If you are an out of work project professional, you’ll anxiously await your next email update from the project management recruitment sites or the professional press.  But don’t limit your job search to just these routes.  After all, you will often have heard the statistic that 70% of jobs never get advertised or make it to a recruitment website.  There is a 'hidden job market' out there, and it's wide open for anyone who knows how to work it.



"When times are tough, the skills you need to find and land a great job are fundamentally different than when the economy is good.  It's no surprise that people are getting increasingly frustrated by sending out hundreds of resumes and getting no response, they're looking for jobs like it's 2005 when the economy was hot and workers were in short supply.  In today's economy they need a different set of tools," says Duncan Mathison, executive career consultant and former vice president of Drake Beam Morin, who is also the author of Unlock the Hidden Job Market: 6 Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough.



Great jobs don't go to great people. They go to great job searchers – those who know how to navigate the hidden job market and make it work for them.  One way to seek out this market is to think like the person buying your services: the hiring manager.  And what better way to do that than by asking some of them what they are looking for.



Find someone in a project management role in your target industry and use them to start building your understanding around your potential hiring managers' most pressing needs.  It’s not an interview – it’s a discussion, from which you aim to get as much information about what project management talent is top of the recruiters’ ‘must have’ list.  Enthusiasm alone won’t cut it when you get to a ‘real’ interview – you need to focus on what your hiring manager needs.  Your job is to understand how they think, what they worry about, how they behave and how they make their buying decisions.



Book half an hour with your project management insider and ask them some questions:
 

"Tell me about the best people you hired for this job. What were the qualities that make them a success? Are those qualities still relevant in today's environment?"



"How has your business changed in recent years, especially as the economy has changed? How have those changes affected the kinds of talent you're looking for?



"What keeps you excited about the work you do?  What do you worry about the most?"



"How have performance issues or standards for excellence changed in recent years? What's essential for the future?"



"If you could add one thing to the mix of skills in your staff, what would it be? What would you subtract?"

 


When you ask these questions you will build the necessary understanding to finally land that great job.  Feel free to ask them in interviews too: you know, in the awkward moment when the interviewer asks you what else you would like to ask.  With all the understand you have built up you’ll be able to talk about your abilities and motivations in terms that your potential boss will immediately relate to. Your prospective boss will be thinking, "Wow, this person really gets it!"