The 40% stat about internal hires made me rethink my whole job hunt

I was reading a LinkedIn post last Tuesday and it said 40% of open roles get filled by internal candidates before they even hit job boards. That blew my mind because I've been applying externally for 3 months here in Columbus and wondering why I get so few callbacks. It made me realize I've been ignoring the people I already know. I started talking to an old coworker who moved to a bigger company and she mentioned a role her team was about to post internally. I asked her to put my name in before it went public and suddenly I had an interview scheduled within 5 days. Maybe the real move is networking with former colleagues instead of blasting resumes into a black hole. Has anyone else noticed that internal referral timing matters more than your actual experience level?

1 comments

1 Comment

kim69312d ago

Take that 40% number with a grain of salt though. LinkedIn posts love tossing around stats to get clicks, and most of the time they're pulling from some survey that doesn't apply to every industry or city. I've seen plenty of people get hired cold off job boards, so it's not like external apps are totally dead. Sure, networking helps, but five days to an interview could just mean that company moves fast, not that you cracked some secret code. Maybe take the win, but don't rewrite your whole strategy over one post.