There’s no troll under the bridge: the truth about the “hidden job market”

You've probably seen the graphic. An iceberg, a small tip above the water labelled “advertised jobs”, and a huge mass underneath labelled “the hidden job market”.

Usually with a caption like: “70% of jobs are never advertised.” Or: “Work with me to uncover the hidden job market.” Ooh. Scary. Hidden. Exclusive.

These statements drive me a bit mad, because nobody ever qualifies them. Where does the 70% come from? Nobody seems to know. It gets repeated because it sounds scary, not because anyone measured it.

They make it sound like there's a troll under a bridge holding a magical key to your dream job, and the only person who can get it from him is, you guessed it, a recruiter.

So let's talk about what's actually going on.

Is there a hidden job market?

Yes, but mostly no.

Not every role is advertised, and there are plenty of ordinary reasons why. The role might be senior. The organisation might not want the market to know it's hiring. The person currently in the role might not know they're leaving yet.

I've had clients ask me to run a process without disclosing the company in the early stages, or to keep the details broad. That happens all the time. But that isn't a hidden job market. That's a confidential search.

Senior roles are a different strategy, not a secret

Very senior roles often aren't advertised because the organisation already has a good idea of who it wants, or the kind of person it wants. That makes it a headhunting exercise: approaching people directly through a network.

Again, not a hidden job market. Just a different way of finding people.

If a recruiter only advertises, that tells you something

If a recruiter's only way of finding candidates is posting the role on a job board, that says more about the recruiter than about any hidden market. A good recruiter is talking to people all the time, building relationships long before there's a role to fill. That's not access to a secret world. That's the job.

The part that's actually in your control

Here's what the “hidden job market” pitch skips. Most unadvertised roles are filled through people. Who knows you, who remembers you, who thinks of you when something comes up.

And networking has become something of a lost art. Plenty of candidates only reach out when they need something, then wonder why nobody comes to them first.

So learn it. Stay in touch with people when you don't need anything. Talk to people doing the job you want. The candidates I call first aren't the ones with the best resume. They're the ones who checked in when they didn't need anything.

No troll. No magic key. Just relationships, built before you need them.