Understanding Your Competition and The Current Job market
 The Size of the Market. The jobmarket has changed more since 1999 than in the previous 50 years. Each month, approximately 3,000,000 jobs are available at any moment in time... for professionals and executives. However, when you allow for casual and active job seekers, at least 30,000,000 people circulate resumes each month. Research sources claim that 18,000,000 people will seek positions above $100,000 this year.
What This Competition Means to You. Today, it is rare for employers not to have an enormous number of candidates. Furthermore, even after you work hard to get a good interview, up to a dozen strong candidates are likely to be given consideration. This means that refining your interviewing skills is more critical than ever. There is great competition for the best jobs. The bottom line is you need to generate a lot of interest in your talents -- not just a few interviews. The way to ensure that you produce enough "interviewing activity" is to penetrate each of the market segments below.
The jobmarket As It Exists Today
In its most basic form, the jobmarket consists of two broad groups of employers. There are those who publish their openings... and those who don't.
Explaining The Published Market -- Openings You Can Find
Employer Websites. This market was not accessible until a few years ago, but 94% of major firms now hire this way. Hundreds of thousands of openings are now available on employer websites and this market segment is growing rapidly.
Newspapers. The openings available through classified ads are declining. But, there are 3,000 newspapers that contain classified advertising. Because of the Internet these openings are more accessible than ever before.
Trade Magazines. There are 2,100 trade magazines that contain advertisements for professional and executive openings. These, too, are now available.
Job Boards. There are hundreds of job boards that post professional level openings. This area is growing rapidly in importance as more middle and higher income openings are now being advertised on these sites.
Recruiters on the Web. Thousands of recruiters now post their openings on their websites.
Explaining The Unpublished Market -- Openings You Cannot View
Non-Web Recruiters. Many of the nation's most exclusive recruiters still do not publish their openings on their website
Growth Companies. The biggest part of the unpublished market consists of openings with fast growing firms throughout the U.S. Many are small to medium-sized corporations, but many are also growing units of larger firms which can be identified through selected news items.
Jobs Requiring Contacts. Here, you traditionally had to have personal connections. With the right information resources, you can now go after these jobs in other ways. |
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