The Right Job Search Attitude Some people wait until their unemployment checks stop coming to get into their job searches. Others start right away and hope to have two incomes for a while. Some wait until the rent is three months due. Other, although they already know the job is being eliminated and neglect to prepare. The longer you wait to jump on the war wagon, the less motivated you can become, time dulls the senses.

Regardless of your considerations, get organized right away. That means to find out where to send your resume, where to look for opportunities, how to implement a strategy. This usually means that you need to spend time online doing research. There are dozens of job portals and even Craig’s list to look at. My favorite as Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder and LinkedIn.

Before you send out hundreds of resumes and get no response, build one that is written with good English, with no grammar and spelling errors, and clearly shows you qualify for the job you want. Employers tell me that they get ten times more badly written resumes than good ones. Each one of those bad resumes is keeping a person out of a job.

Assume that you are in a competition. Competing requires preparation, practice, dedication and resolve There are probably dozens of applicants for the same job and your resume is doing the talking for you. The first resumes to fail are the ones with errors or bad English. The HR person reading it assumes you don’t care enough or aren’t smart enough to write good English. Some people write the way they talk, so they are not able to detect the errors. This is not wise, get someone to go over your writing and help you make it a killer resume.

Or, use a resume service and (for a fee) let them ask you all the right questions and write one out for you that shows your experience and skills nicely. Then send it out to the whole world.

Your strategy must include enlisting your circle of friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, and former co-workers to be on the lookout for you. It must include checking with the unemployment office, joining any networking group in town and calling government offices to find out what positions they have open. All studies point out that 80% of all job openings are filled through personal connections, not resumes, so the strategy must be centered on personal contact with your circle. The more people on your team, the better your chances. Share your resume with your circle of contacts so they can hand out to others who can help.

It’s OK to work with online recruiters, but realize it is big-business – a very profitable shark activity, and that all they do is forward your resume after you sign an exclusivity agreement. Many recruiters can be working on filling the same position so, you are still at the mercy of your resume and how well it is written. Anyone else who has taken the time to study the posting and has adjusted his resume to fit it will beat yours.

Then there is the interview -and a new set of challenges. How relaxed, confident and smart can you appear? Well, the first thing is to study the position and the company quickly. Come prepared to compliment the interviewer, the company, and ask questions. Don’t just sit there and let them do the digging. Ask questions. The better prepared you go to the interview, the more relaxed and confident you’ll be.

Be yourself but don’t bad-mouth your last employer. Show up on time, conservatively dressed, hair neat and just enough makeup. Then, be frank, honest, truthful. Don’t share anything they don’t need to know, like your babysitting arrangements, your problematic car, your bad neighbors or the people you hated at your last job.

What I’m trying to say is that finding the next job is the result of your own investment in the search. The sooner you realize that finding the next job is all in your hands and that playing the game is a 24-7 activity, the sooner you will find yourself bring home a paycheck again. A person earns his/her good luck by spending time and hard work on their search.

I guarantee that if you stay busy with your job search you will never be depressed. The excitement of the hunt will overcome you and give you the energy to handle even the disappointments.