless of the size of the hidden/unpublicized job market," said Quintessential Careers Associate Publisher Katharine Hansen, "the evidence is clear that networking is crucial to job-search success and remains the most effective way to land a new job. Job-seekers should consider tapping unpublicized jobs as just one tool in the job-search kit," said Hansen, who wrote the three hidden job market features.

For advice and information about job search, be sure to visit Keppie Careers.

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