A few months ago, I found myself between jobs. I needed to get back into the saddle and start earning some income. Having a recruitment background, I decided to recruit myself back into the supply chain & logistics industry, which is my specialisation. So I started reaching out to my contacts, using LinkedIn as my starting point. In addition to my seeking new employment, there was also a kicker. I required 457 sponsorship!

I networked with as many recruiters, companies and former work colleagues as I could to see if they could connect me with organisations who would be able to make use of my skills and, most importantly, offer sponsorship.

After four to six months of networking and connecting with recruiters, I read a blog on LinkedIn, written by Mark Smith , the Operations Director at people2people. people2people had a vacancy for a recruitment consultant for their Chatswood office (in my specialisation, no less), and they would consider sponsorship for the right applicant! Well, I picked up the phone straight away, called Mark, and the rest is history, as they say. The lesson for us all is that when you are in the job market, you must be proactive and use a variety of connections, networking and online tools to make yourself known to the market.

Don't just limit your search to responding to ads on job boards – ensure that you can be found. Looking for a new job is a job in itself; that has not changed. It's just that your tool box has newer and shinier tools to assist you with your job search. Make sure you take advantage of all them so that you too can find that ideal job.