• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

512-693-7132

Packages   About   Testimonials

Career Pivot

Career Pivot

Repurpose your career. Pivot now.

  • Get Started
  • Books
    • Repurpose Your Career
    • Personal Branding for Baby Boomers
    • Repurpose Your Career 2019 Book Launch
  • Podcast
    • Career Pivot Interviews
    • Interviews with Career Experts
    • Repurpose Your Career Audio Book
    • Repurpose Your Career Series
    • Becoming an Expat
    • Question and Answer
    • Other Topics
  • Blog
    • Life and Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Ageism
    • Career and Industry Disruption
    • Career Success in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Career Pivot
    • COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Job Search
    • Entrepreneurship in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Encore Careers
    • Social Media
    • Networking
  • Community
  • Resources
  • Expat
  • Contact

Get Career Pivot Insights

Are You an Excellent Passive Candidate or a Turkey? [Infographic]

Passive Candidate

passive candidate
Copyright: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

The easiest way to avoid being a turkey is the be an excellent passive candidate.

The concept of being a passive candidate is a relatively new one.

The best definition I could find for this is term is:

A passive candidate (passive job candidate) is someone who is being considered for a position but is not actively searching for a job. 

In other words, a passive candidate is not looking for a job but, if approached with an opportunity, would consider it.
An excellent passive candidate is almost never a turkey.

Turkey?

In recent weeks, I have written several blog posts about being a turkey in your career. Check out Looking at Your Career from a Turkey’s Perspective and How To Not Be a Turkey in the Gig Economy.

How not to be a Turkey

We live in a world of uncertainty in the job market. Your job could be eliminated by a black swan event (think 911), corporate merger or acquisition, bankruptcy, industry downturn (think of how it felt to be in the oil industry in early 2014), or just new management.

Your job is at risk. If you do not think so, you are a turkey (from birth, turkeys live a wonderful life for three or so years, until the 4th Wednesday of November, when it is not so good to be a turkey).

If it has been a while since you looked for a job, you need to know that social media and the internet have completely disrupted the job search process. I previously discussed this in my post, Social Disruption – How Job Search has Changed.

As you can see from the Infographic below, passive candidates are actively pursued by companies. Rather than posting job descriptions on a job board and waiting for active candidates to apply, companies are pursuing a much larger pool of passive candidates.

Repurpose Your Career Podcast

Listen to the most recent episode

If you do not want to be a turkey, you will build a presence on the Internet in a way that makes you easily found for a position you want.

Your Online Presence is Key

Companies search for passive candidates in a variety of places.

  • LinkedIn – LinkedIn is the first place many recruiters go to seek out passive candidates. You need to construct your profile so that it is easily found by recruiters. I previously wrote that, in order to be found by a recruiter, you need to think like a one.
  • Google – You probably think, yeah, I know google—but how can a recruiter use it effectively? Recruiters can easily build Google Customer Search engines, which allows them to effectively search specific websites with boolean search queries. It is surprisingly easy to build a customizable search that allows recruiters to sort through the maze of information to find just the right candidate.

You need to have a presence online that can be found easily.

  • LinkedIn – You need a great profile. More on that in a later post.
  • Personal websites – Yes, you need a personal website. This might be an about.me website. These websites are easily built with little or no knowledge of html or any other web technology. If you want to be a bit more sophisticated, you might build a WordPress website like Daniel Elizalde‘s website.
  • Portfolio Websites – These are websites where you can display your work. If you are a programmer, there is Github. If you are in marketing, you might put your presentations on Slideshare. Check out the Career Pivot Slideshare page. There are many other websites like this where you can easily display your work products.

The point is…you need to create a presence that is easy to find and which demonstrates your talents and skills.

You are no longer just competing for positions with others who are looking for work. You are competing against everyone who can do your job.

If you are still unsure, check out the infographic below to see why “passive candidates” are so desirable.

passive candidate

Next week, I will go in-depth on how to build your LinkedIn profile so that you are a highly desirable passive candidate and NOT a turkey.

So what do you think?

Are you a passive candidate or a turkey?

Marc Miller  

Like What Your Read? Get Career Pivot Insights

Do You Need Help With ...

Check out our Help Center where you have access to 14 different content portals.

Category iconSocial Media Tag iconredirect,  update

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ian Boreham says

    April 26, 2016 at 9:23 pm

    Good recruitment companies will always be on the lookout for high potential passive candidates. Totally agree that with a little effort you can place yourself in the sights of these search companies. Really interesting to see the stats on this.

    • Marc Miller says

      April 27, 2016 at 9:41 am

      Ian,
      The important word is “good” recruitment companies. 8^)

Primary Sidebar

Are you ready to take control of your career?
Are you ready to stop reacting and start planning what is next?

 

Join Career Pivot

For those who want to fall in love with their work again, redeploy their experience and skills into a new career, and prudently make a shift, Marc Miller’s strategic guidance is a pathway to success.

Kerry Hannon, author of Never Too Old To Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life

Available on Amazon.com and other fine retailers

Blog Categories

  • Age Discrimination (21)
  • Becoming an Expat (42)
  • Career and Industry Disruption (37)
  • Career Pivot (94)
  • Career Success in the 2nd Half of Life (115)
  • COVID-19 Pandemic (33)
  • Encore Careers (28)
  • Entrepreneurship in the 2nd Half of Life (20)
  • Job Search (111)
  • Life and Careers in the 2nd Half of Life (69)
  • Mental Health (6)
  • Networking (33)
  • Podcasts (337)
    • Podcast – Becoming an Expat (30)
    • Podcast – Career Pivoter (64)
    • Podcast – Expert (180)
    • Podcast – Other (20)
    • Podcast – Question and Answer (18)
    • Podcast – Repurpose Your Career Book (18)
    • Podcast – Repurpose Your Career Series (16)
  • Retirement (15)
  • Social Media (17)
  • Survey Results (17)
  • The Multi-Generational Workplace (21)

Popular Posts

  • What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything? [Updated] (379,822)
  • College Degree After 50 – Is It Worth It? It… (153,042)
  • Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference? (129,637)
  • Are you a Multipotentialite? (69,254)
  • What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated] (66,248)
  • Perfect Fit for the Position? Expect to Lose! [Updated] (47,711)
  • Who is Really Making the Hiring Decision? [Updated] (46,555)
  • How Long Will My Job Search Take? Longer Than You… (41,777)
  • Dealing with that Directionless Feeling [Updated] (32,884)
  • 3 Steps to Get the Hiring Manager or Recruiter to Respond (28,376)
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

© Marc Miller and Associates, LLC 2012-2019 ~ All Rights Reserved | A Standard Beagle Website | Read Our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions