Job seekers like to look at job boards to find opportunities — because it’s easy. In fact, with the launch of Google for Jobs this week, it got even easier.

What Is the Hidden Job Market?

Career coaches look at survey reports that show the majority of hiring is done through employee referrals — not through job postings.

Like this report from Silk Road:

They consider all those unposted, employee referral jobs the hidden job market.

We Don’t Know the Source of Employee Referrals

However, we don’t know exactly how the new employee came to be referred. What happened?

1. Did someone inside the company know about the opening and recruit their former colleague or their best friend? Sometimes, yes.

2. Did a job seeker hear about the job via their network and get an introduction to an employee who then referred them? Sometimes, yes.

3. Did a job seeker see the company’s job posting and get an introduction to an employee who then referred them? Sometimes, yes.

Thus, you can’t equate employee referrals with the hidden job market. We know employee referrals are the single top source of hire, but we don’t know the source of employee referrals.

What Does It Mean for Recruiters?

It means that recruiters might want to collect data about a category called Source of Employee Referral.

Or they might ask new hires, “How did you first become aware of this opportunity?” The question could be built into the onboarding process.

Without that information, recruiters don't know their sources of referral hires, which makes it hard to know if they're spending their talent acquisition dollars in the right places.

What Does It Mean for Job Seekers?

If you look closely at the Source of Hire chart above, and add up the performance of all the job boards and aggregators listed (Indeed, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn), you'll notice that in total they outperform employee referrals. 

Thus, for job seekers, it means it’s smart to set up job posting alerts. They will find great opportunities that way.

Don’t believe me? Take a quick stroll through Google for Jobs.

I did this search, “Bay Area Organization Development jobs” earlier today. I typed it right into my main Google search bar.

It popped opportunities at the Federal Reserve Bank, Fitbit, Intuit, Kaiser Permanente, Peet's, Pinterest, Twitter, Visa, etc.

Like this:

Mind you, I’m not advocating for job seekers to apply online. I want them to find opportunities online, then mobilize their networks to get introduced to hiring managers.

Will the companies be deluged with applicants? Probably. Especially if they have a strong employer brand. If a job seeker is well qualified, that shouldn’t deter them from going after a great job.

I write executive resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Save time. Get hired. See my bio here, or email me at donnasvei@gmail.com for more information.