Others will care as much about your job-hunt as you do.

To get the job you want you have to take decisive action and do your homework, says Bolles. Most people sit around at home waiting for God, the Human Resource Manager, the Government, or the labour market, to find them a job. It rarely happens. "The hard truth", says Bolles, "is that no-one else cares as much about your job-hunt or career as you do".
    What you need to do, he says, is transform yourself from a job beggar to a resource person: the answer to an employer’s prayers. The last step in this process is approaching an employer you’ve decided you want to work for. "The biggest mistake that job hunters make when they go out job-hunting is to think that the first interview they should do is with a potential employer. Wrong. First they should do as many interviews as they can with people actually doing the work they think they want to do". These short 10 minute interviews in which the job hunter asks the questions—people are surprisingly generous, says Bolles, with their time so long as you are not in direct competition—are a vital part of your homework.
    But along with doing as much research as possible on the job and the company you’d like to work for, you also have to do your homework on yourself. Find out exactly what your transferable skills, knowledge and personality traits are. Bolles said: "So you’re good at organizing? Organizing what? Parties? Or nuts and bolts on a workbench?" The skills you gain in the job hunt can be enough in themselves, he says, to get you a job—after all, you now have experience in marketing a product.
    But it takes time. "You can assume the average job hunt will take 23 weeks", says Bolles. "But if you work at least 20 hours a week at it, you dramatically improve your chances of shortening your search". Allocating time effectively is one of the most important things. There are 17 job-hunt strategies and you should have a crack at them all, says Bolles, but only give as much time to each as is warranted.
    Job agencies, for example, have a 95% failure rate in placing people. "Spend only one or two hours a week on agencies", advises Bolles. Don’t rely on job ads either: most vacancies are filled by word of mouth and nearly 98 percent of advertisement replies are screened out. For every 1470 resumes received by employers, only one person is taken on.
    So here’s what you do instead, says Bolles. First, be prepared to contact up to 200 places in person. Spend 20 to 30 hours a week on the job hunt—and get a support person to check with you every week to make sure you’re not slackening off. Go to the places you’d like to work and talk to the people who have the power to hire you, not just the personnel or human resource office people. Go predominately to visit small companies with names that probably nobody has ever heard of. See a minimum of two employers a day—and set yourself other small, achievable goals; not losing 40 pounds weight. Ask at least 35 family members and friends to keep their ears open for a job and tell them exactly what you’re looking for. Be flexible: think about all the possible kinds of work you would enjoy and settle on more than one target organization. Use as many different avenues of job-hunting as you can—including the career planning office at your old college or university. Present yourself at job interviews as someone who has done the research, who gives brief and to-the-point answers, is courteous (sends a thank you note) and is a problem-solver.
    Do all that and you may even get to name your own salary. Bolles, a "painfully shy" person who never dreamed he’d write a successful best-seller, calls his salary Fred.