Many roles are filled without ever reaching a job board. This is not a secret club. From the hiring side, it is often faster, cheaper and more discreet. Once you understand why it happens, you can make sure you are one of the people considered.

Why employers do not advertise

There are a few common reasons. A role may be filled by an internal move or a referral from a trusted employee. A senior replacement may be confidential because the current person is still in the seat. A hiring manager may already know two or three people they want to speak to. And for many roles, an advert brings hundreds of applications, most of them unsuitable, which someone then has to read.

In each case, the employer looks first at people who are already visible to them: through their own network, their recruiters or their LinkedIn results.

Be easy for recruiters to find

Recruiters working for employers look for candidates on LinkedIn and in their own databases long before they advertise. If your profile has the right job title, the right skills and the right location, you can appear in those results. If it does not, you are invisible to them, however strong your experience.

Keep your profile current, and use LinkedIn's "Recruiters only" Open to Work setting if you want to signal that you are available without telling your network.

By the time a role is advertised, someone may already be on the shortlist. The aim is to be on it before the advert goes out.

Choose a few specialist recruiters

A recruiter is paid by the employer to fill a specific role, so they call you when you match one. That makes a small number of well-chosen recruitment firms more useful than registering everywhere. Pick firms that recruit your function in the country you are targeting, send them a CV tailored to the roles you want, and keep in touch every few weeks with a short update.

Approach hiring managers directly

A short, specific message to the person who would manage you often works better than an application to a general inbox. Write to the head of the function, not to HR. Say in two or three lines what you have done that is relevant to their business, and ask for a short conversation.

Look for signs that a company is about to hire: a new project, a new office in the region, a contract win or a new leader in your field. These are the moments when a well-timed message is welcome.

Use your network without asking for a job

Asking a former colleague "Do you have any jobs?" puts them on the spot. Asking "Who leads finance in your company, and would you be comfortable introducing me?" is easier to say yes to. Many companies also run referral programmes, so the people you know may be glad to put your name forward.