the hidden job market

Happy Friday!

This is going to be a big newsletter. We’re going to talk about the hidden job market. I have some links to share. And I got a great reply to one of last week’s newsletters I have to share with you all.

I also have two requests for you - more on that at the end of the letter.

The Hidden Job Market

Something like 70% of all jobs are never posted online.

7 out of 10! At least, that’s the stat floating around the internet - I’ll be honest, I can’t find an actual statistical analysis on this.

That said… I only applied to 1 of the 6 jobs I’ve held in my career. So anecdotally, this seems true. A lot of these are jobs that are filled internally - but again, anecdotally, 5 of the 6 jobs I’ve held were net new jobs!

So how do you find these hidden job openings?

I mean… network. That’s it. That’s the whole ball game.

But we can get more specific. Here are a few strategies I used (mostly by accident) to get those 5 jobs:

1. Volunteer

The best connections you already have in your network are your former co-workers, because they know you and they know what you’re capable of.

You can replicate this at a faster clip by volunteering.

I got a job directing a program for refugee youth - because I volunteered at an after-school program at the newcomer center in my city.

I also got a dev contract because I helped a founder plan her technical roadmap for free. It only took a few hours of my time and ended up paying off many times over at a crucial time in my career.

Look for opportunities to help people out.

2. Stay in touch

Those co-workers I mentioned? Stay in touch with them.

I’m very intentional about this. I message or text a long list of people on a quarterly or bi-annual rotation. No agenda, I just ask how things are going. We exchange a few messages and that’s it.

This keeps the relationship going. Time dilutes trust, but a simple interaction can reinforce it. And when you need to find new opportunities, you’ll be glad you maintained those relationships.

Reach out to a few ex-colleagues!

3. Network up

There’s no reason you can’t establish relationships with CTOs and CEOs, directors, investors… they’re people too and generally speaking they understand the value of networking.

They even understand the value of networking with people a few steps behind them on the career path.

I’ve talked with a former CTO of IBM for no real reason. I made a comment he found interesting on one of his LinkedIn posts, I DM’d him to continue the conversation, and we booked a 30 minute video chat.

See how many “successful” people you’re one degree of separation away from and try to get an introduction to them!

Some Links

I put up a blog post this morning.

I also posted to Hacker News, Medium, and dev.to.

If you like it and you’re active on those platforms, I would appreciate upvotes!

Surface Area For Insight

A reader sent me a really thoughtful reply to my surface area for luck email from a few days ago. I’ll put it here in full:

The concept of increasing your surface area for luck inspired this concept:

“Increase your surface area for insights”

In my Ad Tech Career, I have spent a lot of time seeking community. Trying to be a part of conversations. I found Ad Tech pretty much by accident, but it resonated with me very well. As I learned what my company could teach me through the poorly planned and executed “on the job training”, I started seeking out other places to learn. I found little tidbits of information, but what I also found were countless other people struggling in similar ways. I started helping them whenever I could. At first by publically responding to threads in very industry specific subreddits, then getting deeper into other communities and having more in depth conversations.

I did build a personal brand through my efforts on Reddit and other private communities. That personal brand was pivotal in me getting hired for multiple remote international jobs with no resume required. It also resulted in an astonishing amount of sales for the companies I worked for and then my own consultancy. All of those things were amazing, but never the primary goal.

The primary goal was to un-silo myself. To become better than the content of my immediate surroundings and increase my understanding of the wider industry. Seeing how others navigated these problems not only increased my knowledge of the space, but it allowed me to get insights that helped shape the plans of future developments in all areas. Essentially, it increased my surface area for insight.

I love this. Curiosity-driven networking is genuine and, IMO, way more likely to succeed in creating real relationships than agenda-driven networking.

Optimize for personal growth and everything else will follow.

This was James Strang by the way. He does ad tech consulting at https://js.consulting and has pointed me in the right direction a few times. Get in touch with him if you or someone you know needs help scaling ad tech.

A request

My mission is to help 10,000 developers get jobs through networking in 2026. I’ve been told that’s “insane” and “completely unrealistic,” but you know… shoot for the moon, and if you miss you’ll float forever through the cold, dead vacuum of space. We’re at… 55/10000.

If I’m going to get anywhere close to that, I need your help.

So… I have a request.

If you know of anyone who might benefit from reading this newsletter, send them the link (https://refactoryourcareer.tech)!

Otherwise, have a great weekend! See you Monday.

— Clark