Brian M. Rivera has written an excellent article on how to read a job posting to understand what the employer or recruiter is looking for.
Is there secret information located in normal everyday job postings? I think there is and I can show you how to use this technique to apply for a job that needs to filled quickly. Simply by using key information within the job posting, like the date, how many job boards it is posted to and how long the job has actually been on the market. With this information you can do a little analyses and figure out how eager the company is to fill a position or if they are just “looking.”


For example, when I was laid off during the summer of 2008, I was really trying to make a career change into sales. I interviewed for several sales positions with companies like AFLAC, New York Life and Robert Half Technology. With no luck. But during this time I kept finding in my job search an open information assurance position conducting certification and accreditation (C&A) duties in Philadelphia. First, I noticed it on one job site. Then a week later, I noticed it on two new job sites. Two weeks after that, it was on several job sites!
Since my career change into sales wasn’t working out, I applied for the C&A position. I applied directly to the company and e-mailed the company recruiter. This was on a Wednesday.  I was then scheduled for an interview on Friday and started work on Monday! I wasn’t surprised. I noticed how long the position was open for, then realized they needed a qualified candidate immediately. With the speed at which they hired me, I knew there would be some flexibility when talking salary. So I used it to my advantage and got pretty close to what I asked for, it was win-win. The company filled an open position and I got a job, which I desperately needed. So, how do you find secret information within a job posting? Here are six steps:

Below, please find Six Steps to Finding Secret Information in a Job Posting:

1.  Pay attention to when it was posted and try to apply quickly if a job was just posted. Try to be the first one to send in a resume. If they are hiring quick, you may get called early. Or if it’s been posted for a while, the company might be more flexible in filling the position, meaning if your skills aren’t exactly what they are looking for, you may squeak by and get an interview.

2.  Find out how many different job sites the position is posted on, this shows how serious the company is about filling the position and it may show they may need to fill it quickly.

3.  See if the same posting is listed on the actual company website AND by other hiring agencies, this also shows how serious they are about filling the position. If you like the job, I suggest applying through the company website and directly to the company recruiter. Then, if you don’t hear anything right away, apply on all the hiring agency websites.

4.  Use acronyms in the search block, and then try the entire word. For example, IA and information assurance – or information security and INFOSEC.

5.  Find the position on a major job search engine, and then look for it on the corporate site. Apply to both the major job board AND the corporate site, hopefully getting noticed faster.

6.  Search for jobs outside of your normal online job search, sometimes there are incorrect job postings or similar postings that could be what you are looking for. Sometimes I will search for a job with no specific geographic location designated. This is time consuming, but drill down through the job postings, or even better use the drop down menu to list the locations alphabetically and look for the city you want to work in. Some jobs are listed incorrectly and you have to do a little online research to find them.

Your job search is an important part of your job hunt. Use every technique you can find to discover hidden jobs.

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Good luck with your job hunt!

Go to www.TADPGS.com, click on the “Looking for People” tab, then view “Veterans Solutions” to see more for information on our Veterans Solutions for Employers. Please feel free to join our LinkedIn group, Veterans Hiring Solutions for Veterans and Companies at http://linkd.in/Sg346w. If you have specific questions about hiring veterans or the incentives for doing so, contact me at Ben.Marich@Adeccona.com.