Up to 70% of jobs are never publicly posted. If you’re only refreshing job boards, you’re competing for the smallest, most crowded slice of opportunities out there. Here’s how to reach the rest.
Every job seeker has felt it: you refresh the job boards daily, apply the moment a role appears, and still hear nothing. Meanwhile, someone you know mentions they “just heard about an opening” and got hired within two weeks. That’s the hidden job market at work, and it’s larger than most people realise.
Employers avoid public adverts for good reasons: postings cost time and money to screen, internal referrals are seen as lower risk, and some roles are filled through word of mouth before HR even opens a formal req. That means the job you want may already have a candidate in the pipeline before it’s ever posted, unless you’re the one already in the conversation.
Strategy #1:
Build your network before you’re desperate for it. Reconnect with former colleagues, classmates, and lecturers — not to ask for a job, but to ask what they’re working on. A relationship built two months before you need it opens doors that a cold message the week you’re unemployed rarely does.
Strategy #2:
Use informational conversations. Reach out to one person a week in a field you want to enter and ask for 15 minutes to understand their role — not to pitch yourself. People remember who showed curiosity, and they’re often the first to mention you when a colleague asks, “Do you know anyone good for this?”
Strategy #3:
Follow companies before they’re hiring. Engage genuinely with the LinkedIn and Instagram pages of five organisations you’d want to work for. When a role does open, you’re already a familiar name in their comments, not a stranger’s CV in a pile of two hundred.
Strategy #4:
Tell recruiters you exist, even when you’re not actively job-hunting. Platforms like HireEast.ng match candidates to employers across Nigeria — but we can only put you forward for the roles we know you want. A five-minute profile update today can put you in front of an employer weeks before a public advert ever goes live. Click the link to join our talent pool: https://forms.gle/WSHTYRortMXJANKp7
Want employers to find you before the job is even posted? Join the HireEast.ng Job Access Community —
