As recruiters, we are constantly talking to people we just can't help at that exact moment. We LOVE to help people as much as possible. Yes, even when we don't get paid for it. It's just who we are and we bring that into our business.

Dave Mayer, the founder and CEO of Technical Integrity, put this article together for people we are not able to directly help when we talk.  The important parts are all below:

• Spend 85% of your time on networking, building your LinkedIn network and going to professional organization meetings in your area- that is where you will find your next job
• Ask the organizers of each Professional Organization (local chapter) to introduce you around to members who are particularly active in the community.
• Spend ONLY 15% of your time online looking for a job (i.e., on Indeed or Monster, etc)
• Create a spreadsheet after doing your homework on companies you want to work for (don’t worry about who is hiring) and track 10-20 companies. The columns should include Contact, Phone Number, Website, Notes and Dates you called, etc. Track this actively and adjust priority on each depending on your interest level in each.
• Use Hoovers.com free version to determine who decision makers are in your target orgs and cross reference each on LinkedIn and hook up with them there.
• Never decline an invitation to connect on LinkedIn- it doesn’t matter who the person is, it matters who they know
• Contact at least ten local recruiters / executive search firms and meet with them once and stay in touch with them every two weeks.
• Use Indeed.com to start search agents to understand what is going on and get alerts on jobs and companies you want to target.
• Create a business card you can carry with you to meetings
• Use TweetDeck to monitor your target organization’s twitter feed and see what they are up to (it allows you to create endless columns where you can track each company individually)
• Join 50 groups on LinkedIn- you can then contact people directly who are in each group (though I recommend you just pick up the phone and say you found them on LI) and monitor the Jobs discussions in each group.
• Figure out which groups your decision makers are a part of on LI and join those groups
• Take an active part in one or two organizations – i.e., volunteer to be the Marketing Chair and you will meet a ton of people through organizing events or taking over membership
• Polite Persistence is key- use the phrase when you are calling people (decision makers) for the sixth time “Forgive my polite persistence but I am eager to chat with you about how I can make a difference for your organization…would you be open to a cup of coffee on the X of January…my treat?”

We hope this helps and would love to hear the results you gain from this list!!