#3 Managing your on-line time wisely:
It’s easy to spend the whole day surfing around all of the various job-search sites. I was hooked on this at first but then realized I was wasting a lot of time. What’s your time worth? $200/hour? $300/hour? $600/hour?

I experimented with them all, fee-based and free sites. You only really need to monitor a few of them. In my opinion, the best of the best sites of all is ILostMyJob.com . This site is very rich in active video content, very meaningful information and loaded with solid advice. I have viewed this site religiously. Robert Shindell, aka “The Career Doctor” and his team of expert collaborators are simply the best at what they do, bar none. Robert really knows his stuff and helped me a great deal in preparing for tough interviews. As an educator, he is also closely aligned with the college grad scene and provided great advice in helping my daughter obtain a summer internship. Robert is also another great TRP member.

Jill Konrath, author of: “Get Back to Work Faster” and other great books like “Snap Selling” is also part of Robert’s team. This e-book is a must read and inspired me to change my strategy. It will show you how to approach hiring managers directly versus running the normal gamut through HR Departments. You’re at war out there so why not be armed with the latest weaponry? Jill is a recognized author and speaker, a regular contributor to Ilostmyjob.com and another Gold member of TRP.  You can watch Robert interview Jill about her book.

Try using http://www.indeed.com/ This is a consolidator job search site. You can set it up to search by your desired search parameters. It simply posts the advertised jobs out there. Forget about Careerbuilder or Monster unless you want a straight commission sales job selling identity theft protection or insurance. Again, consider the value of your time spent on-line surfing.

Another must site to check out is from Bill Vick, a top executive recruiter and prolific authority on employment: http://www.employmentdigest.net/ Again, good tips.

For the Fee-based sites, I tried Ladders, ExecuNet, Resume Spider, 6-figure jobs, etc and frankly, they did not work for me. Not to say they will not work for you. The only fee-based site I found worthwhile was: http://www.hounds.com/. This site is unique in that it searches jobs posted on actual company websites and is fairly inexpensive but what I like most about the site are the blogs from its founder, Harrison Barnes. A fun and inspiring daily read that will provoke new thoughts. New thoughts are those that lead to that “Ah-ha” moment. You’ll know what I mean when you say: Ah Ha ! I get it !