My recent post in the LinkedIn Premium Job Seekers’ Group is all about the hidden job market. If you still feel fuzzy on what that means or how to access it, this post is for you. Here’s a step-by-step primer for demystifying this behemoth and a tutorial on how to make it work for you in your job search.

Career coaches around the world alert job seekers to the harsh reality that a mere 25% of jobs ever get posted to an online job board in the first place – although locating hard evidence to support these numbers is a near impossibility. The “hidden job market,” the other 75%, consists of opportunities that fall into one of three categories: 1) unpublished jobs, 2) those that get posted to small, niche boards, or 3) jobs that don’t exist until a company meets you, realizes it can’t survive without you, and quickly opens a job for you. And experts agree that accessing one of these three types of opportunities in the “hidden job market,” is simply about “who you know.”

But what if you don’t know enough people? Does “more” always equal “better” when it comes to your network?

In this case, quality trumps quantity, nine times out of ten. Here are some ways to get the attention of the right people—decision-makers at your target companies—before they even know they need you.

To read the entire article, head over to the LinkedIn Premium Job Seekers’ Group and check it out!