First of all, let me tell you that I know how tough it can be to keep going when you're out there looking for a job and nothing seems to be happening. Believe me, I know. In fact, I'm willing to bet that however bad you're feeling right now, it's nothing to what I've felt like in the past. Trust me on this. I've been in a dark place that no one should have to go through and yet, I've come out of it.

And that means that you're going to come out of it, too.

Hey, there have been periods when every resume I've sent out has not had a single response and every interview that I've gone on has not generated one single follow-up phone call. In fact, there was one period when I couldn't even get a job at the corner McDonald's. (Okay, it was because I was over-qualified but that doesn't matter when you realize that you're just not getting the work that you're looking for.)

One of the things that I learned was that it was very important to maintain a positive attitude. It was important for a variety of reasons -- from family to even future employers. The more depressed I got, the harder it was to enjoy my friends and my family and the harder it became to even walk out the door and hit the job-searching trail once again.

A friend of mine gave me a printed list of things that I needed to look at. He had gone through a similar "dry spell," and someone had given him the list -- which he passed to me, on the condition that I pass it along to others who need it.

The first item on the list was to take a step back and really examine the goals that I was setting for myself -- and the strategies I was using to get to those goals.

It sounded like that was something obvious but for me, it wasn't. You see, I'd been out of the job market for a while and that meant that some of the strategies I was using were out-of-date. After all, when you've been working in a job for over ten years, you don't think that you're going to ever need to stay abreast with current trends.

Wrong.

You need to make sure that your resume is looking good. Keep it current and keep it clean. Go online and take a look at what resumes look like nowadays. Believe it or not, an interviewer can tell what kind of prospect you are by whether or not the resume you're using is the same style as from the seventies or whether it's contemporary.

Maybe the resume isn't the problem. Are you getting interviews but no follow-up requests? It might be time to look at your interviewing techniques and see how polished they are. One very useful tip I learned was to go to interview in front of a business friend and listen to their input. You can get a lot of helpful information that way.

Another important thing to consider is networking. Many people start networking and they're all gung-ho but quickly lose steam. Don't let that happen to you. Keep networking as much as possible. In fact, set a weekly goal for adding new contacts at all times to your network. You'd be amazed at how quickly things can come through that way.

Lastly, think about joining a job club. Many cities have job clubs that have individuals looking for jobs coming together on a weekly basis and offering each other encouragement and moral support -- and even coming up with new leads that might apply to you. In my city, there wasn't a job club but I took out a small ad in a local paper and I had a dozen people show up for the first meeting -- and out of that job club, I eventually found the employment I was looking for.

No matter how difficult it seems and no matter how stressful, just remember that others have been where you are and they've come out of it intact -- just as you will.
If you keep your focus positive and if you take a long, hard look at your situation and work on ways to improve it, you'll be surprised at the results.

Scott Brown is the author of the Job Search Handbook (http://www.JobSearchHandbook.com). As editor of the HireSites.com weekly newsletter on job searching, Scott has written many articles on the subject. He wrote the Job Search Handbook to provide job seekers with a complete yet easy to use guide to finding a job effectively.