Traditional or Creative? Choosing the Job Search Strategy That Fits You
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Most higher education professionals begin their searches the traditional way by responding to job postings, submitting applications, and competing with other applicants. Others also incorporate non-traditional methods, such as relationship-building and informational interviews to learn more about institutions and expand their networks. Both approaches can play a role in a successful job search.
While career experts across all industries of jobs aren't even advertised (implying that networking often uncovers a "hidden job market"), higher education typically relies on formal hiring processes. That doesn't mean that networking is a waste of time -- you just have to know when each approach can work to your advantage and how they can work together.
Creative Job Search
First, let's ditch the term "non-traditional" and go with the alternative type of job search using language from the most popular job-hunting guide, Bolles described the "creative" job search where you do homework on yourself to figure out what you do best and most love to do, compared to the traditional search where you do research to find out what the job market wants.
Self-discovery is only the first step of the creative search. It also involves networking, informational interviews, and cultivating relationships so you know about jobs before they are posted and you understand unmet needs so that you can present yourself as a solution. It's about creating leads rather than leveraging existing opportunities.
A traditional search asks, "What jobs are available?" A creative search asks, "Where can I create value, and who needs it?" As Bolles wrote, "fitting in" vs. "enthusiasm" will carry the day in the traditional and creative searches, respectively.
Here are some pros and cons to conducting traditional and creative job searches in higher education:
Pros for Traditional
There are several benefits to conducting a traditional search in higher education. Academics are predisposed to fair and highly structured processes. Anyone who has submitted a manuscript to a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal can attest. In both faculty and staff searches, the hiring and vetting processes are typically lengthy and inclusive, involving multiple layers of review, recommendation, and approval before a candidate is selected.
Institutions want candidates to fit into their search mechanism, and candidates have a sense of control. It's clear and straightforward. You know exactly what openings exist, and your application materials are submitted to a defined process that is easy to measure: applications submitted, interviews secured, offers received.
Cons for Traditional
The biggest problem with "fitting in" for both candidates and institutions is volume. Hundreds of applications with similar credentials must be fit into a funnel. It's competitive, winner-take-all, and candidates are at the mercy of institutions and when they decide to post jobs. As an applicant, you have autonomy as you operate in a controlled structure, but you are also acutely subjected to rejections and non-responses that can be discouraging.
Another drawback of the traditional job search is that it often rewards conformity over unconventional backgrounds and approaches. Search committees are tasked with evaluating large pools of applicants efficiently, which can encourage reliance on credentials, keywords, and familiar career paths. As a result, candidates who want to differentiate themselves beyond matching skills to the job posting might find it difficult for their unique strengths, transferable skills, or potential contributions outside of higher education to receive meaningful consideration.
Pros for Creative
Depending on your preference for improvising or operating within constraints of a fixed process, there are many benefits to a creative job search. There's less competition if you are engaged with a potential employer outside their active search. Your influence might be effective because without a job vacancy your motives will be perceived by the employer as more genuine and less transactional.
This is not about conning someone into a job offer. It's about building career capital. Your "cons" of consulting, conversations, or contributions might improve your candidacy when a job opens, or it might even convince an employer to craft a custom job specifically for your strengths. Here, the competition is not about winning a prize for being the best, but rather "auctioning" your unique combination of skills that employers could potentially "bid" on.
Despite its formal structures, the hiring process in higher education is highly decentralized. Individual departments often manage their own searches, and the hiring supervisor frequently holds final veto authority over committee recommendations. This could work to the advantage of a candidate who previously conducted a creative search before applying in a traditional search because their influence might carry more weight if fewer people are making hiring decisions.
Cons for Creative
The downside of a creative job search is that it requires patience, confidence, and self-awareness to start conversations that may lead to opportunities, rather than simply applying for posted positions and letting your hard-won achievements speak for themselves.
Relationship-building takes time, often without immediate feedback. It's less predictable with no guaranteed timelines or processes. Simply put, it's a lot of work.
Higher education is also rooted in the idea of earning opportunities through demonstrated qualifications, achievement, and rigor. Because colleges and universities are institutions built around credentials and formal evaluation, many professionals view the traditional job search as the most appropriate path into the academy. While creative approaches can be effective -- and legitimately earned -- they may feel inconsistent with the culture and expectations of some academic environments.
In other words, because higher education is traditional, it may feel like you should conduct a traditional job search.
The Bottom Line
The good news is that job searches are not either/or; they are both/and. You can apply to posted openings while simultaneously building relationships and creating opportunities.
In higher education, most jobs are still filled through formal search processes. But the strongest candidates are often those who have done more than submit applications -- they have taken the time to learn about institutions, connect with colleagues, and demonstrate their value.
So don't choose between a traditional or creative job search. Use both.
