Like all marketing efforts getting a job requires proactive, hard work. It is not enough to answer want ads and blanket the world with resumes. Operating under the correct assumption that good companies are always looking for impact players, you must take control of your destiny and seek out and find one good company. The company may or may not be in the market for you. The company may not know it needs you. The company won't even know who you are. That matters not a wit. If you can improve a company's top line or improve its economics in any way, you will be in demand.
If you know a company for whom you would like to work, target them first. If you do not know any target companies, pick one or two or three cities or towns where you would like to live. Then get out a map, and with the desired town as a centerpoint, use a companss and draw a circle with a forty- or fifty-mile radies. This is the area where you wil begin your job search.
Next, go to the library or use the Internet, and begin researching the reference books that detail the businesses in your search area. Good reference materials include the various Dun and Bradstreet listings, the Standard Directory of International Advertisers and Advertising Agencies: The International Red Book, and the state-published directories of companies. Unless you have a burning desire to work in one industry, be totally indiscriminant as to potential companies. Don't negatively prejudge a company or industry, assuming, for example, that the products are too technical or that the company sounds boring or that it is too big or too small. Every compay has appeal to someone. Obviously, you can eliminate any companies that are in an industry that is distasteful to you, or that sell products that you find personally offensive. Identify five or six companies which, for any reason, appeal to you in some way.
These companies are where you must focus you efforts. Learn all you can about these companies. Read all their sales literature and annual reports, if available. Visit their web site. Buy their product(s) if possible. Talk to retailers, distributors, and customers. Research your target company's competitors. See what's been published about your company, its industry, its competitors. Then, based on what you have learned, write an impact letter to the CEO of the company outlining five or six ways the company could be improved. A good letter will get you an interview.
If the first forty-mile circle is a bust, draw another one in a different place. There are lots of companies out there that will hire you when they learn how you can improve their top or bottom line.