Career search is a very stressful and difficult process. This is even made more intense today because so many companies are reducing their workforce. Thus increasing the number of applicants for a shrinking number of jobs.

The competition for available jobs is fierce. Yet, you can beat the competition and actually search and get hired in the career you really want.

Consider these secrets:

1. Discover what you really want out of your work and life.

Discover your true passions, desires, beliefs, and talents so that you can paint a picture of your true work and life goals from your own perspective.

2. Develop and define the job you really want. Design and define the career that will allow you to fulfill your passions, desires, beliefs and maximize your talents.

What you are doing is building your ideal job around what you want as opposed to looking at job opportunities that come along to evaluate. Believe it or not, the career you are searching for actually exists in more than one way and within the personal parameters you set.

3. Find out what companies have positions that meet your ideal position requirements. Look and research all of the possible companies within the geographical area you designated to discover what positions within these companies you would want. Do not worry about whether they have job vacancies or are currently in a hiring mode.

4. Evaluate the companies that have your desired careers. Make sure you would want to work for the companies that have your ideal jobs. They need to have integrity and treat their employees and customers in the manner you would want to be treated.

Determine whether they operate in an industry that you want to work in.

Research about the career you selected. Do not be put off or discouraged if the companies are not hiring. Why? Because companies are always looking for the right employees and will have to eventually hire new employees to survive.

Determine who actually makes hiring decisions, and what is important to them. Many companies disguise this information through HR departments or hiring committees. If possible, try to find out how you can contact hiring decision-makers directly. Get their e-mail addresses, direct telephone numbers, or find someone in the company who can do that for you.

5. Contact the decision-makers and tell them you want to work for them in the specific career you are searching for. Express your enthusiasm for that specific job or jobs. The fewer jobs you designate the better.

You want them to know you can be trusted by truthfully exposing your commitment to seeking your dream job, even though they may not have an opening.

Let them know that you will be very productive because you will excel at the job. That you will be a very grateful and energetic employee because you are doing what you love. You are not just asking for a job so they will pay you, but you have targeted a specific job at that company, and you are committed to contributing in that position.

Employers constantly face the problem of finding and surrounding themselves with the right employees who want to work for them, whom they can trust, and who will be very productive with the least amount of supervision.

You are not the only one searching for the perfect career to come. There are many others who are still on the process of a career search.