Hi, if you're looking for a job, you know how tough it is in the current disastrous economic environment. Competition has never been fiercer for the reduced number of jobs and you MUST be sharper and more knowledgeable than ever to be considered.    

Invariably, it's the "hiring manager" who decides if you get hired and this is the person you must impress. I know, because I've been a hiring manager for over 25 years in both large and small companies, public and private sector, and I've interviewed and hired hundreds of people.

When I say "hiring manager," I don't mean the people in Human Resources and I don't mean the people in recruiting agencies. I mean the managers who are actually managing some part of an organization – these are the people who have job openings to fill.

The hiring manager is the person who makes the final hiring decision. In your job search, this is the person whom you will have to convince to give you the job!

Given this fact, the hiring manager - not the big generic job search sites and not professional recruiters – is the best person to give you advice on how to obtain a new job in the shortest time possible.

I'm currently a hiring manager in a large (16,000 employees) organization and I know what hiring mangers want to see from a job applicant. Plus, I "eat my own dog food". That is, I've used the advice you'll find on this site in my own job searches to successfully find and land a job, so I know it works.

I'll also tell you how to stay out of trouble in your job search, particularly while working online. For example, before beginning an online job search, remember that most employers nowadays scour search engines and social networks for details on applicants. Michael Fertik of Reputation.com recommends using any privacy filters available to protect your online image.

I'll also have advice for you HR Managers out there. As with applicants, online job searches can cause some headaches for HR managers. As a Hiring manager, I've asked my Human Resources Department to use many of these and I know they can deliver a large number of qualified applicants quickly. It can thus be challenging to research so many candidates and you'll need a way to easily get a background check for each of your applicants and make sure they are right for the job.

What you'll find here is a hiring manager's perspective on how to find a job. Much of this advice will be different from what you'll find elsewhere because it's not based on traditional theory about how to find a job. It's based on what hiring managers are actually looking for and where they are looking for it.

To find a job as quickly as possible, you need to know several things:

• How to best organize your job search
• The best ways to find open positions
• The best ways to write your resume and, just as important, your cover letter
• How to increase your chance for an interview when you apply
• What hiring managers are looking for once you're in the interview