Make Job-Hunting a Party

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"Eat like a bird and poop like an elephant." That's the advice whip-smart author Guy Kawasaki gives to entrepreneurs, and it applies to job-hunters, too. Birds eat 50% of their body weight per day—which is exactly what job-hunters should do with information. Become an absolute expert in, say, everything related to your industry-specific job hunt. Don't rely on others or be passive about it; rather read everything, talk to everyone, be everywhere. Once you've become a hub of this information, don't hoard it. Spread it around—like the elephant. Share what you know. Exude dynamism and utility. Remember, all those jobless people in your field won't be jobless forever—and when they show up at their new jobs, it'll be with your poop on their shoes.

Use your unique currency: Time. That's one thing you've got more of now than you did when you were employed. So use it wisely, obviously, concentrating on your job-specific outreach, but also building relationships more broadly. Constantly seek out opportunities to help others, people you know and people you don't know, with your free time and talents. And don't ruin your efforts by keeping score; it's deeply inauthentic.

Become a social butterfly. You already know you need to network—what I'm emphasizing is the social. Never again will you have more time to build deep friendships, personal and professional. Don't turn down invitations or be passive in planning your week. Catalog all the relationships that you let slip while in the throes of your last job. Then line up a series of dinners—what I call "long, slow dinners," the kind that create space for a connection to flourish, whether old or new. You can be social while still being purposeful, too—i.e., don't feel obligated to reunite with your sixth-generation, twice-removed cousins in Kazakhstan right now, unless maybe you're in oil and gas.

Above all, remember: Your life is happening right now, not the day you're assigned a company computer. So please live it—with others!

Keith Ferrazzi, a relationship development expert, is the author of the No. 1 best-seller Who's Got Your Back and the CEO of Ferrazzi Greenlight.

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