My current job was successfully located via internet job search ten years ago. Below are lessons learned along with other observations made from searching for employment as well as being a hiring manager and interviewing many folks for jobs that I've had to fill. These are not in any particular order, just numbered for clarity & discussion as needed:

1. DON'T set the job search engine search parameters too tightly. Many employment websites have a function that you can set parameters on what you want to do.

Initially I had my parameters set very specifically to my work history, skill sets, abilities and interests. Not surprisingly (in 20/20 hindsight) I kept finding the same very limited results.

After opening the parameters on pay (i.e. from only showing jobs that pay between $x and $y, to eliminating that element by having it "show all pay scales") which is how I found my current employment (10+ years) which had been there all along, but due to the way it was worded in the advertisement, the pay level search function treated it as not being within my initial tight search parameters even though it actually was worth my while when I factored in the benefit package and other factors.

2. As others have said, roll up your sleeves and do what it takes. This is where Robert Heinlein was entirely correct in his statement that a human being should possess a wide ranging skill set. Even if some of those skills are not often used, you should be aware of how things work, how to do things and survive by being creative in your approach to problems.

Having been out of work while raising a family and paying mortgage, car loans and going to school etc. I've had to perform physical labor even though it was not what I wanted to do. This included lawn mowing, car repairs, helping people move, miscl. construction type work etc. There are times like other posters have mentioned that I went from scrubbing the grease out from my hands after doing a vehicle repair to putting on a suit and going to an interview, then back to working outside doing yard work.

Not my idea of fun, but when you have a family depending upon you, you do what you have to do...

3. Maintain you integrity! This cannot be stressed enough. No matter how hard things get, once you give up on this, you simply become one of the many faces looking for a handout.

If you tell someone you will do x work for $y then do it.

Years ago (when I was first starting a contracting business and had very few customers to start with) I had one particularly physically demanding, outside job that I was performing for a customer in the hot & humid Florida summertime which that took about several weeks to complete. This was while I was seeking customers and trying to get my business off the ground, and the work at his house was one of the first jobs that I could land. I took it even though it was well below the normal contractors charge just to generate a cash flow to make the mounting bills.

It was NOT a job what I really wanted to do, and it seemed to take forever to complete. There were several times that I was very close to just walking off the job due to the heat, humidity, mosquitos etc. Although the customer was nice and paid the agreed upon wage at the agreed upon timeframes, I was rapidly becoming discouraged at facing any more days doing that particular work. Gritting my teeth since it was a paying job, I held on and completed the job.

What I did not know at the time, was that this customer owned a large and successful law firm. When I completed the work at his house, I later got a call (totally out of the blue) from his secretary asking for me to come to the office (five story building in Miami) and do work there.

When I got there, my customer informed me that he had been so impressed with my attitude and integrity (his words) that he was interested in using me as a sole source vendor for my tradecraft (at slightly more that what I had been charging as a normal contractors rate and definitely much more that what I had charged him forthe work at his residence). From that point, I developed a lot of word of mouth customers which helped my business more than any paid advertising.

4. When something better comes along, be up front with your employer and tell them...don't keep them guessing or let them find out from someone else. Honesty pays and burning bridges behind you can cause much regret later on.

5. It is not something that most folks want to hear, but even now that I've been with one employer for a decade+, I still keep my resume up to date.

While I'm not in any fear of being laid off (not that it could not happen) and I am not proactively looking for another job, having your resume updated two or three times a year is really easy to do. It generally only takes about an hour to tweak it up and I am ready when approached by various folks that ask for it.

Most of the time, this has been from managers in other areas of my current employers organization. It never hurts to be prepared to entertain an employment offer when it is presented, even if you decide that it is not what you are interested in. You never know where your next contact may take you jobwise.

6. Keep taking some sort of educational training classes. There are many that are online and free. Look at things that are not in the immediate area of your current expertise in addition to those that will help increase your current work knowledge.

Maintain an updated record of the training classes that you take. I keep a three ring binder that holds the training certificates (placed in plastic sleeve pages) for all training that I take. When you apply for a specific job, you will have all your reference material at the ready. Most employers will ask you what kind of training or recurrency training you have. I know that when I interview people for jobs, I ask (and really want to know) what they do they do to keep themselves in the learning mode and to keep bettering themselves.

7. As others have stated, when looking for a job, tell everyone that you know that you are looking. Use the widest net you can when you are fishing for a new job.

8. Have the generic resume with contact information that IS CURRENT and please have someone else that is unfamiliar with you review your resume and critique it. It is amazing what another set of eyes can find that needs corrections on a document that you think is totally perfect. Been there, done that (on both sides of the resume).

9. When reviewing serious job offers, consider ALL the pros and cons.

Travel distance, time, tolls, traffic, work hours, type of work, working environment, benefits, insurance, vacation & sick leave policies, other work specific benefits, impact on your family, overall income impact on your finances etc.

Yes,I know that there are times when you will take anything, but WHEN you have a choice, take the time to make the best overall long term decision for your particular set of circumstances.

10. Set up an E-Mail account (or two) that you specifically use ONLY for job searches and employment.

>>Then make a point of monitoring them at least twice a day<< (as well as any other contact types, phone, skype or what have you) when they have been used in employment search engines and job resumes, postings etc. Few things are more frustrating for a hiring employer than to have found or interview promising applicants and then NOT being able to contact them in a timely manner. It also leads that hiring employer to have second thoughts about their initial favorable thoughts.

And please, don't use names like "dizzygirl", "martinidreamer", "motobeastmaster7" and the like when you create E-Mail address names for employment use. These may be really nice for your social networking, but when a potential employer sees things like that on a resume or job application, it is cause to wonder what the persons sense of values, work ethics,moral values and work related social skills are like.

11. Another thing to consider is the very real possibility that your prospective employer may well do some research and locate that YouTube video of you actively participating "in a really funny moment at the sorority party" or "frat kegger" (you know, "oh yeah, that one" ... wherein you were photographed doing the conga in a thong, while wearing a fruitbasket hat, smoking a cigar with one hand, holding a flaming alcoholic drink with the other hand and sashaying with a lampshade along with several of your other cohorts in various measures of disrobment and a poster is visible in the background indicating that the celebration is for some antisocial cause, and/or some other display that might not go well for an interview opportunity decision by a potential employer.

Please think carefully about the bigger longterm picture before posting or allowing others to post your image in a less than flatting manner. If there are things like this that you are aware of, you might want to consider removing them to the extent possible (yes, I know once on the net they lurk forever, but do what damage control you can anyway).

Regards,
Comance7