Alvah Parker is publisher of Road to Success and Parker's Points, e-newsletters providing strategies to advance your business and career goals. Click here to subscribe. Alvah is a Work/life coach, who can be reached at asparker@asparker.com, or visited on the web at www.asparker.com.

This guy is on his lunch break. He's walking along and thinking about his weight; he's been meaning to trim down and feel better about himself. So, when he sees a weight loss clinic, he decides to pop in to see what it's all about. The sales rep greets him.

"Have a seat."

"Thank you."

"You're here to lose weight, yes?"

"Yes. That's about it. How can you help me?"

The rep leans forward and whispers. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes. Absolutely."

The rep smiles. "Ok, here's the scoop. You do what the successful people do. The ones that lost weight. Do exactly what they do."

A long silence. "That's it? No magic pill? No silver bullet?"

"That's it."

"But this isn't what I expected…"

The rep smiles. "We may not be providing you with what you were expecting. Our job is to help you lose weight. We'll be teaching you how to lose weight based on what the successful people are doing right now to lose weight."

Sound familiar? It's your typical job search. Many people seek a magic pill or a silver bullet for their job search success. Bad news: There is no magic pill or a silver bullet for your job search. Good news: you can "do what the successful people do" to reduce the time in your job search. How long will your job search last? According to recent research from ExecuNet, a little under 10 months. With the information below, we think you can beat that average.

What follows is timeless advice with a new spin and new advice - fresh from the "successful people" - our candidates.

10 New "Insider Tips" to expedite your job search.

1.) Your e-mail text looks terrible! Word wrap your e-mail to 60 characters - this keeps your e-mail from shifting into those awful looking fragmented sentences on the recipient's end. In Outlook: Tools, Options, Mail Format, Internet Format.

2.) If you're using Bluetooth. Most people get a Bluetooth system that works fine for them - but the recipients have a problem hearing them. That's bad news if you're talking with an employer/recruiter. You need a system that works best for you - but also has the utmost clarity for the recipient. And the winner is: Jawbone. You may appear to be wearing an earring, but that's somewhat in vogue these days.

3.) Cell phones/VOIP Systems. Make sure your cell phone is working. Get extended life batteries for your cell phone. Don't leave home without it. More candidates land employer calls while grocery shopping then you can believe. If you are using VOIP at home, be sure to have it automatically forward calls to your cell phone in a power outage. Make sure your answering message sounds professional - on both your home and cell phone. Also, if you use VOIP, consider the latest service: voice-to-text - it will save you a lot of time listening to all those voicemails - you'll see the text on your computer screen.

4.) Set up auto spell check in your e-mail, so that you can not send out an e-mail without first checking your text for spelling and grammar. And words of wisdom from an expert on professional writing, author Jonathan Clark: Less is more; keep it simple. How to set up spell check in Outlook: Tools, Options, Spelling. And always read the e-mail, checking for common errors, e.g.: 'an/a', their/there/they're, its/it's, etc.

5.) Did you hear the story about the guy who threw away his winning lottery ticket? Check your SPAM filters daily. Their is a good chance legitimate e-mails are being flagged to your 'Junk' files. We don't want an e-mail from an employer/recruiter getting lost. Did you see our mistake in the previous sentence: we put in 'their' instead of 'there'. Just keeping you on your toes…

6.) Get a new e-mail address for your job search efforts - put that e-mail on your resume. This will reduce the chances of you losing an important e-mail from an employer/recruiter. Have your e-mail sent plain text, not HTML. HTML looks better but it's constantly flagged as SPAM.

7.) Snail Mail Still Works - if done right. At the same time you are e-mailing your resume, snail mail your resume hard copy. Print with a laser printer. Use white 24 lb - 28 lb white paper with a lumens rating of at least 90. Do not use 'resume' paper unless you are presenting the resume in person (it doesn't scan as well as white paper). Mail out flat - folds do not scan well- and a flat resume looks better than a folded resume. Mail in a gray envelope; avoid white because white envelopes get dirty going through the mail. Hand-write or computer print the address on a mailing label - and be sure to use a waterproof (non-smear) pen.

8.) I can't find you! One thing that drives employers and recruiter nuts is not being able to find your e-mail. To fix the confusion in Outlook: go to Tools, Email Accounts, View or Change, click on your current e-mail - this will take you to 'User Information' See the field "Your Name"? Don't put anything fancy in there - only put in your First Name and Last name. The preference is for the first name, last name, e.g. John Schwartz. Ever go to a party and try to remember a bunch of last names? It's hard; people tend to remember first names easier than last names.

9.) What are you trying to sell me? Another thing that drives employers and recruiters nuts: don't have your phone ID blocked - a blocked ID sends the wrong message: you're either trying to sell them something or you are on the run from the law, or you are a sales person on the run from the law. Bad messages all.

10.) The two best ways to get an employer's attention. Either mention the posted job opening (good), or mention a colleague within the organization who referred you to them in conjunction with the job opening (better). And where to find those inside contacts? Jigsaw, Linked-In, Zoominfo. Read the book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Farrazzi. And seriously consider getting a professional coach to strengthen your networking skills. It's a whole new job search game out there. You'll need to know the latest rules of the game to win.

A Career Advantage assists professionals and executives across all industries with interview-winning resumes and the tools to launch a successful job search. Contact: mark@AcareerAdvantage.com

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