Is your job search producing lackluster results? Don’t settle for a job search that just creeps along! Instead, consider a job search makeover to take fuller advantage of high performing guerrilla job search tactics.

If you’re not familiar with the term “guerrilla,” you need to know that guerrilla job search techniques are unconventional, often radical, and always strategic. Guerrilla job search tactics outperform traditional job search strategies in 7 key ways:

(1) Guerrilla job search tactics are proactive: In a traditional job search, you submit your resume and cover letter, then passively wait for a call inviting you to an interview. In a guerrilla job search, you help set the pace for your campaign through assertive weekly networking calls/emails, as well as weekly follow-up contacts with hiring managers about your most recent applications for both posted and anticipated job openings. By making 5-10 such calls each week, you can significantly increase the pace of your results.

(2) Guerrilla job search tactics are highly targeted: If the bulk of your resume submissions sent each week are predominantly in response to online job postings, then you’re missing out on all kinds of highly targeted job leads. Guerrilla tactics focus on specific industries, employers, geographic areas, and position types to help you magnify the number of interviews and job offers you receive. Don’t make the mistake of applying for everything you see – doing that may make you feel productive, but such a shot-gun approach to job searching ultimately fails to help you secure the position you desire.

(3) Guerrilla job search tactics are consistent: By passively waiting for interesting jobs to show up on job boards and in ads, you guarantee that your job search will be a roller coaster ride with great output some weeks and little to no output in others. If you submit 8-10 resumes in some weeks, say, and only 1-2 in others, then you are setting yourself up for sporadic interview invites from hiring managers. Leveraging guerrilla job search tactics, however, will enable you to consistently submit 25-30 resumes weekly, which in turn will produce a regular series of invites for job interviews. And a series of interview invites boosts your odds of receiving one or more job offers in your desired timeframe – which is exactly what you want, right?

(4) Guerrilla job search tactics are customized: Let’s face it, a job search is something of a numbers game no matter how you search. But because traditional job search tactics tend to over-emphasize blasting your resume to hundreds of employers all at once, there’s no way for you to target specific industry segments or position types. That means you’re resume is missing the industry-specific key words it must showcase if yours is to successfully make it though employer resume scanning systems. Guerrilla job search techniques stress touting your individuality by weaving your personality and career-related values into your resume, cover letter, and interview responses while also making great use of industry-specific key words – an approach that boosts the odds that hiring managers looking for someone like you will actually find you.

(5) Guerrilla job search tactics are free or low-cost: If you took advantage of just a few of the job search offers available on the Internet these days, you could easily spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, and still see little to no positive results. I’ve coached clients to turn-around poor performing job searches when they come to me after spending $2500 or more on HR consulting firms who ultimately do almost nothing to help them. The good news, though, is that guerrilla job search techniques are by their very nature either free or extremely low-cost. For example, HR consulting firms who work with job seekers often stress that they give you hundreds of hiring employer names to contact (that’s how they justify their high fees). That’s all well and good, but did you know that you can access that same information on the Internet for free?

(6) Guerrilla job search tactics restore your life balance: Traditional job search techniques emphasize output and effort, yet overlook the power of automation. By taking advantage of automated functions in your pc’s software and on online job search tools, you could save time every week. Life is too short, and job searches are too frequent (every 2-3 years on average in the U.S.) to spend all your time hunting down job leads. Enhance the quality of your life by automating your job search in every way possible. Your life balance (and your loved ones) will thank you!

(7) Guerrilla job search tactics penetrate the Hidden Job Market: One of the greatest weaknesses of traditional job search methodologies is that they focus on the Visible Job Market, or those jobs that are both currently available and known outside the hiring organization. Guerrilla job search methods on the other hand focus on the Hidden Job Market, or those jobs that are either not yet available (but soon will be) and/or unknown outside the hiring company. And guess what? A whopping 74-85% of all jobs are never advertised in the Visible Job Market. So what does a smart job seeker do? You got it – leverage the power of guerrilla job search tactics to penetrate the Hidden Job Market as much as possible.

You don’t have to wait for a hot economy to land the job you really want. By taking advantage of as many guerrilla job search tactics as possible, you will dramatically shorten your job search while boosting the interviews and offers you land. Stop repeating the same mistakes everyone else is making and you will soon see unheard-of results.