Professional and trade associations can almost always use more help. If you're willing to volunteer for association focused on your industry or profession, it could be a good way to meet some high-profile people who can open doors for you. If you're not sure which associations are relevant for you, check ASAE web site:

http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/asaefind.htm

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES RELEVANT TO SPECIFIC PROFESSIONS

If you don't think you would be right for a position on a non-profit board or in a role volunteering for your professional or trade association, there are other ways you can volunteer and still get networking benefits. In fact, there are some non-profit organizations you can volunteer with that may be a very good fit for your background and provide a high likelihood that you will meet someone who can open some doors for you. Here are some suggestions:

Real Estate and Construction Careers: Habitat for Humanity and other housing organizations

Sports and Entertainment: Make-A-Wish Foundation

Media, Government Agencies and Legal Professions: Political Campaigns. In today's era of highly litigious political campaigns, lawyers make up a big portion of a political campaign's volunteer staff. This also provides a good opportunity for legal assistants and paralegals to spend time with successful attorneys. Media and advertising are also a big part of political campaigns.

Legal Professions: Legal Assistance centers - such as those for non-English speaking people

Human Resources: Job training and career resource centers

Media/Communications: Media organizations such as those that focus on bringing awareness to certain issues

The Idealist.org web site provides an extensive directory of non-profit organizations and also lists specific volunteering opportunities.

Some job seekers run their resumes through spam filters first before emailing to a recruiter. If you have a spam filter installed on your PC, this can be a simple step to take to increase likelihood your resume is getting delivered.

If your email software has a "Read Receipt" feature which can alert you when a recipient has opened a message, you may be tempted to use it when sending your resume to recruiters. While it would be an effective way of knowing your message was delivered, we would not recommend it on grounds that recruiter could view it in a negative way. No one likes to be spied on, and most email programs will cause a warning message to show up if a read receipt will be generated.

Standing Out from Crowd

Once you are reasonably sure your resume isn't getting dismissed by spam filters, next step is to get recruiter to want to open and read your resume. There are several things to keep in mind when persuing this goal. First, make sure you are sending your resume to someone it's relevant for. If recruiter specializes in accounting, don't send them an engineering resume. Do a little research about recruiter or employer first and come up with a subject line that is targeted to their situation. For example, if you were a programmer sending your resume to a pharmaceuticals company, you could use "C++ Programmer with Pharmaceutical Industry Experience" as your subject (assuming that you really did have experience in industry). A subject like that will set you apart from other resumes waiting in recruiter's inbox.

After recruiter has opened your email, you want to make sure they can quickly understand your capabilities by having an easy to read and powerfully written resume. For a thorough discussion of ways to improve your resume, read section on resumes in Job Search Handbook (www.jobsearchhandbook.com).