I have worked on a number of open jobs where the hiring manager or hiring authority has suggested that they’d prefer to hire someone who is already employed. In other words, they suggest that they’d prefer not to hire someone who is currently unemployed. In some rare cases, I’ve had hiring managers tell me to not even bother sending them the resume of anyone who isn’t currently working. It would seem that this sort of practice is increasing.

A recent news story I read discussed a recruitment firm in South Carolina searching for managers for a grocery store who specifically stated in the ad that they were only looking for people who currently held a job.

Mind you, I’ve also seen cases where the opposite has happened: I recall working on jobs where the position needed to be filled ASAP and the hiring manager told me that they’d prefer to hire someone who was currently out of work and who could start immediately!

When a company states that they want to hire someone currently employed, it’s interesting to note the reason why. Depending on your local labor laws it might not be illegal to state that you want to only consider job applicants who are currently employed but I guess my question would be what are you trying to accomplish?

In the case of the grocery store looking for managers, does that mean an unemployed grocery store manager who was recently downsized is less desirable than a person with no direct experience as a grocery store manager but who is currently employed in another job? Apparently they are since their current out-of-work job status will automatically rule them out of consideration for the job.

If you’re applying to jobs and are currently unemployed, you do need to be cognizant that this sort of treatment exists not only from hiring managers but recruiters too. Recruiters can also discriminate against those who are currently out of work thinking that it will be an uphill battle to help them get back into the workforce compared to a similar candidate who is currently working.

Having a job can give you extra leverage in your job search that you might have not otherwise considered. The longer you’re out of work, the more questions arise as to why you haven’t been able to find a new job, too.

With the Internet changing the way we search for jobs – and the way recruiters and hiring manager search for potential employees – comes the ability to search for a new job using some of the existing technologies you’re already using.

Twitter is a great example of a technology that can be used to find a new job and at a minimum to network and meet people (virtually meet them anyways) who might be able to positively influence your job search and ultimately your career.

I recently read a newspaper article that gave examples of people who had found new jobs using Twitter. In one case, the person had followed a Twitter feed that advertised local jobs and saw a tweet that referenced a job that interested him. He applied for it and got the job.

In another instance, it was a case of someone who had been followed by another person on Twitter who ended up interviewing them for a job after following them for awhile, learning about them, and being impressed enough by what they saw to ask if they’d be interested to interview for a new job.

It goes to show you that technology like this can be used for your advantage in a career setting. It also goes to show you the importance of keeping your profile – in this case your tweets – professional.

As an aside, I also know of recruiters who in some cases either use LinkedIn exclusively or almost exclusively to search for job candidates to fill their jobs which is another great way to get noticed online by people you don’t currently know. The same might be said for actual hiring managers who use LinkedIn to find staff for their company.

I recently got an email from a guy who had just experienced an interesting situation. He’d applied for a job before the stated deadline and when he didn’t hear back from the company he’d applied to, he contacted them to enquire about his candidacy. The hiring authority told him that his application had been received in time but they’d started to interview people earlier than that and were already well down the path with several candidates and weren’t going to consider him as as result.

In other words, even though he’d applied by the deadline – several days before the deadline according to what he told me – he was told flat out that he wasn’t going to be considered for the job because the company had decided to start interviewing people earlier than that.

His main question was whether or not the company could legally do this – state a deadline and then essentially throw the deadline out the window. I don’t need to know where this fellow lives to guess with 100% certainty that unfortunately there is probably very little that he can do in this case and although the company was certainly unprofessional to do this, he probably has absolutely no recourse.

Why a company would do this is beyond me. Why they’d admit to him that they’re doing it is even weirder since they’re admitting that they’re unprofessional. Still, it goes to show you that if you’re facing a deadline to apply for a job, unless there is a good reason to wait until the last minute you’re probably better off applying as soon as possible.

A few days ago I posted on the subject of not posting your resume on every job board you can find.

Taking a step back, many people often wonder if they should even post their resume on an online job board(s) in the first place. Obviously at the end of the day it’s your choice but here are a few things to consider:

1. You can lose your ability to conduct a covert job search: If your resume is posted publicly so that anyone can search for it, anyone can therefore find it. How will you explain yourself if your boss or someone else in your current employer sees your resume on one of those job boards? It would cause a few question to arise I’m sure.

2. You’re going to get to know a lot of recruiters: Depending on the job board(s) you’re posting your resume to, you’ll probably find that many if not most of the people contacting you for jobs aren’t actual hiring managers but recruiters.

3. You’re probably competing with hundreds of other people: Every job that appears on the major job boards probably gets ready by hundreds (or more) other people so there’s your competition for often just 1 job. Obviously your odds at getting a job decrease as more people apply for it using the same method you do and it becomes more difficult to separate yourself from them.

How can you improve your odds of conducting a confidential job search and still get some value?

Depending on your profession, you might find that there are industry or job-specific job boards that might help to decrease the number of people applying for the same jobs you are but are also more focused to your interests too.

You can also consider either posting your resume as confidential and/or not posting your resume at all and simply setting up job agents (ie. saved searches) to alert you when a suitable job arises so that you maintain control of your resume rather than posting it publicly.

I just saw a good video on CNN.com that is relevant for anyone out of work or searching for work or who simply wants to see an interesting way that one man has learned to adapt to the job search process.

The subject of the video is a guy whose wife works in the military so every time she is posted somewhere else every few years, the poor guy has to search for a new job when they move! He has reinvented himself and now shows unemployed people how to pick themselves up and get back into the workforce. Great story.

You can view the video here.

Adapting your approach is something you will need to do from time to time during your career.

If your job search isn’t going well, doing the same thing over and over again probably doesn’t make any sense since you’ll probably just get the same (poor) result.

During a job interview, you might need to change your approach if you enter the interview expecting one thing and getting something completely different.

In one case early in my career, I went to an interview expecting to be interviewed by one person and instead got interviewed by three people simultaneously in a panel-type interview.

In another, I sat in the office with the interviewer and as I waited for him to open the interview and start asking me questions, he instead simply asked “so, what do you want to know?”

Knowing what to expect but being able to change on the fly when the needs arises is a skill that can really help you during your career not only in job interviews but in meetings and any time when you have to be on your toes and respond to something you didn’t expect.

It can also help to separate you (in a good way) from other people who aren’t as capable as you in this regard.

I recently read a story that claimed that at any given time, there are 6 people vying for the same jobs you’re applying for. I’m not exactly sure how they calculated that number or the exact definition of “vying for” since I’d expect that number to be much, much higher actually.

The story talked about how these people are searching the same online job boards you are, are networking just like you are and are preparing for interviews just like you are. In other words, chances are these people are approaching their job search the same way you are.

I would think that in actuality the average number of people applying for a job on a job board could in fact be in the hundreds if not thousands. In that regard, you might actually be competing with that number of people rather than the 6 that they quoted.

Bottom line: jobs are scarce, applicants for jobs are plentiful and the more you can do to separate yourself in a positive way from your competitors, the closer you’ll be to a better job.

Back in university when I was in business school, I had a laboring job in the summer working at a milk processing plant. I ran filling machines, packed products in trays and on skids, sorted leaking milk packages, mixed products on the blender and basically did all the various jobs in the company’s production department. It was a good job in that it was a unionized environment and paid well as a result so I was able to fund university myself.

One regret I have with this job is that near the end of my tenure there when I was about to finish university, I should have made a better effort to introduce myself to some of the senior executives there and enquire about the possibility of working in the company post graduation. The company I worked for was in turn owned by one of the largest food processing companies in the country so there might have been some great opportunities available.

The thing is that I already knew that following graduation, I was going to move to New Zealand and start working there which is exactly what I did. Things worked out for me in that regard, too but in hindsight I wish I’d have taken the opportunity to network a bit with some people at the company even to keep in touch with while I was in New Zealand and when I ultimately returned home.

I think about one instance in particular that makes me want to kick myself. About 1 year before I graduated, there was a big project at the plant I worked at where a number of the packaging machines were being ripped out on a Saturday evening and reinstalled in a more organized fashion without any lost production time so that it would be ready for the start of production on the Monday morning.

On the Friday afternoon right before the project was going to start, the maintenance staff were already starting the work while production was still operating and the work was already well underway.

I was walking from the lunch room back to the production area when I literally ran into the President of the company. I’d never met him but had heard him speak at a previous company event and he seemed like an approachable person. He worked up in the office area and production was at the opposite end of the very large building we worked in so people like me didn’t have much of an opportunity to see him.

We made eye contact and said hi to each other and started talking as we took the long walk down the narrow hallway to the production area. I asked if he was going to look at the work being done and he said yes, that’s why he was checking it out. He jokingly asked me if the work was going to be done for the Monday deadline and I said that yes, it would be done. Notwithstanding the fact that I wasn’t actually working on the project! I had nothing to do with it but he asked an honest question and I gave him an honest answer. We continued walking and talked a bit more and then went our separate ways once we got to the entrance of the production area.

In hindsight, I wish I’d have at least introduced myself a bit more formally and basically given him a 30 second commercial about myself, that I was soon going to graduate from business school in the next year, and ask him who he’d suggest speaking with in the company about possible opportunities in the company once I graduated.

What would he have said in response?

At worst he may have suggested sending in a resume to their HR department but perhaps he’d have given me something better.

Maybe he would have suggested speaking with his assistant about getting some names to contact.

Maybe he’d have asked me for a resume to forward to someone.

Who knows? I’ll never know because I didn’t do it. I had a good name in the company with my bosses so I think I’d have had a good chance to stick with the company in some capacity. Again, I ended up moving overseas anyways and things worked out just fine but who knows what would have happened had I asked him for some advice regarding staying with the company fulltime?

Sometimes we can get into a position at work where we feel very comfortable and would be quite happy to stay in this role, with this company and keep things the way they are. Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder and some people find a position they are comfortable with an dare happy to leave it at that.

The problem these days is the same problem that has always existed when you work for someone else: there will always be decisions made that affect you that you have no control over.

Companies get sold.

Businesses go out of business.

People get laid off.

Jobs get moved to other countries.

Positions become redundant with new technology.

There are lots of reasons why getting too comfortable can cause you grief when suddenly the rug gets pulled out from underneath you and you weren’t expecting it (when is it every expected!?)

Back in 2000, I got laid off when the company I was working for went out of business. I worked in sales and should have seen it coming since we weren’t making enough money to stay afloat but I really figured things would turn around and that in the meantime the owners would have enough money and patience to keep funding us until that day came.

They didn’t.

They pulled the plug and about 30 of us lost our jobs.

I had actually thought about looking for a new job as I was getting a bit bored with the job but then my sales really picked up and suddenly I was happy again! Things were going really well for me personally for a few months and then suddenly, I was out of a job and was forced to look for a new one.

Since then I’ve become a big fan of cliches like “expect the unexpected” and “the only constant is change.”

In this case, I’d been with the company for 1.5 years and had just started getting comfortable. I know a guy who’d been with the same company for over 20 years, the only company he’d ever worked for in fact. He recently changed jobs to do something different and because his old employer had experienced a slowdown that had affected him personally since he was only working a few days a week.

I’m sure over the past 20 years he’d thought many times that this was the company he was going to retire with. At some point over the past year or so, it must have dawned on him that he needed to do something different and do something he may not have done in 20 years: search for a new job.

Getting comfortable at a job is great if you’re happy with what you do and the people you work with but as long as you’re working for someone else, your ultimate fate is always in someone else’s hands.

If you’ve recently applied for hundreds of jobs online and haven’t received any interviews, I guess the first thing I’d ask is how many of those jobs were you actually qualified for?

I’m guessing the number is probably 1/4 or maybe less.

I recall getting four consecutive emails from the same person who was applying for four different jobs with our company and in some cases the person didn’t qualify for any of them.

I can actually recall many cases where I saw this happen. Then I’d find out that this same person had also emailed several of my colleagues multiple times for other jobs we were working on, jobs that this person also didn’t qualify for.

This is the problem with the Internet and job boards in particular: if it’s easy for you to apply to hundreds of jobs online in a short amount of time, it’s just as easy for everyone else to do the same thing so the whole process becomes a cesspool of job applications from people who are applying for jobs they have no right to be applying for.

The other issue of course is that it then falls upon the hiring manager to figure out how they’re going to weed through the hundreds of applications and get a short list of people who actually fit the job they’re trying to fill.

If you’re applying for jobs with a company that you don’t fit but figure that there’s a chance that if they see your resume they might think of another job to interview you for that you actually fit, you’re wasting your time.

And I know that there are many people who do this because I’ve spoken with many people who use this tactic.

I can’t say with 100% certainty that this tactic never works but I’d be willing to bet money that it doesn’t. When I saw a person who had emailed me four times for four jobs they weren’t qualified for, I’d open their resume and quickly scan the first page just to see what they’d done recently and typically the next step was to delete all emails they’d sent me and move onto the next person.

The thing I noticed about people who tend to email you multiple times for different jobs that they aren’t qualified for is that they also tend to be people who aren’t particularly good at what they do. If they were, they’d be applying for the correct jobs and not wasting everyone’s time.