"Do well in school, work hard, and always try your best. Success will take care of itself."

It was the advice my mom had given me and my three sisters, and the advice I now give to my two young daughters. It was a great rule to live by – both traditional and effective. However, now, in this new economy, the old rules simply no longer apply.

As a senior partner in a national recruiting firm, I have seen the average technical job seeker morph in the past three years – from a sought-after commodity into a talented candidate facing ever-shrinking demand. The reasons behind the change? It is no secret that the tech community has been hit from many angles, including the .com implosion, the telecommunications fallout, September 11th, and a slowing in the economy as a whole. The question, it seems, is not whether there's a problem, but rather what to do about it if you have been hit by the economic drought in the technical sector.

Calling me daily are many candidates who I could have placed in new positions within minutes just one year ago. Unfortunately, today, I may not have even one position open for their skill set. My advice to them is simple and, hopefully, helpful. Thus, without further ado and possibly just a little fanfare, here are some job hunting hints to assist you in finding your next position.

Item 1: Resume. Resume. Resume.
Yes, having a good resume seems obvious. However, I receive resumes daily that simply are not well written from exceptional candidates. Most likely they have had the good fortune of finding great jobs in the past 10 years without having a good resume, and some have found jobs without having any resume at all. If you suspect that you are one of them, here are a few quick tips on resumes.
• No need to spend hundreds using a resume-writing service. Simply use Microsoft Word's resume template, or a similar one from any word processing software. The important thing is what is IN the resume.
• Always have a short objective; and keep the resume under one page for candidates with less than five years' experience, two pages for six to 10 years, and three pages for more than 10 years of experience or for the Ph.D. who needs to post papers.
• Make sure to have a skill listing, a line that states all of the fabulous acronyms that define your technical skills. Why? Recruiters focus 95 percent on keywords. We love acronyms, strange as it may be, and use them in our searches daily. If you have J2ee skills, for example, and put Java, JSP and EJB, but not J2ee as well, you may be missed by an inexperienced recruiter searching on the keyword J2ee. Make sure to include ALL your technical skills, even the old ones. We still get clients now and then who still are holding on to Delphi and AS400. Shocking, but true.
• Keep it basic, especially in the beginning. Typical companies have many gatekeepers who see the resume before the hiring manager. If you are going through a recruiter, then you have even one more layer to impress before the resume makes it to the hands of the person who actually could hire you – who is also, by the way, the person with the greatest likelihood of understanding what you do. Therefore, make sure that your explanation of all your positions is written in a way that a junior human resources assistant could understand. Include a good summary on the top of your resume. A summary example: Software engineer with seven years of professional experience with object oriented design including C, C++ and Java.
• The better you sell yourself in the beginning and the more user-friendly your resume is, the more likely you are to make it all the way through the process.

Item 2: Strategic Positioning.
Where your resume goes and how often it goes there is almost as important as what is in it. Some key points:
• The Job Boards: Monster, Dice, HotJobs, CareerBuilder and ieee.org are just some of the many small job boards that are out there on which to post your resume.
Should you post in this economy? Yes, unless you are a senior executive or currently working. If you are currently working try using the confidential feature so your company cannot spot you easily.
THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM TO REMEMBER WHEN POSTING ON THE JOB BOARDS IS TO GO IN AND UPDATE YOUR RESUME EVERY DAY.
Sorry, I don't mean to scream, but I have to use caps to make that point.
Every day, new candidates post their resumes on the job boards, pushing your resume down the list, away from the recruiters' inspecting eyes. You may be the perfect person for the job, but no one will ever see your resume if it is not in the top 10. As a recruiter myself, I can vouch for the fact that we simply cannot search through hundreds of resumes on the boards every day, so we look at the most current resumes first, and hope that one is a close fit. So, to combat that, jump on those job boards and make a quick change to your resume every morning and it will put it on the top of the list for any relevant keyword search. This has proven to be really effective, and I hope it brings great results to you, too.
• Recruiters: Good recruiters can do a world of good. Inexperienced recruiters can actually hurt your chances of getting the job you want. Be sure to tell all the recruiters you are working with to ask your permission before sending your resume to any company. This will protect you from the candidates' nightmare, better known as the "double submit." When a company gets your resume from more than one source, it will definitely impair your credibility.
• Groups: Groups such as WorldWIT are invaluable when looking for a job or a great lead for a position. Never underestimate the power of a group of peers rallied simply to assist others with common goals. Once your resume is perfected, and if you are not currently working, post your resume to every group that is associated with your skill set and background. Many of these emails get forwarded to recruiters and hiring managers that are in need of great people, but do not have jobs posted. The groups/email lists are also a great way to ask for a contact within hiring companies, so your resume goes directly to a known entity instead of to Resumes@WeNeverLookatOurResumes.com.
• Success leaves clues: If your industry is not doing well, try shifting to an industry that is doing well and represent your skills to their needs. For example, mortgage finance companies always boom when the economy downturns, and with explosive growth comes the need for a great IT person – that could be you.

Item 3: Follow up.
If you can make yourself known without being annoying, your first paycheck is not far away.
• Stay organized: Many candidates keep an Excel spreadsheet with all the company names they have contacted, whether they submitted the resume themselves or a recruiter did, the email and phone number of the company, and the date their resume was submitted. This documentation will really assist during your follow up phase.
• Email follow up: When following up using email, be sure to forward the initial email that you sent to the company and your resume again. Many times we receive an AOL email that says simply: "Any news on my resume? Signed, Bob." Unfortunately, many recruiters simply do not have time to track down Bob, find his initial email, search out his resume and open it. Most likely, Bob's followup email would simply get deleted. However, if you have a short, two-paragraph, follow-up email stating your skills and a copy of your resume, your emails is harder for recruiters to turn down as you have done most of the work for them.
• Call follow up: Try never to leave a voicemail. Once you leave a voicemail any calls after that border on "job stalking." So, simply secretly stalk until the person you want answers the phone. Once you have them on the phone, try to explain in one minute or less why you are the person for the job."Hi, I am Susan. I sent you a resume for the ____ position two days ago. The position seems like a perfect fit for my background because I have X years in the field you requested, as well as X years specializing in the exact technology you were looking for in the ad. Would you like me to resend you my resume? I am open on Monday between 2 and 4 p.m. to either come down and interview, or have an extensive phone interview. Which is better for you?"

Recruiters love to talk and give advice – it is what we do! However, this column must actually come to an end at some point. My mom's advice still stands. All the hard work you have done in the past will pull you through even the toughest times personally and professionally. So, how do you get that across to a prospective employer? Be yourself, another old adage that remains true, and just listen. Listen to the needs of the employer, listen to the job requirements, and listen instead of talking as much as possible while in the interview. Success will then take care of itself.

Heidi Golledge (Heidi@CyberCoders.com), the director of CoastWIT, SilcWIT and SanDiegoWIT - check out http://www.worldwit.org - is a partner in the national recruiting firm, CyberCoders (http://www.cybercoders.com) , which places technical, marketing, sales, scientific, and financial professionals. Heidi has two beautiful daughters, Lauren, 6, and Madison, 3, who have computers parked right next to hers at home. They live in southern California.