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

VisualCV.com gives you the chance to build a unique web portfolio – a richer, more compelling version of your traditional paper/Word resume. You can add graphics, documents, audio and video files and go from telling about what you’ve done to showing… and selling.

The site recently held a “best VisualCV contest,” and not only are the winning entries inspiring, they have also led to job offers!

Oh… and the best part? You can build and host your VisualCV for free. No fees, no ads, no sponsorships.

I have been affiliated with the company since the planning stages – I’m on the advisory board and I wrote an “Insider’s Guide” for creating a powerful VisualCV. (It’s a free download.) So yes, I guess I am biased! But I haven’t seen anything that comes close to the ease and value of this free portfolio service. Not to mention the other value-added benefits that include connecting with employers, recruiters, and others.

Kathy Simmons over at Netshare has an insightful post about the importance of “niche networking” in your job search. I love the analogy to the “Long Tail“concept… how, in our increasingly individualized society, people are looking for “one thing” (not “anything”) and can easily find it.

Just as you should use niche networking, be sure you are “niching” your career goal. Know precisely what you do best, where you can bring the most value, and the environment in which you can excel. Then, target your search toward those opportunities – and don’t settle for less! There is a perfect (or near perfect) fit for everyone, but only by clearly establishing those all important fit factors ahead of time will you be able to (a) look for it and (b) know it when you find it.

Wow, what a concept: Subject Presidential candidates to the same intense, rigorous examination that executives go through during the interview process. In perusing the list of leadership questions assembled by the Center for Public Leadership (Harvard/Kennedy School of Government) and The Ken Blanchard Companies, I noticed that many of them are behavior-based questions, framed like this:

• Tell me about a time when…
• Give me an example of…

As I wrote in my book, How to Choose the Right Person for the Right Job Every Time (McGraw-Hill, 2005; Lori Davila, co-author), behavior-based interviews have been proven to be measurably more effective than conventional interviews. In one study, conventional interviews led to selection of the best candidate just 19% of the time, while behavior-based interviews boosted that rate to 75%!

The power of behavior-based questions is that they require candidates to provide specific, relevant examples from past experience that demonstrate the competency that is being sought. With this type of question, candidates can’t get away with the same old “stump speech” or provide a non-answer – as politicians are so adept at doing.

As a candidate, you can boost your interview performance by preparing behavior-based responses – brief stories that describe the Situation, Action, and Results you took in a variety of challenging circumstances throughout your career. Your specific answers will be much more memorable and credible than many candidates’ vague, general, or memorized “canned” responses.

Now if we could only get the political candidates to do the same thing…

Sometimes when you read/hear advice from us career “experts,”  you probably say to yourself, “yeah, but what do they know? When have they ever been in career transition?”

But here’s the story of one executive who lost his job and – with a great attitude, discipline, and determination – launched himself into a job search that was quickly successful. His advice is, in my opinion, spot on – and probably a lot easier to take than the pontificating of the “experts”!

OK, you’re fired up to “network” to kick your job search into high gear. But what, exactly, do you do? Whom do you call? What do you say? My friend and colleague Debra Feldman has written an outstanding post over at CareerHub about how to “Network Purposefully.” This is a great start and will give you a clear sense of direction and many concrete steps.

But before you launch into action, be sure you are ready with the right weapons: a compelling message (what you’ll say when you call) and a powerful resume (to reinforce your message and lay the groundwork for further discussion).

One of my many gigs is writing for Recruiting Trends newsletter. It is lots of fun and gives me the opportunity to present the “candidate perspective” to recruiting professionals.

My most recent article made the case for active candidates. After all, when you switch from “not looking” to “looking,” what has changed except your status? You bring the same expertise, knowledge, accomplishments, skills, and value to your next employer. I have heard so often of executives being passed over by recruiters because they weren’t “sourced” by the recruiter. Seems awfully foolish and shortsighted to me.

If you’re in career transition, you are probably sick of hearing, “you’ve got to network!” and “networking is the best way to find a job!” While these sayings might be true, they’re not really helpful because they don’t tell you exactly what is meant by “networking.”

A common perception of networking is that it means “asking for a job” or “bugging my friends for referrals.” Thus, instead of an entirely natural, pleasant activity – the kind of thing you do every day when you need any kind of help or information – networking becomes a dreaded chore that you’re uncomfortable doing and therefore put off, avoid, and don’t get around to.

Jason Alba has written a really helpful blog post (also published as an article in The National Networker) that provides some very specific ways to ask for the help you need – and increase your chances of getting it. Here are his main points – be sure to read the entire article to see how he applies this advice specifically to networking during a job search:

• Make sure your contacts know and understand what you need.
• Make it easy for them to help you.
• Be quick to thank, quick to forgive, and quick to reciprocate.

Reading the results from Vault.com’s recent survey on interview etiquette, it’s interesting that interviewees report better behavior than interviewers perceive – and vice versa. E.g.:

• Only 5% of candidates say they’ve ever answered a cell phone during an interview, while employers report this number as 26%.
• More than half (55% ) of candidates report they send thank-you notes “almost all the time,” yet just 9% of interviewers say they receive notes that often.
• 71% of candidates say they’ve been rejected for a job by not hearing from the employer at all after the interview, while only 11% of employers report this behavior.

Of course, the surveys don’t represent the same sets of interviewer-interviewee pairs, but it’s interesting that each group believes the other’s behavior is worse than it is in that group’s own perception!

It all goes back to the basics: good manners. Remember what mom taught you (be on time, make your guest feel comfortable, say thank you, don’t leave people hanging, etc., etc., etc.) and you’ll improve things on either or both sides of the desk. These helpful post-interview tips from a young job seeker are a great place to start!