The burly man in a nurse's uniform and surgical mask stopped me in the hospital corridor. "You don't recognize me, do you?" he asked. "You helped me get into coal mine mechanics training 15 years ago. I made a lot of money, but it all ended in one day when the mine shut down without notice. I've retrained again as a nurse. It's about half the pay but I have a job"

This man reflects the flexibility that 21st century recession job seekers need. The former miner retrained twice to adapt to a changing job market. He was willing to enter a career that for those times was non-traditional for a man. Some of his fellow miners, men I advised as a job counselor, were not so flexible. "What do you mean?" they would ask me indignantly. "Go back to school to train for a job that pays much less money than I've been making? Not for me."

I was an employment counselor when Western Pennsylvania led the nation in low unemployment rates and also fifteen years later, when it was over 12 percent. My advice to displaced workers then and now: cast a wide net when looking for a new job. During the 12 percent unemployment spell I did not dole out advice about finding a dream job, negotiating higher wages or how to use the rifle rather than the shotgun approach to finding employment. It may not be necessary to take any job that comes along, but in bad economic times, job seekers should be open to several possible career avenues. Some quick tips:

Get social. Do you Tweet? Social networking sites - LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter - are great new tools that can help you cast a wide net. Use them to reach out to colleagues and professionals in your field - and new fields - to research interviewers you might face or to touch base with someone who works at a target company who could provide an internal reference.

Resist gimmicks. It's easy to feel lost in the crowd. Anxious job seekers often feel the need to stand out. Among some of the attention-getting tactics: résumés embellished with colors and creative graphics, sandwich boards, billboards, "need a job" wrist bands, résumés posted on the sides of a car.

The fundamentals of good job hunting are networking, a sharp résumé and interview skills. Concentrate on those rather than gimmicks.

Think stimulus. Government spending aimed at kick-starting job growth on the local level could be a source of job leads. But don't expect stimulus spending to bail you out with easy leads. Hunting for a new job created by stimulus spending is as time-consuming as any job hunting.

Begin by targeting "shovel-ready" industries that will benefit from government spending plans. Industries targeted by stimulus money include transportation, healthcare, alternative and renewable energy, education, construction (roadways and bridge infrastructure), small business and government. Research these industries in your area and apply for jobs where you qualify.

The federal government expects to hire 200,000 workers as a result of the stimulus plan. Employment related to Social Security and Veterans Affairs should be relatively strong.

Jacque Simon, policy director for the American Federation of Government Employees, says the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration, Border Patrol, Small Business Administration, Labor Department, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development and the National Science Foundation are expected to add staff directly tied to the stimulus money.