In a recent article in CIO magazine, Meridith Levinson writes about the benefits of having a targeted job search versus random networking and resume distribution.

In my job search, I found it extremely beneficial to have a target list of companies and areas within those companies. The two primary benefits were for me to stay focuse and to provide others with some specific ideas of what I the type of work I was seeking.

During a networking event, if I mentioned my general skill set, I had some success.  When I mentioned specific target companies, the results were generally much better ..

When I was laid off after 9 years, I went through most of the emotional stages of a job loss(there are quite a few articles see Coping With Job Loss for a sample). 

One of the key challenges, is how to reclaim your identity.  So many people get their self-identities from their place of employment and their title.  Now when people ask the infamous question "What do you do?"  your mind goes blank and you have no idea of how to answer the question.  For me it took a while, but I learned to identify myself by my skill set ..

One of the most interesting books I read on the recruiters was John Lucht's "Rites of Passage".  John was an executive recruiter for over 30 years and has some very interesting insights into the world of recruiting and the job search process (he also has a website at http://www.ritesite.com). I will admit, I haven't put all of John's suggestions into practice, but he definitely provides a unique perspective to the job search.

However, another good source is the interview with Bill Gaffney, senior recruiter with the Amaxa Group. Bill shares several specific questions recruiters will ask you. He'll ..

A few weeks ago, I attended the LinkedIn Charlotte Business Professionals group first meeting.  I met Mark Frietch, a recruiter from Wachovia - a Wells Fargo company.  I talked to Mark about the free presentations I had been doing on LinkedIn and he introduced me to the site www.peopletoucher.com.

In short, the Peopletoucher.com Search Engine^TM is an advanced-advanced-search for sales and recruiting professionals. We've expanded functionality on the important features like:

* Providing an "inventory" format for search term entry
* RankFilter^TM function to narrow down search results to only the targeted executive level
* streamlined Location search opti ..