Maybe all that stuff the career counselors say is true.

Getting a job is all about networking, setting your goals, researching the companies you want to work for and attitude.

In the book "Get The Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring," career consultant Ford R. Myers said the truisms were even more important in a weak economy.

Amazingly, he said, in some ways it is easier to get a job now because most people are putting their heads under the covers and giving up until the recession is over.

Mr. Myers takes the opposite tactic: Get out there, be proud of what you have done and don't take losing a job in a massive recession as a sign of personal failure.

"People are going into the desperation mind-set," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Haverford, Montgomery County.

He said many job seekers aren't able to articulate their value as an employee and how their skills match the values and skills of an employer.

His book gives exercises and advice on how to market yourself to the company that would be a good fit for you.

In the book he says not to take the first job offered. A client of his lost his job as an executive vice president at a manufacturing company. For a while during his job search, he worked part time in a paint store to make ends meet.

When offered a job as a store manager, Mr. Myers' client declined. It would be full time and more money, but it was not the job he wanted and certainly not the level of work he had previously. Instead, he stayed part-time, which allowed him the flexibility to continue his job hunt, which ended with a higher paying gig with more responsibility than the job he had lost.

Mr. Myers said the point of the story is "my client never confused the means with the ends. He kept his focus on finding the real job."

Ultimately, looking back on it, the client said the part-time retail job was a "great learning experience."

"It was humbling in a good way," Mr. Myers said this week. "He was a big-time executive traveling all around the world."

Then he lost his job and worked in the store.

"He became a much more empathetic person. He learned about customer service," Mr. Myers said. "He said he totally loved it."

Through it all, Mr. Myers said, job seekers have to retain their focus. They should network every day, use social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, take classes or obtain certifications to keep skills current, and get help from a career professional. If you can't afford a career counselor, use government programs (such as CareerLink in Pennsylvania) or, if you went to college, the career center there.

He also reminds job seekers to take care of themselves by eating well, exercising, sleeping and stepping away from the job hunt to maintain balance in your life with your friends, family and normal routines.

Throughout a job hunt, the importance of attitude cannot be understated. "Avoid the gloom and doom messages disseminated by the media [this article excluded], and stay away from any negative people in your life who bring you down," he wrote in the book. "Maintain a positive attitude, and never state anything negative or act desperate."

The attitude extends throughout the search, and Mr. Myers' book has a list of those annoying interview questions (whoops, there we go being negative) and how to handle them, such as, "Why should I hire you?" It turns out that the answer is not to pull out copies of your credit card bills and bank statements to show how they do not match up. Instead, if you researched the company, you will have a knowledge of what the employer does and how your experience matches those needs.

He also includes 42 questions you can ask at the interview; just change the order in case your interviewer read the same book.