I recently spoke with a 61 year old man who came to our firm looking for a job. He was desperate.

Jeff had been a 30-year employee of a well-known car manufacturing company. First his pension had been converted into a 401k program with a substantial loss to him. Then, in a down-sizing move, his job was eliminated. While he was offered a small exit package, it was not going seriously dent his financial burden and give him reassurances for the future.

In short, Jeff was out on the street and his family and their future in turmoil. He felt he had to move fast to find a new job. He had two kids in college and another graduating from high school in a year. He simply couldnt sit back and hope for the best.

Obviously, Jeffs admirable intentions and ambition to find a new job quickly were important to his success. But that faded quickly when he found himself, weeks later, with nothing to show for his efforts. With no income, Jeff was getting desperate.

Sadly, Jeff is not alone. Thousands of family men and women around the country are facing the same desperation. The cure, of course, is to find a job that will answer their needs. Heres what Jeff did to accomplish that over a period of several weeks:

1. Wrote a traditional resume with objective statement and reverse chronology work history.

2. Mailed and emailed it to dozens of employers . . . posted it on several job sites like Monster.com and HotJobs.com.

3. Routinely answered lots of want ads.

4. Contacted several employment agencies and a handful of recruiters.

5. Made phone calls directly to several companies in the area.

6. When a decent response didnt materialize he redoubled his efforts and wound up distributing hundreds of resumes.

7. Waited and waited for the phone to ring with the right opportunity.

Heres what Jeff got in return for all his efforts:

1. Dozens of TNT (thanks but no thanks) letters.

2. A couple offers for low-wage temp jobs.

3. Four pitches from network marketing enterprises.

4. Three dead-end phone interviews with recruiters who were exploring possible talent.

5. Total frustration. The more effort he pumped into the job marketplace, the less the result s and the more a corresponding rise in his feeling of rejection and desperation.

Jeff asked himself: Was it his age? Was his background irrelevant? Were his references turning on him? Was his former employer sabotaging him?

In fact, none of the above. Very simply, Jeff was doing it ALL WRONG!

The good news is it could go entirely different for Jeff if he was willing to abandon everything he thought he knew about how to find a job. And then jump aboard the 21st Century alternative job search train where he could be entertaining real job offers in as little as 14 days!