One important aspect of any job search is to get out of the house and away from living in front of your computer. It’s easy to spend most of your day answering job board ads, but that’s very time consuming. It’s also where you will have the greatest competition and least return on your investment of time.
One great use of your time is to volunteer for non-profit groups. Most companies encourage their employees to also volunteer their time. So, the organization benefits by your volunteerism and you can benefit by possibly making contacts who could help you find a job or introduce you to their network.
It’s important that you don’t focus on making contacts. Do a great job for the organization and people will be impressed and ask you what you do. That is when you let them know you’re a free agent in the open job market, but also like to give back by volunteering your time.
There are also some amazing paid positions within many of the major non-profit organizations. When you interact with people, they will always ask what you do and now a door is open that just wouldn’t have happened if you were at home behind your computer.