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Our mission is to support & advocate for people with criminal records to be able to move on positively in their lives. Find out more

Exploring the hidden job market to find work

You’d think that employers looking to recruit the best people for their vacant roles would want to advertise their roles in as many places as possible to ensure that they had cast their nets as wide as they could.

So you may be surprised to learn that about half of all jobs are not advertised at all. This is often referred to as the hidden job market.

Advertising can be expensive and the recruitment process can be long. Recruiters will often decide to look through their existing records to see if they have anybody that fits their criteria, rather than advertise and then wade through reams of application forms.

If you’re looking for a job then it’s important to know how you can access these hidden jobs and how to go about approaching employers that don’t want you to complete an application form or hand over a CV.

We’ve published some new information on finding a job from the hidden job market which sets out how to access the hidden job market and how to go about approaching employers speculatively.

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Photo of Head of Advice, Debbie Sadler
Debbie Sadler
Head of Advice

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