5 ways to light up your job search. Today.

1. Pick up the phone. Now. You know people in high places. You know people in medium places that happen to be working in the same industry as you. Call them. Pick their brains. Ask them questions.
2. Use the LinkedIn status line to your advantage. Quit wasting this massively valuable advertising space. Use it to to provide regular updates related to your search, your professional activities, relevant conferences you're attending, books you're reading. I often ask questions on mine, or announce open positions for which I'm recruiting. And guess what? Most of the time? I get at least one reply, within 5 minutes of posting.
3. Alert your Facebook network that you are looking for work. Your FB friends do know you're seeking a new opportunity, no? They should. These are your people. The ones who will go to bat for you. Tell them today, and keep them posted along the way.
4. Vow to never, ever spend 100% of your waking hours blindly applying for advertised jobs again. How's that working for you? So stop it. Challenge yourself to spend no more than 50% of your search time here. No more than. Less than is even better.
5. Take your most connected pal out for coffee (or ice cream, or whiskey). Everyone has the ONE friend who knows everyone on the planet. The guy who can, in five minutes, be speaking live with any person he sets out to contact. Learn this pal's technique. And boldness. And leverage their network. Immediately.

Virgil wasn't messing around when he coined it: "Fortune favors the bold."

So go. Be bold now.

 Photo source: Steve Jurretson (Flickr)