Tips for Your Job Search From the Job Fair

4) Expand your search.

(ABC News)

Jerry pounded the pavement day after day for months, and there were no jobs on construction sites. He never thought to apply his skills in another direction, such as a home improvement retailer. Don't limit yourself to one type of position that you're eyeing. Think today about five different positions that you can be pursuing simultaneously.

Just a week after we profiled Becky Breining who's been out of work for nearly a year after losing her job in the automotive industry, she sounds like a new person. Becky had only been looking for traditional positions, but she took our advice to create a profile on Elance.com and has since begun making money on various projects. Three of the assignments focus on administrative project management and another involves software training.

Becky has never met her new clients, which include Atlanta-based Money Mouth Marketing, San Francisco-based real estate consultancy Jonathan Fleming & Associate and Pipeline Media Relations, a Chicago-based firm. She'll perform all of her work virtually using the Elance platform.

Cheryl Ludwig of Bishop, Ga., who was out of work when her former employer, a landscape nursery, laid off several staffers, has found her niche working 40-plus hours per week on Odesk.com and WorkingSolutions.com. This home-based work allows her the freedom to focus on her art as well, which she's selling online through Etsy.com. This too was an "out-of-the-box" solution for her.

5) Call your mayor's office and/or local Chamber of Commerce.

Ask specifically about retraining programs and job placement assistance. In Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley has an Office of Workforce Development that focuses specifically on placement assistance and retraining. Find out in your city what type of services may be available to you.

Tory Johnson is the workplace contributor on "Good Morning America" and the CEO of Women for Hire. Visit her Web site at www.womenforhire.com.