You know exactly what kind of career you want. Your resume is perfect. You've forced your friends to spend hours asking you practice interview questions. Everything is in order - except you don't know how to go about finding the job openings.

The first step is to shift your networking skills into high gear. Start asking friends and family members to ask their co-workers, friends, hairdressers, optometrists, accountants, and other acquaintances if they've either heard of any available, relevant job openings, or if they know of someone to whom you ought to talk.

Another good way to make connections is to contact your college alumni office or career services center to see if either has a list of alumni who have volunteered to serve as mentors and contacts to young jobseekers.

While there's truth to the adage that the best jobs are never advertised, that doesn't mean you can't find a good job outside the networking realm:

Job Search

• Check out Internet job listings.
   
• Go to trade websites for the career field in which you're interested. Often, occupations have professional associations with websites that include job listings. If you don't know the name of the association or trade organisation that unifies your potential colleagues, do a search or ask someone in the field. Those websites are also an excellent way to cull contact names.
   
• Go to career expos. You can usually find advertisements for job expos in your local newspaper.
   
• Visit the websites of companies for which you would like to work. See if they have any job listings posted within the site.
   
• If you're interested in working for a medium- or large-sized company, call the human resources departments of potential employers and ask if they have any job openings.
   
• Read the classified section of the newspaper. If you want to relocate, find out what newspapers serve the places you'd like to live and then browse those papers' classified sections on the web.

The most important thing to remember is that the job search is often like a roller coaster ride. You might find some great opportunities, only to find that positions have been filled. And, in turn, you might investigate something you don't think you're interested in, only to strike a gold mine. The important thing is to keep you head up, and keep pushing forward. As long as you're persistent and patient, you will either find a good job, or you'll find a job that will serve as a transitional job that will open doors for you.