Page 148 - Marky Stein - Fearless Career Change_ The Fast Track to Success in a New Field (2004)

Fearless Career Change

why many career coaches are beginning to advocate the use of
direct-contact techniques in the unadvertised job market. Finding
an unadvertised job opening is somewhat of a numbers game.
Studies show that anywhere from 1 in 12 direct-contact phone calls
(in a healthy job market) will yield an opening and that the odds
of finding an opportunity in a slower market are 1 in 20. Can you
predict an opening in the unadvertised job market before placing
a call or sending a letter of inquiry? It’s difficult, but several guide-
lines can help you choose the kinds of companies that are more
likely to present potential positions.

1. It’s important to remember that very large companies in
the process of massively downsizing may also be hiring at
the same time. That’s because layoffs usually take place by
job function or departments rather than by arbitrary num-
bers. Hundreds, even thousands, can get laid off in the
manufacturing department while scores of people are get-
ting hired in sales or human resources. Similarly, sales
could be waning while manufacturing is booming! A com-
pany may be skimming off upper-management positions
while actively hiring for entry-level functions.
Therefore, just because you read in the newspaper that
there has been a huge layoff at a company does not mean
that you should omit that company from your list of poten-
tial workplaces.
2. There is no way to make an absolute judgment about how
many people might be hired at some point in the future,
but there are ways to make educated guesses about the
probability that an organization is increasing its head
count. Two ways to make such a determination are with the
help of the following resources:
•Your local newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, INC. maga-
zine, or Forbes magazine. Find stories that mention a local
plant or corporation is opening new offices in your area.
These offices and plants will need staffing and manage-
ment even though the company may not be advertising
the openings yet.
The same thing applies to companies conspicuously
reporting new projects or products. They may not need

130