by: Joanne Meehl

This week I saw a job hunt group email discussion about the best amount of time to spend on a search each week.

One person wrote this: "I might spend 2 hours on a busy day. Most of that checking job boards/emails. I haven't had much traction with informal interviews or researching target companies."

He was joking, right? Unfortunately, no. His search will last a long, long time because in this still-volatile job market, it's ineffective. Here, ineffective means too one-dimensional, too brief, too PC-dependent.

Another person responded that she uses 50 hours a week to search, and listed a wide variety of activities, much better than the one-dimensional search of the first respondent. She listed networking groups for those between jobs and many online activities, and "some" networking. That's getting there, but those are way too many hours and can lead to burnout. If she shifts many of the online hours to in-person networking with employed people in his field, she'll be exposed to far more possibilities than she is now.

My answer is to do 25 effective hours a week. "Effective" means having a variety of approaches that are more heavily weighted toward being with live people than on the computer.

Why? Because it's what's working. Since 2009, when hiring began again after a devastating 2008, right through to this week, the people I'm seeing landing great, new jobs, are doing it by connecting with other people, live.

What does your search look like?

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Need to know better how to connect with those who can help you in your search? Then go here.