Fifty to seventy-five percent of good jobs come from friends—and friends of friends—by word of mouth. The higher the level of the job, the more that rule applies. At the senior executive and professional level, for example, as many as 90 percent of good jobs come through personal friends.

Therefore, it's urgent to involve your friends in your job-search, not just notify them of your plight ("I'm out of work. Let me know if you hear of anything.").

Job campaigns often stall because job-hunters leave their personal networks too quickly to go off into the world of "strangers." Strangers will seldom be as responsive to you as people whom you've met before, even briefly. Surprisingly, your attendance at a trade show can qualify you as a "friend" in someone's eyes.

Make sure you get your job-hunt strongly established with personal friends and business acquaintances before you spend a lot of time answering ads, working with recruiters, or cold calling. Cold calling isn't very appealing—that's why they call it cold calling!