With your list of companies in hand, check out a web site called ChangeNotes.com. It is a free web site that monitors changes on any site that you ask it to. Now look up career pages of 100 companies that you are interested in and have ChangeNotes monitor sites for you. You will receive a daily email of changes on those pages and won’t have to go to all 100 sites every night to make sure you always have up to date information. You know have daily information coming to you about any job opening at your top 100 prospects.

4. Call Hiring Managers Directly – Once you actually find an job opening, it’s not enough to send a few resumes and wait by phone. You’ve got to get on phone with company receptionist and figure out who hiring manager is for position. Don’t act aggressive, but be confident, firm, and respectful. These people get calls all day from salesmen that think way to deal with them is to bully their way through to get information they want. You’d be surprised how much someone will tell you if you just ask nice. If you want more information about some techniques that big boys use to get information about a company, check out my article entitled “Sourcing 101: How to Get Information and Find Top Talent in any Company.” Once you’ve figured out who hiring manager is, give him a call and pitch your credentials. Let him know that you’re extremely interested in position and you wouldn’t be calling if you weren’t convinced you’re right person for job.

5. Upload your Resume to Every Relevant Job Board – Many headhunters will tell you that advertising online and using massive internet job boards is a waste of time, but I know plenty of recruiters that regularly conduct searches primarily using online job boards. By now, you should’ve polished up your resume and brought it into twenty first century by having an electronic copy. Now you just need to upload it to web. I recommend putting it on as many job boards as are relevant to your search. I recently read a statistic that around 70% of recruiters and job seekers are loyal to one job board. That means that if company you’re trying to land a job with is using Career Builder and you’re only using Monster, they’re not going to find you. Recruiters have to pay a separate fee to each resume database and because of sheer number of candidates on each job board, most recruiters are able to find plenty of candidates by using only one source. The big three are Monster, CareerBuilder, and Hotjobs. Start with these three and then start posting to smaller and more local sites.

One word of caution about posting to internet sites. If your search is confidential, only put your first name and last initial on resume and list your current company as “Company Confidential”. Don’t be afraid to do this, recruiters see it all time and are able to glean your experience from industries and titles that you list.

Implement these five tips and you’ll begin seeing a big difference in your job search. These are things that headhunters do every day to make a living. They work if you’re just willing to try a few new things.

I know some of you are saying to yourself “I don’t think I can do this stuff,” or “Sounds a little scary to me.” If your stomach gets a little queasy first time you cold call a hiring manager to pitch your credentials, you’re just like every other headhunter in his first year on job. I’ll tell you a closely guarded secret though, that feeling never entirely goes away. The only difference between top dog headhunters and one’s that can’t cut it are that top dogs acknowledge their fear of phone, consider ramifications of giving in to that fear, and overcome it every day.

Roger Ailes says in his book, "You Are Message." "It's a mental process to overcome stage fright. You have to say, 'I have a right to be here. What I have to say is of value to this audience. I am an authority on this subject.'" Mr. Ailes goes on to say, "Interestingly, courage isn't absence of fear. It is action in presence of fear." If you’re willing to take action, despite your fear of doing some new things, you’re well on your way to finding your next big opportunity.