Stalking the Wily "Hidden Job"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57555016/how-to-get-a-hidden-job/

From CBS MoneyWatch, here's one of the prime reasons you are networking: to shake loose the "hidden jobs." No that doesn't mean that you have to work behind a screen because you're ugly. Rather, it means that the precise job you may get does not exist before you get it.

Huh?

It works like this. When someone leaves a company, that company is very often going to take a long, hard look at what the person in the job was assigned to do. The employee might be leaving for very good reasons, after a long and mutually-happy association with that particular employer.

But especially in this mean and lean economy, employers are trying to do more with less. Someone leaving is a great time for the employer to re-think just what value that paycheck buys the employer. What areas of that person's work needed more attention? What areas could be scaled back, or handed off to someone else for a better fit with the company's priorities and human resources?

If you have networked well and thoroughly, it is possible that you will know of a job opening, and you will have the insight to offer a new skill-set, a value-added proposition, a fresh perspective on how to streamline and bring more to the company's bottom line.