TOP TIPS FOR JOB HUNTERS: Network. Network. Network.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-and-sensibility/201007/top-tips-job-hunters-network-network-network

Here is a link to a good article and I will paste it here for people to read:

TOP TIPS FOR JOB HUNTERS: Network. Network. Network.
Get a great job through networking. Learn how now.

Networking is probably the most important step toward getting employed. By networking you dramatically increase your chances of getting hired sooner rather than later.

Most new jobs result from networking. This is as simple as asking your friends, relations, and business contacts for information about job openings. Here is an equally important question. Ask who do they know who can open the gate to a job opportunity. When your contact person knows the gate keeper, you are more likely to get a favorable response.

If you are fortunate, one or more of your network contacts will champion your application. This is a big boost any time, and especially in a weak job market when the time to get rehired usually takes longer, unless, that is, you make a special effort to beat the averages. To get into this favorable position, you have to do something first. Make the contacts!

Expand Your Horizons

Your primary network resources are the approachable people in your life whom you already know. These are your friends, relatives, neighbors, and former business contacts.

Not all primary sources include people you currently know. Developing new contacts through networking is a usual business practice. If you are in sales, you may ask a good customer for names of others who may want to do business with your organization. If you don't ask, how are you to know? The same is true when you network for a job.

Primary sources people have are the ones with information or influence. You may not know them at a personal level, but you can introduce yourself to them. For example, recently promoted people, who are in your career area, are good potential contacts. You can identify them via news articles announcing their promotions. Some may want to reshape a department, and will have an opening that you may be able to fill. If you are a college graduate, send your resume and a cover letter to your alumni placement office. Then follow up with a call.

The food server at a restaurant will, from time to time, hear discussions about jobs. A simple question, "Have you heard about any openings for a security guard (manager, machinist, manufacturing)?" can lead to a lead. If you are a "good tipper," your food server may tip you off to an opportunity. The person behind the counter at an auto parts store can be a source for information about jobs. You're buying something. There is a built in reciprocity. Leave a card.

Your local State representative and Congressperson are resources. Some are interested in helping their constituents find work. Make an appointment to speak to a legislative aide. Check with you local Chamber of Commerce for job opening information in your area of interest.

When you use secondary networking techniques you make informal contacts. Secondary sources are anywhere you can find them: at parties, conferences, tag sales, antique shows, or fishing on a public dock. They may be people at the table next to your table at a restaurant, engaged in discussing jobs. A casual but positive comment may (or may not) bring you into the conversation.

Are you a member of a social organization? Do you play sports? Do you have hobbies? Each area provides an informal opportunity to network.

For some secondary contacts, hand out your card with your job interest written on the back. All you need is one home run to win the job-search game. You never know who will lob you a ball that you can hit.

This is a number game. The more contacts you make the more likely you'll identify an opportunity. Fearless Job Hunting (Knaus, Klarreich, Grieger & Knaus 2010. New Harbinger)will tell you more about how to identify network contacts, and how to nurture the profitable contacts that you make.

Avoidable Pitfalls

Having or developing the skill to network effectively is a critical job-search tool--perhaps the most important. But many people put off networking because of intruder fears, the appearance of asking for a handout, feeling phony, fearing you'll embarrassing yourself, acting threatened, procrastination, or other.

You have an intruder fear if you believe you will interrupt or inconvenience practically anyone you ask for information about jobs. Consider an alternative view. The challenge is to find those who are interested in helping, and let the others go their own way. This experimental view is a radical change from one-way-street intruder thinking.

If you think networking is approaching people as though you were looking for a handout, think again. To network is to approach friends, relatives, neighbors, former business contacts, and promising new people and ask if they know of a job opening, or someone you can speak to who might. This is like asking for a recommendation for a good dentist. Would you see a friend or relative's request for help as asking for charity? Most would see this as an opportunity to be helpful.

Do you see networking as brown nosing and acting like a phony? You don't have to flatter others to ask for information. Would you flatter a librarian to ask how to use Internet resources to find a job? There are many cordial ways to ask people for assistance. This can include a genuine recognition of the value of the resources they can offer.

Are you embarrassed asking people about work. If so, you may have a self-defeating problem to solve. Ralph left for work at 7:00AM and returned home at 6:00 PM. Everything looked normal. The same yard service appeared every week. He'd wave to people as he drove down the street. There was a caveat. Ralph was out of work for about two years. He was too embarrassed about his job loss to ask for help. As time went on, he was embarrassed for not asking for help sooner. He stopped looking for a job because he felt embarrassed to face a future employer question about why he was out of work for so long. This was a therapeutic issue. Once Ralph learned to stop telling himself embarrassing thoughts, he settled down and got a job.

Threat can lead to defensive aggression. Dawn was running out of money. Time was running out on getting her fledgling consulting practice up and running. After attending a presentation on employee selection, she approached the speaker and demanded names of business contacts so that she could sell her consulting services. She pushed a pad in the speaker's face. This came across like a Seinfeld TV comedy skit. Here, it is important to take some time-even if a minute or so-to develop rapport. Skip this step, and you limit yourself.

Do you think you are doing yourself a big favor by plowing through want ads as though this was the only way you can find a job? This is a way to find work, but not a very efficient one. About 11% find jobs through newspaper ads. Reading and re-reading newspaper want ads is more often a procrastination busy work practice.

If you find yourself in this busy work procrastination pattern, refocus. What's your job search objective? What are high yield approaches to getting a job?

Networking is a high yield approach. If you are not networking with reasonable consistency, you are procrastinating. To unsnarl yourself from this pattern, see: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-and-sensibility/20100... The above procrastination test gives links to blogs that give solutions to your specific form of procrastination.

Read End Procrastination Now (Knaus. 2010. McGraw-Hill). You'll find multiple tested techniques to avoid traps like fear of failure. Adapt them to boost your productivity, follow through on job opportunities, and then keep the job.