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Successful people at times do unnatural things. I remember reading a few years ago about an unemployed computer specialist who camped out at the Microsoft facility in Redmond, Ore., passing out his resume to employees and managers as they walked from the parking lot to their offices. He got hired.

His was an extreme example, but in a depressed job market it's important to out-maneuver your competition and step from your conventional comfort zone. Success finding employment is not so much about whom you know, but who knows about you.

This is not to suggest that you stalk the parking lot at NCR or some other venue. Market exposure, however, is important. Hunkered at home mailing out resumes or surfing the Internet for opportunities doesn't necessarily get it done. You want to vacate your careering cocoon and directly engage the market.

As part of your marketing strategy, plan to be seen and heard. Attend events where you might renew relationships with old friends and meet new people. Make it your business to be somewhere as often as opportunity permits.

Attend a professional association luncheon, drop by a chamber of commerce business-after-hours social, stroll community festivals and bazaars, show up at a school PTO meeting or a little league baseball game.

And don't just stand around detached from the group. Purposely engage people with small talk. Weather, politics and sports are common ice breakers, but you're more effective extending a compliment or a comment to a stranger. Avoid soliciting people you meet for a job. In the course of conversation, you likely will have the opportunity to discuss your professional area and job situation. Resist pushing the envelope – begging for help. Create a relationship that might spawn a second encounter.

If you work the crowd, the crowd will work for you. And you won't need to create a public scene to get a job.

Steve Stromp is a professional career consultant, lecturer and writer. Contact him: sstromp@sbcglobal.net.