If you haven’t looked for a job lately, you’re in for a surprise.

Until recently, job searching was fairly simple. You scanned the classified pages of your local newspaper. You chatted with family, friends, acquaintances, and you asked for recommendations. When you found a lead, you mailed in a resume and cover letter, crossed your fingers, and waited for the phone to ring.

To put it mildly, things have changed. Most job opportunities aren’t listed in the classified pages anymore. Your cookie-cutter resume and cover letters no longer cut it. And on top of all that, today’s job market is tough, the worst since the Great Depression.

The old places people used to look for jobs, like newspaper ads, are dying. Even the online employment sites you might know about, like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com or HotJobs, are a dead end for most people. Here’s why:

The job often doesn’t exist. The job listings at these big-name employment sites are stale. They’re often copied directly from company Web sites or internal applicant tracking systems, which are chronically out-of-date. Worse, many employers post phantom jobs at these sites, simply to harvest resumes and fill their applicant database. Employers perpetuate this jobs treadmill because it’s cheaper than hosting job fairs or hiring recruiters. And the Web sites are happy to play along, because
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