10 Minutes to Greater Job Search Productivity

Searching for a new job? Need to turbo-charge the job search for the new year? Three quick and easy steps that will make your search less time-intensive, and possibly lead you to new opportunities faster. Got additional suggestions? Leave them in the comment box and we'll highlight them in future posts.

1. Sign up for Tweetajob -- you didn't expect us to skip this, did you? Providing you already have a Twitter account, this should take about three minutes. If you need to set up a Twitter account, it might take you five minutes. Simply complete the brief profile on the Tweetajob site, tell us where you are, and check off the job categories that interest you. We'll send jobs that match your criteria while you're out doing things that are more fun than searching Twitter for jobs. We're posting thousands of new jobs every day!
2. Join a LinkedIn Group -- visit LinkedIn and search for a group in your profession or industry. Join the group that looks most active. While you're at it, search for and join your college alumni LinkedIn group. Why? Because LinkedIn Groups allow recruiters to post jobs free of charge. You won't find these jobs by searching LinkedIn jobs. But if you're a group member, you'll have access to these hidden jobs, as well as access to the recruiters who post the jobs.
3. Consider spending $10 a month to organize your job search. Sign up at Virtual Job Coach to store resumes, cover letters, contacts and track your progress. You could probably create something like this yourself, but why spend the time? Not sure if the super deluxe version is worth it, but spending $2.50 a week to increase your job search productivity could result in big gains of time and earned dollars. Signing up for the free trial appears to be quick and painless.

Wishing you a productive and successful 2010!