#niche-job-search

#niche-job-search

Headhunters? More like breadhunters: On top of career coaching and résumé building, reverse-recruiting agencies often take the keys and apply to dozens of jobs on an applicant's behalf. In exchange, these startups can charge monthly fees north of $1,000 and/or take a cut of their clients' salaries once they find a job, per WSJ. A conventional recruiter told WSJ that he's somewhat uneasy about people handing reverse recruiters their LinkedIn or Workday logins, as well as the idea of charging job seekers.

One of the earliest turning points in personal branding, one that made career-minded professionals understand that they're responsible for their careers and the visibility that shapes them, was the launch of LinkedIn in 2003. Since then, career visibility has followed a simple rule: polish your resume, keep your LinkedIn profile current and compelling, and show up to meetings awake. But that rule no longer holds, thanks to AI.

Q: I recently took a redundancy package, and I am now job hunting. I've been told that ­LinkedIn is the place where I am most likely to find prospective employers, and have dutifully changed my avatar to "open for work". However, I have a feeling that Ireland is still all about "who you know", and I may do better by working my network of contacts. Is it worth paying for a full LinkedIn subscription, or what is your experience of modern job hunting?

If the job market feels harder than it should right now, you're not imagining it. Recent analysis from LinkedIn shows that while more than half of professionals (56%) plan to job hunt in 2026, but 76% don't feel prepared. Hiring hasn't stopped, but it has slowed, narrowed, and become more selective. When fewer open roles, higher expectations, and longer decision cycles are now the norm, broad job searches are not the answer, but focusing on targeted job searches.

"The key is rethinking what you're doing not as a job, but as a set of skills," he said. Once you understand your skills, Roth said to look at the jobs on the rise list and assess where the demand is, "because the demand is super uneven." "Then, start working backwards," Roth said."What are the skills that are required to be a construction planning coordinator or an independent analyst? What are the skills that I have that will get me there?"