Networking

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A job search is a lot like marketing a product for sale—people won't "buy" your "product" if they don’t know anything about it or if they don’t know it’s available. Since you are the product and your skills are what you have to sell, the more people who know you about your value, the better your chances of finding your next position.

Scouring the newspaper classifieds for job leads is a good start, but to effectively market yourself, you need to do a little advertising, too. One good way to do that is to post your resume and cover letter on job search site like monster.com and careerbuilder.com. You can also create and post an electronic version of your resume (along with photos, video and more) at visualcv.com. (Incidentally, CV stands for curriculum vitae, or expanded resume.) All of these services are free for you to use.

Once you've created an account and posted your materials, you can use job search sites to look for specific jobs in specific areas of the country (or limit your search locally), and prospective employers will have access to your information when they have positions available.

The next important step is to use your social contacts to help you get connected with potential employers. Facebook and Twitter are two good social media sites that you can use to re-establish contact with friends, family and past co-workers. Even if your direct contacts don’t know about specific job openings, some of their contacts might. If you’re interested in a more professional social networking site, check out LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great place to showcase your talents and conduct job searches. It also provides a number of "groups" you can join to expand your potential business contacts.