It’s not easy.  We get that. Pink slips are raining from the sky like confetti.  Toyota just closed all but one of it’s assembly lines…. that should be a clue.  Times are tough and getting tougher.  But a game plan for getting that job, keeping money flowing in and food on the table is a must.

So…..I guess everyone starts with the usual: your local newspaper, online jobs boards, trade publications, CraigsList, and networking with your friends and family.

Don’t forget specialty boards.  Here’s one list : Where the Talent Is: 100 Sites to Find the Elite in Any-Given-Field.  And there are more: Google for your specific field.

For all the news on jobs and job openings, go to All Top Jobs,

For an overview of all the jobs available on the Net, go to one of the top job aggregators on the Net.

What Is a Job Aggregator? As explained by – Job-Hunt.org in  Finding Jobs on Job Aggregator Sites:”Think of them as narrowly-focused search engines. Jobs are all they have in their databases.

Sites like Indeed and Simply Hired collect job postings from other sites and aggregate them into one database to be searched by job seekers. The sites with jobs included in the aggregators’ databases include some that may surprise you – Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, HotJobs.Yahoo.com, as well as many other job sites, large and small. Postings from Craigslist have not been included, recently, but many other sites are included.

Aggregators also include jobs from employer Web sites, which I think is the most promising aspect of what they do.
Why Use Job Aggregators?
Why are they better than Monster, for example?

• Comprehensive! Because they draw jobs from many, many other sources in addition to Monster (and you don’t have to fight your way through all of the Monster advertising to get to the search results or the job descriptions).
• Time saving! At one site (Indeed), you can search through the jobs posted on the Big 3 – Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs with one search!

If they are just search engines, why and how are they better than, for example, Google?

• Because of their focus on jobs, they have additional functionality that makes them much easier to use for a job search. Want search results sorted by employer? By posting date? By full-time vs. part-time vs. contract? Within 25 miles of a specific city? Within 5 miles of that city? Within 50 miles?
• They have access to information, because they accept automated “feeds,” that may not ever be available on a search engine or may become available at some later point in time.
• Because all they have is job postings, the good ones will only return search results that are jobs.”

Go to LinkIn – The De Facto Resume Repository on the Net.

To really get into the nitty gritty of how to dig down and find that job which is perfect for you and get in to see the person who has the power to hire you, take Guy Kawasaki‘s excellent and very detailed advice. Become a LinkedIn Power User in the service of your job hunt: How to Change the World: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job.

All of these are tools for your job hunting tool kit.  But the best way to find a job is through a friend, associate or family member who knows you and is sold on your skills and special attributes.  So, do all of the above, but don’t forget to Network, Network, Network.  Tell everyone you see that you are looking for a job and practice you elevator pitch until you’re blue in the face.  That’s what pays off.

Good luck and happy hunting!

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