We are living in unprecedented times and with unemployment rates hitting double digit's finding a job is not an easy task.  While it may not be easy to find a new or different job it can be done, even in today's challenging economy you just have to know where to look.  This hub is the beginning of a multi-part series of hub's that will provide you with information on where to look for job, how to look for work, what to do when you find an employment opportunity and lastly how to turn that  opportunity into your new job.

This information in this hub can be beneficial to those that are unemployed or employed.  The information will also be helpful to all age classes and job classifications.  What I am going to tell you is largely not anything new or hasn't been written before.  However, after spending 5 + years in the recruiting and staffing industry; during which time I have interviewed well over 5,000 candidates, spoken to countless hiring managers and business owners from the smallest of businesses to Fortune 500 companies I feel I am qualified to give the readers a unique insight to finding a job.

Don't let people tell you that there are no good jobs left to be had. Even in these challenging times there are still good opportunities to be found. This section is going to give you some ideas of where to start looking for job opportunities.

If you haven't looked for a job in a number of years how surprised were you when you picked up the Sunday newspaper and started looking at the Help Wanted section? The traditional help wanted ads in your local newspaper have dwindled in size dramatically over the last decade. But that doesn't mean you should ignore this source. Quite the contrary if you are trying to seek out a manual labor type of position. There are also some companies that still do place help wanted ads in the local newspapers. You can also visit your local paper's website and view these same ads online.

The Internet has revolutionized many things and job hunting is certainly in that category. There are more job related websites on the Internet than I could possibly list so I am going to give you a few of the major sites that I am sure you already have heard about, but they are worthy of listing. Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are probably two of the biggest job sites out there. Yahoo has HotJobs, if you are in a technology related field Dice.com is valuable. The Ladders.com is a site to pay attention to if you are seeking an executive level position. You can also use an aggregator like Indeed.com which will go out to all the major sites at one time and aggregate the jobs on together in one place.

Most every job site is free though there are some exclusive ones that want to actually charge you money. All I can say there is let the buyer beware. Before you hand over any money make sure you have done your due diligence on the company behind the website. My suggestion is go to Google, put in the website name with the word "scam" after it and see what come up in the search results. It is then up to you to read and decided whether or not you should pay for something.

One other place to look is specifically at company websites. Almost all company websites have a "career" section on their site where they post open positions. I always urge people to look at the major employers in the area and track their career sections independently. Many times there are positions listed here that you will not find anywhere else.

Social networking websites have exploded in the past few years and are now definitely a place where job opportunities can hide. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all valid places where you can search for employment opportunities. If you don't have an account at these three websites I strongly urge you to set-up an account and start exploring. Look for a subsequent hub to be written by me in the near future talking specifically about these three webistes and how to mine them for job opportunities.

Lastly, don't forget your personal connections, friends, family, old co-workers, etc. Just simply let them know that you are looking for a job. Sometimes they have inside knowledge from their place of employment that can turn into a job opportunity.

Good Luck on your search and look to see from me more topics and in depth information on some of the items I touched on in this hub and other relevant job hunting topics!

Topics coming soon.

Resume tips and blunders to avoid

Finding a job on Facebook

How to find the Hidden Job Market

Writing a Resume that will get noticed