Finding a new job can be a time-intensive, exhausting task. Follow these tips to make your job search more targeted, efficient, and successful.

Job listings only represent about 15 percent of the overall job market. The remaining 85 percent makes up the hidden job market-all of the positions that are created and filled before a listing is ever posted. To be effective in today's highly competitive job market, you have to get out there and strategically promote yourself to employers who can appreciate your value and are able to hire you.

Having a great resume is not enough. You must take initiative and package yourself favorably to attract the best employers, and that means getting out there and promoting yourself: hitting the pavement and manning the phones, so to speak, to generate relationships that ultimately lead to new career opportunities.

Job searching is mostly about marketing. You may think that skills and credentials speak for themselves, but if these are not clearly and compellingly portrayed in an attractive package, another candidate who does a better job of marketing and communicating the value of him or herself, will slip in ahead of you.

Self-promotion can be a huge challenge for many otherwise savvy, capable job seekers. Here's how to simplify the process and accelerate your progress to lessen this burden and find your next challenge swiftly.

1. Brace yourself for the project.
Understand that there is work to be done and no easy way out of it. Ideally, a recruiter or headhunter would do the work and find you, but don't count on this happening, especially in today's recruiting environment, where more and more companies are handling recruiting in-house to reduce expenses. You have to rely on your own personal initiative to open doors and get your name in circulation.

Even if a recruiter does get your toe in the door, it's up to you to put your best foot forward by preparing for the meeting: research the company and the individual you are meeting and figure out how you can add value to the company by solving problems growing revenue with your unique skills and characteristics. Even if the employer seeks you out, you still need to demonstrate that you can deliver what they expect from a winning candidate.

2. Don't overextend yourself.
Do this and you're likely to be ineffective. The key to success is focusing your job search on a limited number of target companies that you determine need your talents; then figuring ways to "get inside" these organizations to present yourself as a prospective employee. By investing the time to learn and understand the needs and cultures of your target companies and approaching those that fit you, you'll appear as the unparalleled match and someone that they want to find a way to hire. But this kind of campaign is based on quality, not quantity, so make sure that each approach is targeted and thorough, so that you don't wear yourself out spinning your wheels pursuing lost causes.

3. Be generous.
In today's job market, doing a sample project is one of the most effective ways to establish credibility and gain an element critical to hiring decisions: trust. Allowing an employer to see the quality of your work before making a hiring decision decreases the employer's risk, alleviates fears or reservations they may harbor about committing to you, increases goodwill, and often accelerates the hiring process. Developing a collaborative relationship early on with a potential employer sets the stage for a job offer by putting you both in a mutually beneficial position.

4. Be pound wise, not penny foolish.
This admonishment extends to both job offers you're seriously considering and salary negotiations. Put your pride aside for a moment and think dollars and cents. If you are currently not generating sufficient income, then any additional compensation goes in the plus column. Once you're working, you stand a better chance of proving that you are worth more. Be sure to keep your eye on your bigger financial picture, and keep in mind how much each day of unemployment is costing you. If you can afford to hold out for the bigger nut, then do so. But if things are getting tight, you may need to make some compromises in terms of your compensation expectations, or negotiate other terms of your compensation instead of base salary, such as bonuses, benefits, and vacation time.

5. Enlist a pro.
Since few candidates are fortunate enough to find volunteers lining up to assist with job search tasks, make the decision to hire professional help to defray some of the time intensive tasks like corporate research, developing a list of target employers, preparing a dynamite résumé, and crafting elevator speeches and phone call introductions.

By following these tips and pacing yourself through the challenge of a job search, you'll be interviewing with hiring managers in no time. Stay focused and best of luck in the job search.

Debra Feldman, the JobWhiz, is an original-the premier personal executive talent agent ("Career Matchmaker") introducing you directly to hiring managers at pre-qualified target employers.