It is almost inevitable that anyone who is active in the job market will be faced with some sort of challenge, whether it is poor work-life balance, a toxic work environment, performance issues, or stagnation. To complicate things even further, workers’ concerns and needs will probably change as they navigate their career journey.

The specific challenge you are facing will determine what kind of help you may need and who could best provide it. Career coaches vary in terms of how they help their clients identify their strengths, address their weakness, define their interests, and identify career paths.

Employer reviews are a terrific way to identify areas to investigate before accepting a role with a new organization. But they are not a be-all end-all. As with product and service reviews, most of the input will come from people who have had either a highly positive or highly negative experience. With most reviews, getting exactly what we expected doesn’t inspire the need to share that an extraordinarily great or poor experience would.

Recruiters are not usually the best way to tap into hidden opportunities. We have established that identifying the need to hire is Step One for companies in the hiring process.

Finding the right candidates is Step Two. With a few exceptions, internal and external recruiters (headhunters) are brought in at Step Two, not Step One. Job seekers who land jobs through the hidden job market may never even encounter a recruiter or may do so as a formality after the decision has been made.