I was speaking with a colleague of long-standing (an old friend). He's newly unemployed. He's been a tester for years, and for the last few years has been a developer. He'd like to keep doing development kinds of work, possibly creating automated tests or for a product. But he's resigned himself to being a tester.

I asked him what he wanted to do. "Oh, development. But no one will hire me for that." I asked why. "Because I was a tester for so long".

Your attitude around a potential job will shine through in an interview. If you would not hire yourself for a particular job, no one else will. Part of your job search is to manage your reactions to a potential job as you search. Some ideas about what you can do:

1. Know what you want to do. If you see a job you could do, but it's not what you want, reassess whether you want to investigate this job. If they hired you, would you work there? Sometimes the answer is "yes, because I'm broke." But more often, the answer is "Hmm, that's not really the right job for me."
2. If you're relatively new to a particular role, and you have a ton of experience in another role, make a list of all the reasons why your more junior role is the role for you. Go back to your resume and take a look at your accomplishments.
3. Use those accomplishments to explain your value to other people. Take the time to articulate your story of why you are valuable in your preferred job. My colleague has a bunch of stories to support how his testing expertise makes him an amazing developer, especially in a test-driven environment.

Your attitude about a potential job has a huge effect on an interviewer. What does your attitude say?

I realize that many people are hunkered down, working hard at their jobs. And, a bunch of people are unemployed, looking for work. But what about all those people who are still employed but are unhappy and want to look for a job? How open can they be?

I'm from the school of "be honest with your boss" while you are looking. Somehow, I always managed to send my resume to people who were friendly with my bosses! And, once you've found a job, give two weeks notice. But if you're too scared to be honest with your boss, try these ideas:

• As you update your social networking sites, say that you're open for any and all contacts: reconnecting, networking to help other people, and interesting options.
• As you tell people that you are looking for a job, also explain you do not want to put your current job in jeopardy.
• Make sure you use reputable recruiters. The disreputable ones will send your resume to everyone they know. The reputable ones focus your search.
• Only send your resume to a company that's honest about who they are. Never send a resume to a cloaked ad.
  

If your boss discovers you are looking, come clean--at least, about your job search, if not the reason behind it.

It's not easy to find a job, but they are out there.

Maybe you've been laid off. Maybe you just want another job. Yes, there are people hiring--but how do you find them?

Just as hiring managers need a strategy for hiring people, candidates need a strategy for looking for a job. Let's assume you're looking in an area in which you have experience. In that case, think about how you use these approaches:

Make sure you use social networks. You cannot afford to avoid LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. Maybe you have another social network that you prefer. Fine, as long as your potential hiring managers and/or recruiters use that network. Your network might be a specific tool's user group, as long as you don't mind getting a job using that tool.

Expect to customize your resume for each job you apply for. This sounds like a lot of work. "Can't I just customize my cover letter?" Yes, you can, and that may not be enough. You aren't applying for a generic job; why send in a generic resume?

Consider using a couple of recruiters. Yes, the recruiters are having trouble, but they still have positions which require experience, especially a lot of experience.

Make sure you have thought about all of the ways to reach potential hiring managers.

Now, what do you do if you want to change jobs to something you don't have experience in?

Try getting some experience. You can be an unpaid intern (ok, a paid internship is even better, but don't bet on it), work on an open source project, or some other way that allows you to work with people (so you have references), and build your experience.

Expand your network as much as possible. If you want to change jobs in this economy you have to meet more and more and more people. You need to build a reputation as someone who can get things done. Now, do all the things I mentioned above.

It's not impossible to find a new job; it's just difficult. Start now.

OK, so you are out of work and you are not getting any interviews. How can you improve your chances of getting a new job quickly?

Well like anything in this World you've got to work at it. In fact your new job..is to find a new job! Yes, that's right, you've got to work at it 8 hours a day (at least!). So what does this "job" involve? First things first, give your CV a complete makeover, make sure that you have a really strong profile and set out some of your key achievements and skills clearly. Have a look at my earlier blog on this subject - Writing a Winning CV With your new (and hopefully much improved) CV, you can place this on a job board like www.cwjobs.co.uk. This should generate interest from recruiters. At the same time you should be actively responding to job advertisements on the the job boards. Start pro-actively calling some of the better recruitment agencies and build relationships with several recruitment consultants. Try to identify Consultants who either specialise in your field or frequently advertise jobs in your field. Many Recruitment Consultancies have teams who focus on particular sectors (ie. Legal, Retail, Telco, etc.) while others focus on specific roles. (ie. Business Analysts, Developers and so on) either way it makes sense to work with Consultants who understand what you do and will be actively canvassing employers for your kind of job. Once you identify the right Consultants, offer to go and see them. Even if you meet up for coffee for ten minutes it's worth meeting face-to-face. Recruiters will be impressed by your motivation and will be more likely to think of you when the right job comes up.

What else can you do to improve your chances? Start thinking about the companies you would like to work for. Who were your last employer's competitors? What other companies or organisations operate in the same field? Try sending your CV to these companies on a speculative basis.

Don't forget to network, pull out that little black book (or Blackberry) and get in touch with all your old contacts and make sure that they are all aware that you are available. You might also consider attending industry events. There are a surprising number of free IT Conferences that you can attend which provide excellent opportunities for networking, have a look at http://www.events-on.net/ for the latest conference news and don't forget to take your CV!

Good luck with you new job!

Most people are aware that the Internet is a hugely important tool for jobseekers. But how do you get the most out of the Internet and what (if any) are the pitfalls? There are literally hundreds of "job boards" in the UK (and overseas) so you need to think carefully about which particular boards are going to be right for you. 

Within the IT industry you could look at specialist boards such as www.cwjobs.co.uk, www.computingcareers.co.uk and the www.theitjobboard.co.uk. Both employers and recruitment agencies advertise jobs on these "job boards" and you can search for jobs by job category, sector, skill, location and salary band. You might want to utilise basic Boolean techniques in your search string so that "Project Manager" AND "Web 2" will return jobs containing both those phrases. Equally an OR statement may be useful. "Project Manager" AND (SQL OR Oracle) will return jobs for Project Managers with either Oracle or SQL mentioned in the advertisement. Remember that advertisers generally buy an on line advertisement for a period of time which could be 28 days or longer, so don't blame the recruiter if you find that the position has already been filled when you apply. Check the date on the advertisement and if in doubt contact the recruiter or employer directly before applying to double check that the position is still open. Another important point is to make sure that your CV is tailored for the job you are applying for. If you have both Project Management and Service Management experience then make sure you have different CVs that highlight this different experience. If the Recruiter is looking for a Red Badge Qualified ITIL Service Manager don't send your CV stating that you are a Prince 2 Accredited Project Manager (even if you are!).

Most of the job boards also give you the facility to upload your CV to the site. If you are serious about your job search then I strongly recommend that you upload your CV to several sites and make sure that you "refresh" your CV on a regular basis. Not surprisingly recruiters tend to look at "recent" CVs. If your CV has been sitting on a job board for 3 months they will probably assume that you have already found a job! I can pretty much guarantee that you will get calls from recruiters if you keep your CV on-line.

Don't forget that in a difficult UK job market you might also want to look at overseas opportunities. I would recommend searching initially on the country name i.e. "Dubai" should return Dubai based jobs. However some of the job boards allow you to search specifically for jobs in one particular location choosing the country and city (e.g. Switzerland and Zurich). Most of the job boards allow you to set up an "alert", just enter your search string and you will receive a daily or weekly e-mail each time a new job comes up matching your requirement.

Finally don't forget that you can find a wealth of advice to on the job boards, usually under a "Careers Advice" tab where you can generally find tips to help you brush up your CV or improve your interview technique.  

Good luck with your on-line job search!