In 1989, Dr.Stephen R. Covey wrote an excellent book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I highly recommend this book to anyone, in a job search or in a job!
These are Dr. Covey’s list of recommended habits, with descriptions adapted to apply to job search.
7 Habits of Highly-Effective Job Seekers
1. Be proactive.
Passively sitting at a computer, clicking on the “Apply” button doesn’t pay off often enough to spend more than an hour a day at it. That job search strategy is purely reactive because the only option is to search and to respond to what is available at the exact moment of that search.
Additionally, a job board-based job search is very highly competitive right now, because so many people are doing exactly (and only) that same thing. Rather than re-actively waiting to see what jobs are posted on a job board, pro-actively explore ways to discover where the job you want may be lurking, waiting for you to find it.
via 7 Habits of Highly Effective Job Seekers | Susan P. Joyce.
To maximize your job search efforts I advise all candidates to use ALL resources including (but not limited to job boards), LinkedIn Recruiter & Jobs Groups, Local neighborhood “throwaways”, online newspapers, Crain’s New York Business, recruiters, word of mouth, direct application to some of the “players” in the industry you wish to work for. The more creative, original, diligent, persistent, etc. you are the greater your chances of success. Before you apply anyplace make sure your resume is updated in a generally accepted form (WORD)! There are reasonably priced resume writers/coaches out there along with free downloadable resume templates you can use from Careerbuilder, Monster & MSN.
Great advice here for all Job Seekers Joel – thanks for sharing1