What Is the Unpublished Market?

What is the unpublished market, and why is it important in an executive job search?

Many executive job seekers rely on job postings—but that’s only a fraction of the real market. In this (our first!) episode of ASK AN EXPERT, The Barrett Group’s Waffles Natusch and Dan Resendes break down the power of the unpublished market—where a large majority of our clients land roles. In just five minutes, they reveal how opportunities emerge long before they’re ever advertised (if they’re ever advertised at all) and why proactively building social capital is the key to tapping into this hidden world.

Frankly, if you’re an executive, this is a market access channel you can’t afford to ignore!

Prefer Reading Over Watching? No worries—if video is not your thing, we’ve got you covered! The full script is written out below…

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Waffles Natusch:

I’ll answer the second part of the question first. The Barrett Group has identified five ways for executives to get new jobs in the market. And, of those five, the unpublished market is three of them. Also, when we look at our stats on a yearly basis, typically the unpublished market constitutes over 50% of how our clients land.

So, in answer to how important it is, it’s absolutely crucial.

Now, that said, what is the unpublished market? If somebody has a position that they need to fill in a company and they write on a piece of paper what that position might be, that’s the published market. There’s already a job.

The unpublished market is where a job has not been formed yet. And so our client has the opportunity to help design that job.

Does that happen? YES!

How do you make that happen? You join The Barrett Group and we show you how!

If you look back at your career, typically, we’ll interview our clients and ask: “How did you get your job? How did you get your career?”

Many of them will name five positions that they’ve had in the past 32 years, and all five of them were from the unpublished market.

Some other clients have never had that happen, and they will need more coaching.

So that’s my answer to the question. Dan?

Dan Resendes:

Yep. Great answer, Waffles.

The unpublished market, in my opinion, is, as soon as an opportunity is available in the mind of the hiring manager and when that opportunity is verbally articulated to anyone that the hiring manager trusts to keep the opportunity private.

So, let’s say, there’s a person working for the hiring manager who is in charge…let’s say, a chief operating officer. And that hiring manager thinks… “Jeez! This person’s been really screwing up lately. When I get around to it. I need to replace them.

That job is now in the unpublished market.

If that hiring manager decides to share that – verbally, never in writing – with someone they’re trying to recruit for that position or who they think may be interested, that’s one way [that the unpublished market works].

If they share that with somebody totally outside of the organization or somebody in HR, as long as the person in HR never breathes a word to anyone about it or never posts internally that the position is open, or never posts publicly that the position is open, it is unpublished.

It doesn’t have to be an opportunity that the organization is currently working on filling. It’s just a need that the hiring manager knows that they have that hasn’t gotten to the point of being yet published.

The reason why it’s so important is, in my opinion, for 90% of all executives, the hiring decision is influenced through the unpublished market.

And probably 75% of them, in my opinion (and my estimate is a little bit higher than Waffles’s), are directly hired when the job is never ever posted.

The role may get posted at the tail end of the search just because it’s company policy. But at that point the hiring manager already knows who they plan on hiring, anyway, and they’re just posting it publicly because of legal department or HR policies.

Waffles Natusch:

I’d like to summarize.

So, there’s a cliche that you hear sometimes during your career: “Well, you know, you gotta be at the right place at the right time.”

That has a lot to do with the unpublished market, and it has a lot to do with The Barrett Group Program, which is to put you everywhere all at once.

Dan Resendes: Proactively!

Waffles Natusch: Indeed! Indeed!

Dan Resendes: You should always be involved in the unpublished market. Not just when something goes wrong at work, not just after you get into a fight with your boss, not just when you hear that your organization might be acquired, not just when you’re disappointed that you didn’t get the raise that you wanted. Always!

Even when you’re happy and you love your job, you should always be involved in the unpublished market.

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At The Barrett Group, we make it our job to help you find yours. To learn more about what we can do for you, contact us!