Volunteering can help you increase your chances of making contacts and make you feel a lot better while you are doing the search. Getting involved with something you are interested in, is in your local area, or offers the opportunity to meet new people greatly increases your chance of finding work through your connections. Also, offer your help without expecting anything back and you will see it will come around eventually.

Of course, all the connections in the world won’t help unless you tell people you are looking for permanent work. Keep copies of your CV in your bag or car so you have one handy. Give them out to people – they may know you as the person who helps out with the sausage sizzle, for example, but they won’t know all your skills and abilities unless they see your CV.

Using these techniques are much easier then applying on-line or through an advertisement and means you are not competing against a large number of others. It’s proven to work!