Unemployment is through the roof and the economy is in the toilet. In a job market like this, you can’t afford to be lackadaisical in the job search process. While a top-notch resume, cover letter, and interview (followed by a thank-you note) are critical, there are a few other to-knows that can take you from the bottom of the barrel to the top of the heap. Check out these college career directors’ tips, compiled by CityTownInfo.com, on how to survive and thrive in today’s competitive employment environment.

Be assertive.
“Students should know better than to go to a career fair and directly ask an employer what kind of job they have for them. It’s much better to introduce themselves to employers and tell them what they are studying and what they are interested in career-wise. Students need to take control of their own career development.”

–Len Konarski, director of career services and internships at the University of Massachusetts Boston

Get an internship.
“For two-thirds of open positions in a company, HR will look at internship candidates first to see if they will make a good match before they post the position publicly.”

–Rebecca Patten-Lemons, director of career services at Ivy Tech Community College – Central Indiana

Keep your network wide open.
“Sociologist Mark Granovetter calls networking ‘the strength of weak ties’ and states that many weak ties can be more beneficial than a few strong ones because they bring forward new information and ideas, and more opportunities. It is important for students to consider their network beyond their friends and the people they go to school with.”

–Tonya Britton, program manager, Workforce, for the business and social sciences division at Lone Star College-Montgomery

Do some digging.
“The current statistic is that about 80 percent of jobs are not actually posted anywhere. They are found by talking to people who know people, who know about open positions, also known as ‘the hidden job market.’”

–Megan Hill, associate director of career networks at the University of Kansas’ University Career Center

Make connections at work.
“It is important for new employees to ask co-workers to go out to lunch or to take a coffee break rather than eating lunch alone at their desk. It’s not always about work; forging better interpersonal relationships with people across an organization is ultimately going to benefit people with career advancement.”

–Becky Ross, director of the Twardowski Career Development Center at West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Remember that there’s more to life than work.
“If someone who values family and personal life chooses to be a lawyer, they may not by very happy with their career, especially early on. It is extremely important to have a balance between the two, and I think the mentality of the entire United States population is becoming more focused around work, work, work. This recession has helped people realize that there needs to be a balance, and life isn’t just about work, work, work because people don’t know how long work might be there; they have to take care of their personal lives too.”

–Michael Doty, director of the University of Texas at Dallas Career Center

Great tips, right? Be sure to read the full Q&As with these and other college career center directors at CityTownInfo.com.  Let us know if any of these tips have worked for you, and share some of your get-ahead strategies below in the comments.

-Robyn Tellefsen