By David Santamaría Legarda

This is the second post in a two-part series dealing with outside-the-box Job Searching. The posts are based on our Job Searching in Uncertain Times: Smart Strategies for Success (for Non-Academic Jobs) webinar, which you can access here. If you missed our first post in the series, you can consult that here.

In the previous post in this series, we reviewed some creative, out-of-the-box strategies when it comes to looking for a job, including strategic networking, creating a project, and pitching a position that doesn’t yet exist. In this post we cover some other strategies, including recognizing hiring signals and gearing your LinkedIn towards the “passive” job search.

Hunt For Hiring Signals 

A hiring signal is any public clue that an organization or team is growing, changing, or facing a challenge—all of which means they likely need help, even if they haven’t written a job description yet. Your grad school research skills make you a perfect detective for this.  

People love to share when they’re building a team — sometimes before HR has built the formal posting. You can search LinkedIn for people who are actively hiring. Use specific search strings to find the right people. For example, try searches like “I’m hiring” [your target role] or [organization name] AND [department] to discover hiring managers and new opportunities. Filter results by people in your target industry or recent posts. Remember to also look out for the purple “Hiring” badge on LinkedIn profiles. 

How to Find Hiring Signals: 

1. Target Organizations, Not Jobs: Make a list of 10-15 organizations where you’d be excited to work. These are your targets. Organizations might advertise jobs on their own website and never publish the opportunity on more generalist job boards. 
2. Follow People, Not Just Brands: Don’t just follow the organization’s main LinkedIn page. Find the people who do the job you want, or better yet, the people who manage that team (e.g., “Director of Research,” “Head of Content,” “Product Lead”). A trick here is to export your connections (via Settings > Data Privacy > Get a Copy of Your Data) to get a CSV file. Use it to prioritize contacts at target organizations, then reach out to them. 
3. Look for Hiring Signals: Scour the news and social media for these signals: 
   1. New Funding: An organization that just raised funding has cash and a mandate to grow fast. Tracking venture capital investments to identify organizations that are about to hire is a good option here. Search for “top [your industry] VC firms 2025” or use platforms like Crunchbase to find investors active in your field. Visit each firm’s website and check out their portfolio organizations. You can also set up alerts for funding announcements. Some VC firms also feature job boards showing openings across their portfolio organizations 
   2. New Product or Service: A new launch requires people to manage, market, and analyze it. 
   3. Major News: Did they just publish a big annual report? Did the director of the team just speak on a podcast about a new challenge they’re facing? Remember also that a lot of foundations, city agencies, and universities announce funding in a press release first.  
   4. “Informal” Posts: A team lead posting on LinkedIn, “Our team is swamped, but we’re doing amazing work!” is a massive hiring signal. They need help. 

Once you spot a signal, you’ve found an opportunity before it becomes a job posting. You’ve identified a potential need. Now, who are you talking to? You don’t reach out to the general HR email. You find the Hiring Manager—the person who has the problem you can solve (e.g., the “Director of Research” whose team is swamped). You can engage with their content, send a thoughtful (and brief!) cold email, or, ideally, find a “warm introduction” through a mutual connection. The advantage here is that you connect directly with the hiring manager rather than submitting your application into an anonymous portal.  

For more ideas on how to tap into the hidden job market, you can read this post from the Satya Creates Substack by Satya Chheda. 

Job Search While You Sleep 

Not all job search activities require active outreach. You can also position yourself to be found by recruiters and hiring managers. This is part of what we call the “passive job search”— optimizing LinkedIn so that hiring managers come to you while you sleep. 

First, ensure your profile uses keywords that appear frequently in your target job descriptions. Update your headline to clearly state what you do and what you’re looking for. You might turn on the “Open to Work” feature (which you can make visible only to recruiters if you’re currently employed). 

Regularly share insights, articles, or original content related to your field. When professionals post expertise on social media, hiring managers and recruiters conducting keyword searches are more likely to discover their profiles. Even thoughtful comments on industry discussions can increase your visibility. 

Create a public portfolio or personal website showcasing your work. This gives you something to reference in all your outreach and makes it easy for interested parties to evaluate your capabilities. 

Don’t forget to check out the different resources we have on our office’s website on how to effectively use LinkedIn. 

Making It All Work 

All the job searching strategies we have seen in this blog post series work better when combined. The most successful job seekers don’t rely on a single strategy—they create a balanced portfolio of approaches.  

For example, if you send an online application, pair it whenever possible with a personal connection or creative approach such as the projects we discussed in the earlier post in the series. 

So, step away from the job boards for a moment. Get creative. Take a risk. The organizations that will value you most are the ones looking for people who think differently—and your willingness to try unconventional approaches is exactly the kind of initiative they’re seeking. 

Not sure where to start? That’s what we’re here for. Our office offers one-on-one career advice to help you brainstorm VVP ideas, identify hiring signals, or just update your resume. You can schedule an appointment with us any time!