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The art of searching the hidden job market is to have high-impact self-marketing, providing proof and authority of your claims, making connections within organizations, working on your relationships, and then tapping these connections to seek job opportunities. How?

It starts with first knowing which organizations and departments you want to work in. So draw up your list.

Then you need to create an in-your-face, hard-to-resist profile. This is your primary sales tool. It’s unthinkable nowadays to consider anything but a “social profile” using Web 2.0 technologies such as the ubiquitous LinkedIn, which is the best of the bunch for this kind of search because it’s primarily for business use. Build up your profile to capture your personal and career achievements, and you should especially emphasize your uniqueness.

The next step is to market to your potential employers by building relationships and joining groups associated with their organization. Introduce yourself and ask others what it is like working in their organization. Demonstrate curiosity in the organization’s brand, culture, and values. Enter discussions and answer questions placed by its workers, to the best of your ability. Avoid going for the jugular and asking for work—that will come! Spend time building up your relationships and adjust your profile accordingly.

Once you’ve built quality relationships, it’s time to decide which connections could become a potential sponsor in each organization. These folks will introduce you to managers in the departments you’re targeting. Spend time working on these people and engage in conversations on subjects of mutual interest until you’ve hooked them in. You’ll know when this has happened because they will begin to ask you questions about your current employment situation and about your future; you now have a sponsor. Remember, keep your profile adjusted appropriately.

Then, go all out on using these sponsors to push into your target department by using LinkedIn to ask for introductions to the hiring managers in it. Be charming, be direct, but don’t be pushy.

Once you’ve been introduced, it’s time to work the charm again and to build on these relationships that will bear the fruit of opportunity. Your profile, by this stage, should be well stocked with your unique skills and experience as well as credible points of reference and a history of engagement with employees in your target organizations; your self-marketing has the highest impact at this stage. Maintaining these relationships, and those with sponsors, is worth every second. At some point, an opening will arise or be created for you—and you’ll be first in line. Like this whole method, the key is to be persistent, but not pushy. This isn’t an overnight process, so you will need to keep working at it, but believe me this will pay off!

Last thought: the tools are there online, and free to use. But they become most effective when you have a process and structure to work with. By applying a bit of this know-how, you’ll avoid the dross and get first sight of the very best jobs even before they exist.

Simon Stapleton is a leader and innovator in Information Technology, and he has made it his mission to help emerging IT leaders with their personal and career development. His blog is www.simonstapleton.com. He can be reached at simon@simonstapleton.com.

■ STRATEGIC TWISTS ON TRADITIONAL STRATEGIES

Most people use a few traditional strategies including:

• Newspaper ads

• Job boards

• Newsgroups

Although you shouldn’t ignore these avenues completely, you should think of them as passive ways to find a job because they don’t require a lot of work. The following tips will put you ahead of your competitors and at least double your odds of success.

➤ Newspaper Ads

The major daily newspapers are still a rich source of job openings and not just in the classified section. Careerbuilder.com is a