Be a Detective to Find Special Job Opportunities

...do some digging and you'll uncover some special job opportunities worth pursuing.

First of all, what are "special opportunities?"

Basically, any change event that occurs within an organization creates potential special opportunities. These changes can include mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, expansions, contractions, opening new offices or closing old offices. Even bankruptcies can create opportunities for those who specialize in such situations. Smaller changes such as someone's resignation or promotion within an organization can similarly create new job opportunities.

Being alert to such changes occurring within area employers is the key to tapping such special opportunities for your job search. To do so, you must become an avid reader of the local newspaper's business section on a daily basis. Read more than one newspaper if possible.

Often you'll find features on local employers that can tip you off to a potential opportunity. In addition, most business sections announce promotions of managers and executives. If you notice that someone has been promoted from a position you'd like to have, but no replacement is announced, you may want to contact the promoted individual.

You can offer your congratulations on their good fortune while at the same time inquiring about opportunities for you within his or her organization. Professional, trade or industry publications can provide similar leads. But you've got to read them with more than casual interest. Become a detective. Make a game out of it if it helps.

Now that you've got an initial lead, you have to do some research in order to better identity your target. The more you know about an organization, the better. It's especially critical to find out who to contact. At the risk of offending my friends and associates in the human resources management field, I advise you to avoid the personnel department wherever possible. Your job is to get to the decision-maker in the department where you want to work.

It may take a couple of phone calls to do that. First, you call to find out who it is you should be calling. Then you call him or her, acting like you know what you're doing. (Obviously, I recommend that you let some time elapse between these two calls.) You may get through.

You can also find out a great deal about local employers by doing some basic research at a good business library. In my opinion, the best such library in the East Bay is the Alameda County Business and Government Library in Oakland. So, whether your favorite detective is Sherlock Holmes or Columbo, do some digging and you'll uncover some special job opportunities worth pursuing. Most important, you'll be among the very few who take this approach and you'll be much more likely to gain an interview as a result. There you have it - a job seeker's guide to the primary job opportunities. On more time they are:

Use them all and, despite the recession, you too can find the job you seek!