How to find jobs before they’re advertised

Ricci Putnam is Chief Growth Officer, AEMEA at Salt. He has spent fourteen years advising founders at top tech companies on who to hire, and has guided the careers of thousands of candidates along the way.

Recently I watched someone close to me struggle with their job search, and it got me thinking: why help one person when I could help thousands?

Here’s the truth nobody tells you: finding a job IS a job. Most people don’t know how to do it properly, so they default to three passive habits – scrolling LinkedIn, waiting to hear back on applications, or waiting for a recruiter to call. Even with AI in the mix, it’s still hard. A lot of head-against-the-wall, endless scrolling. I get it.

This is the process I’d run if I were job hunting today. It’s the same methodology senior search professionals use, adapted so you can run it yourself. It’s methodical. It’s hard. But it works.

Set aside real, focused time for this. It’s a research project, not a five-minute task between meetings. Work through Phases 1 to 6 in order the first time through. Track everything in one place, a spreadsheet or a board, more on that in Phase 6. And revisit your target list every 4–6 weeks, because the market moves faster than your list does.

Phase 1. Build your target job search list in 7 steps

Before you look for a single job, define the market you actually want to work in. Precision here saves you weeks of wasted effort later. A vague target produces vague results.

Get specific about your target market. Not “tech companies”…It’s “SaaS companies, 50–200 employees, Series B+.”

• Use LinkedIn’s filters properly, on both jobs and the main search bar. They cut the noise and surface roles you’d otherwise scroll straight past. Search for people posting about hiring in your space. Most open roles get mentioned in a post long before, or instead of, being formally advertised.
  
• Use TechCrunch (or your sector’s equivalent) to track growth and funding signals across your target companies. Funding and growth are leading indicators of hiring.
  
• Review each company’s public output, YouTube, LinkedIn, thought leadership. Spot where new projects or roles are forming.
  
• Go straight to careers pages. A huge number of companies never post open roles on LinkedIn at all.
  
• Check the job boards of your target companies’ investors. VC and PE firms often run their own boards across their portfolio.
  
• Set up daily alerts across Google, Glassdoor, Greenhouse and similar platforms so leads land in your inbox automatically.

Phase 2: Read the job spotting signals

Once you’ve got a target list, the next job is spotting who’s about to hire, before they say so publicly. Track who currently holds your target role at each company, and whether they’ve recently moved on. A recent departure signals a live opening. A new hire tells you exactly what the company values right now. Use that to sharpen your own profile.

Another signal is to watch for recent C-suite hires at your target companies. New leadership almost always precedes growth or restructuring. Spot it 3–6 months early and you’re ahead of the entire market.

Phase 3: Activate your career network

Most opportunities move through people. This phase is about turning your existing network into a source of warm introductions. Map the decision-makers at each target company. Work out which ones you have 1st-degree connections to who could introduce you.

Then you mine your 1st-degree connections deliberately. Where they’ve worked before, who they might know. They’re also your route into 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections. Stay visible, because recommendations tend to surface exactly when someone else posts about hiring.

Phase 4: Work with recruiters the right way

Don’t sit around waiting for a recruiter to reach out.

• Choose a small number and vet them directly.
  
• Pick 5–10 recruiters who genuinely operate in your space.
  
• Ask them straight: how many roles have they filled in this market in the last 6 months? What’s currently on their desk? Which clients do they work with? Being direct saves everyone time, and it’s the one thing that changes how recruiters treat you.

Phase 5: Build your career visibility

Being findable matters as much as finding. You need to stay on the radar of the people who matter to your search.

Publish thought leadership in your space 2–3 times a week. Like and comment on content from your target audience. Visibility compounds over time. Plus, attend relevant events. It’s time-consuming, but founders and senior execs in your target market are disproportionately likely to show up in person.

Phase 6: Track Everything

None of the above works without discipline in how you record and follow up. Log every company, contact and interaction in a single tracker: Trello, Notion, a spreadsheet, whatever works for you. Data without follow-up is just noise. The tracker is what turns activity into a pipeline.

The honest part

This process is exhausting, and the market can be brutal. If you’ve been putting in the hours and it still hasn’t landed, that’s not on you, it’s how tight this market has become. What changes the odds is method, not effort alone. Most searches run on three passive habits: scrolling, applying, and waiting.

This guide replaces that with something active and repeatable.

Work through the six phases above when you’re ready, or reach out to our team if you’d rather build the strategy with someone alongside you.

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