Job seekers
From your perspective, that of the job seeker, the traditional -- or what is often thought of as traditional -- job search is just as daunting. You aren't sure why, but something in the system seems rigged to work against you. You scan the paper and look online for that elusive job posting that matches your skills and your interest. If one is found you send your resume in ... and wait ... and wait ... and wait.

Often you hear nothing. When you do hear from the prospective employer, you interview and then wait again. Based on the market, you may realize that you're being evaluated along with 10, 20, 100, or more candidates. "How do I match up," you wonder? "Are my skills really what they're looking for?" "Am I asking for more money than they are willing to pay?"

These and other questions keep you second-guessing, and you remain an outsider -- even after you receive the call telling you that you're hired.

Yes, Bolles was right. Employers look for talent in one direction and most job seekers look for opportunity from the other direction. The situation is undesirable for both parties.

If you noticed in the preceding sections I was careful to qualify my reference to the traditional job search. That's because I, along with Bolles, do not view the above scenario as traditional. I certainly don't view it as necessary.

For centuries, the idea of bringing someone in to help your business that was not part of your community was a foreign one. You were trusting someone with your financial well-being, your business. This required knowledge of them, their family, and their history.

While industrialization, more feasible and faster transportation, and now the Internet, has made local workers unnecessary, if you want to see your career grow more rapidly, take a lesson from those more mundane societies.

In order to find and capitalize on the opportunities that come your way, you need to meet employers when and where the opportunity arises. You need to become a known commodity. The benefits to this are numerous, but I'll summarize three of them.

Command a higher dollar.
The simple fact is that employers aren't willing to let a known commodity of great value leave easily. Additionally, if you're a known commodity, an employer is more willing to pay at the upper ends of the scale. With an unknown commodity, he's assuming tremendous risk. To mitigate that risk, he's going to work at reducing the cost associated with that risk.

Find the better, more exciting/more opportunistic positions.
If you're a known commodity, you'll have more opportunities to choose from. This'll give you the ability to select the cream-of-the-crop. Rather than fall to the whim of the leftover positions from an employer at his most desperate, you'll find the opportunities become qualitatively superior.