Build and work a target list of roles and organisations
Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Replace passive job board browsing with active research into specific organisations you want to understand.
- Why it works: Passive job searching — waiting for the right posting to appear — puts you in competition with every other applicant and limits you to officially open roles. Active research into target organisations means you understand roles before they’re posted, build relationships with insiders, and are often referred before the job is public — none of which is possible by applying cold.
- Evidence: Backed by observational / correlational evidence.
- Avoid: Making the list and never working it — it must be a live document tied to active outreach, not a wishlist.
Why it works
Passive job searching — waiting for the right posting to appear — puts you in competition with every other applicant and limits you to officially open roles. Active research into target organisations means you understand roles before they’re posted, build relationships with insiders, and are often referred before the job is public — none of which is possible by applying cold.
How to do it
- 1List 15–20 specific organisations (not industries) that represent your best guess at environments where you’d do great work.
- 2For each, identify 2–3 specific roles you’d want to learn more about.
- 3Use informational interviews to get inside information on what those roles are actually like.
- 4Revisit the list quarterly and drop organisations that don’t fit after research; add new ones.
What the evidence says
ObservationalBolles’s research found that the most effective job-finding strategies involve direct contact with specific organisations rather than passive job-board scanning. Labour market research consistently shows that many roles are filled through referral before or instead of public posting.
Honest caveat: The "hidden job market" framing is sometimes overstated; many roles are filled through public postings. The value of the target list is in the quality of relationships built, not in bypassing postings.
- — Bolles (2023), What Color Is Your Parachute?
Common mistake
Making the list and never working it — it must be a live document tied to active outreach, not a wishlist.
IX Coach maintains your target list and tracks which organisations have active relationships versus those that are purely aspirational.
Practice this with IX Coach →