Local Market Intelligence: Your Strategic Advantage

The Proactive Job Seeker - Skilled Career Edition | Week 3

Jul 25, 2025

Hey there,

Week 3 is about gaining a strategic advantage through local market intelligence. If you've completed Weeks 1 and 2, you have validated career targets and qualification roadmaps. Now the question becomes: Where are the real opportunities in your specific area?

This is where many veterans make a critical error. They complete their training, update their resume, and start applying randomly to online job postings. Six months later, they're frustrated because the opportunities don't match their expectations.

The problem isn't their qualifications. The problem is they don't understand their local market.

Why Local Beats National Every Time

National career websites tell you HVAC technicians make $50,000 annually. But in your specific area, that might be $35,000 or $65,000, depending on union presence, local demand, and company types.

Understanding these local dynamics is your strategic advantage.

Your military intelligence gathering skills apply perfectly to civilian job markets. The same systematic approach that served you in service works for understanding:

Which local employers actively hire veterans
Union vs. non-union opportunities and implications
Seasonal hiring patterns and optimal timing
Hidden opportunities beyond online postings

The 70% Rule

Here's something most job seekers don't know: roughly 70% of good opportunities never get posted online. They're filled through:

Employee referrals and recommendations
Apprenticeship programs with guaranteed pathways
Relationship-based hiring at smaller companies
Succession planning and internal development

Your Week 3 mission: Position yourself in the information flow before opportunities become public postings.

This Week's Reality Check

Don't treat job searching like browsing a catalog. Treat it like gathering strategic intelligence for a mission.

If you find yourself:

Only looking at online job postings
Applying the same way to every company
Ignoring local networking opportunities
Assuming all employers are the same

You're missing 70% of the market. This week changes that.

Weekend Assignment

Pick your top 2 target careers and complete this local market mission:

Saturday: Identify 5-7 major employers in your area for each career. Use LinkedIn, chamber of commerce directories, and trade association lists.

Sunday: Research which of these employers are veteran-friendly and what their hiring preferences are (direct hire, apprenticeships, temp-to-perm).

Monday: Contact one local professional in your target field and ask about the best employers to work for in your area.

That's focused intelligence gathering, not random job browsing.

What's Coming in Week 4

Next week: Action Plan Creation and Launch. We're covering:

Resume positioning for your local market
Strategic relationship building and networking
Application timing and sequencing
Interview preparation for skilled career success

But Week 4 only works if you complete Week 3. You can't position yourself strategically until you understand what your local market values.

Your Action Step Right Now

Don't let Week 3 become another research project. Set an intelligence gathering deadline: by next Sunday, you'll have identified your top 5 target employers and understand their hiring preferences.

Then start building relationships.

Your military intelligence gathering skills give you an advantage over other job seekers. Your systematic approach to market research positions you strategically instead of generically. Your success in skilled careers becomes inevitable when you understand your local market better than your competition.

Execute the intelligence mission.

Lee

P.S. Leave a comment and let me know what surprised you most about your local market research. Often, the biggest opportunities are hiding in plain sight.