I feel like I should have written this post on Independence Day. But I just came across a terrific article in Peter Weddle’s newsletter about the importance of pursuing our dreams - especially during a tough hiring market. I love what Peter has to say about happiness:

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“Recent research indicates that happiness is a cognitive, not an emotional state. It occurs when we overcome a challenge we view as meaningful and worthy. In other words, we are tested in a way that produces our best efforts, that stretches us to perform at our peak and even beyond that point, beyond our own expectations of what we can do. And, the only place such challenges routinely occur is at work. ”

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My feelings exactly. So much of how we feel about ourselves and our lives relates to our careers. We owe it to ourselves (and to our loved ones) to find that Happiness and let it carry over to the rest of our lives, rather than letting disappointment or unhappiness or frustration at work extend to our home lives.

So go ahead - pursue your own Happiness. It’s the American way!

Culling the “top 100″ from a field of probably hundreds of thousands was a mighty effort, and Eric Shannon (who runs LatPro.com and DiversityJobs.com) has generously shared his findings here.

On the same topic, Jason Alba offers some very sage advice about using job boards, from the first-hand experience of someone who spent “60 hours a week” job-boarding and thought he was running a productive job search.

Key takeaways:

• Choose a handful (not dozens or hundreds) of job boards that offer a good selection of jobs in your target areas. The more specialized, the better, in general.
• Use technology tools to make your job board activity (reviewing and responding to ads) as quick and efficient as possible. Set up email alerts around tight parameters, and have a quick process for tailoring and sending your cover letter and resume.
• Integrate your job board activity with other, less passive, job search strategies. If one of your target companies is advertising, mine your network to get a connection rather than simply zapping off a resume.
• Realize that time spent on the job boards is time not spent in more active and fruitful activities. So (1) limit your time and (2) don’t count job-boarding as a “real” job search effort.
• Don’t get frustrated when you don’t hear back even when you are a 100% match for a posted position. Given the enormous response that ads draw, employers might be looking for 110% (and you don’t even know what that elusive extra 10% is) or might simply have garnered a strong candidate pool from the first wave of responses.

Yesterday I spoke with a client who has been in an active job search about six weeks. He called for a quick “tune up” to be sure he’s maximizing his opportunities. We agreed that he is doing everything right - targeting his companies, finding the right people to talk to, making direct contact, arranging meetings, discussing how he can add value to the organization. He sets a benchmark of 6 direct-contact phone calls daily. In these six weeks he’s had 2 third interviews (flown to HQ cities) but was not selected for those jobs.

We fine-tuned his message a bit to better explain his reason for looking, but all in all he’s doing everything right and I predict it will simply be a matter of time before he lands a great opportunity.

Formula: Preparation + Method + Gumption + Perseverance = Interviews + (eventually) Offers