Many job hunters recognize at some point in their transitions that they aren't progressing satisfactorily toward their goal. If this describes you, congratulations. The first step in moving forward is recognizing that your search is stalled. The secret to moving from "neutral" to "drive" is first identifying the specific problem area, then applying the following strategies to improve, overcome or circumvent it.

Moving from passivity to powerful action may require soul-searching to determine what you really want to do -- not what others expect you to do, says Alan Slobodnik, a licensed clinical social worker and a principal with NetAge, a Boston-based consulting firm for virtual teams. "Once people say, ‘here's my goal and I'm willing to walk over hot coals to get it,' it's truly amazing what they can accomplish," says Mr. Slobodnik.

Consider Crystal Gerard, a 42-year-old sales professional in Cincinnati who hit rock-bottom the day she realized she was creative, resourceful, enthusiastic and action-oriented when helping her friends find jobs. However, she couldn't seem to get out of a low-paying, dead-end position and find a job for herself. She decided she had to take ownership of the problem and vowed to rely on her own efforts rather than blaming others or circumstances for her dissatisfying situation.

To propel her search, Ms. Gerard chose to "reinvent" herself. She decided "not to use newspaper advertising, to be creative, aggressive and to think outside the box," she recalls.

Her first step was to invest in a resume redo that pulled together common threads of her diverse background and helped position her as an accomplished sales professional. Next, she applied sales fundamentals (prospecting, cold calling and relationship building) to increase her contacts. As she began to generate interviews, she narrowed her focus to the office furniture industry, and through persistence and following up, she scheduled interviews, developed a referral network and made herself memorable to several industry hiring authorities. Two months after making initial contact, she was offered and accepted a sales representative's position at the Office Furniture Store -- a job created for her because she had convinced top managers of her talent and potential.

Going through this process built Ms. Gerard's confidence. She takes pride in the fact that she "did what a small percentage of people do -- get hired when there isn't even a position."

Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. On the Monday morning Kathryn Harris was to start a new job, she received devastating news that the position had been eliminated. She spent most of that week feeling hopeless, powerless, unfocused and unable to renew her job search.

Seeking to make a career change from retail management to a recruiting or human-resources position, Ms. Harris, 31, had relied on newspaper want ads to identify job opportunities. She received about a 40% response rate and 20% interview rate from her want-ad correspondence and credits a highly focused resume and cover letter that helped hiring managers see the link between her experience and their needs. Before interviews, she researched each company on the Internet and practiced role-playing with her husband to hone her interviewing skills. Her search was successful: She landed a recruiting position with a restaurant chain, quit her old job and headed off for a Hawaiian vacation -- only to return to no job at all.

When faced with a job ending, many people experience the recognized stages of grief that follow any major loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. Attempting to move forward too quickly while you're in the early stages can be counterproductive. Talking through your feelings with a sympathetic listener such as a spouse, friend, co-worker, coach or counselor can help speed the process to acceptance.

"When I got the news, I didn't know what to do. I felt lost and couldn't focus on anything," says Ms. Harris. In retrospect, she wouldn't have changed how she reacted. The week she spent doing nothing provided time to absorb the loss and re-focus her energy. She assessed her first search and concluded that her strategies had been successful. So when she was mentally ready to begin again, she just "took a deep breath and started all over." Her approach was effective once more, and after a brief search she found her current position as an executive recruiter with Netquest, a recruitment firm in Cincinnati. Happy in her new job, she can see that losing the first one may have been for the best, even though it was hard to believe that Monday morning when the phone call came.

Finding a mentor who can advise you and assist with your progress is a good career strategy for just about anyone. For Chris Jenkins, a 26-year-old medical sales representative, asking his mentor for help when he became stuck in his search came naturally.

Mr. Jenkins has always sought mentor relationships with people whose knowledge, ethics and professionalism he admired. He had developed such a bond with his sales manager at a medical services company in Erlanger, Ky. The manager was sincerely interested in helping his staff grow and aware that advancement potential with the company was limited. So when Mr. Jenkins' initial efforts to find a new sales job were unproductive, he consulted his manager, who offered coaching that turned his search around.

"I've always looked for opportunities to work with people who can help me grow," says Mr. Jenkins. "It was the same when my job search stalled. After three months of hitting my head against a wall, I realized I didn't know how to go about looking for a job, so I consulted with someone I trusted and respected."

Once he followed his manager's suggestions -- to rewrite his resume, focus his efforts and contact industry-specific recruiters -- Mr. Jenkins began to get results. Within a few months, he landed a more challenging sales position with potential for advancement. He's a sales representative for an organization that promotes hospice services.

Knowing how to conduct an effective job search isn't an innate skill. Job seekers who become stalled and frustrated may need coaching to acquire specific abilities.

When Kevin Curtin, a former manager in the music retailing business, decided it was time for a career change, he had little experience at job hunting and his attempts to find a sales position in the publishing industry met with poor results. He received no response to the resumes he sent to human-resources departments of large publishing companies. His initial networking attempts also were unproductive. No closer to his goal after two months, Mr. Curtin, 40, decided he needed to learn how to job hunt.

"I was spinning my wheels," he says. "I had never really had to look for a job before and really didn't know how to go about it."

Mr. Curtin used personality and career assessments to help him define his strengths and goals, then interviewed numerous career-services firms before selecting one to help him with resume writing and strategy development. His selection was based on rapport, "serious answers to serious questions," and services that were personally tailored to his needs. This step proved to be a catalyst for his job search. Armed with a revised resume that described his goals and strengths, he was able to make contacts and gain access to hiring managers.

Mr. Curtin used specific resources to help him stay focused and productive, including strategies suggested by Don Asher, the San Francisco-based author of "The Foolproof Job Search Workbook" (1995, Ten Speed Press).

Mr. Asher, who often works with job hunters whose searches have faltered, says he usually can detect why. "When I talk to them, I often find that they're deluded about how much work they're doing," he says. "When I ask them how many new people they've talked to this week, they can count the number on one hand. They may think they're being productive -- they're having lunch with business friends or going to a job club -- but in fact they're spinning their wheels because they aren't making new contacts."

Mike Sipple, a Cincinnati recruiter and transition consultant, agrees with this view. "By the time people come to see me, they realize they're stuck," he says. "When we look at their activities and their progress, nine times out of 10 we discover that they've been busy but unproductive. Either they're not doing enough of the right things, or they're not doing them correctly. We teach them the process -- what to do and how to do it well."

To stay on track, Mr. Curtin sets daily schedules and weekly goals. "Create a schedule and stick to it," he says. "Make yourself make those calls. I do it first thing in the morning to get it out of the way. I've also learned not to take it personally when I hear ‘no.' I just consider it part of the process."

Mr. Curtin has been generating interviews and was a finalist for two positions that closely matched his transition goal. He feels optimistic about his efforts to earn a job offer and says the experience has been rewarding. "Learning the process has given me skills and experience that will be valuable throughout my career," he says.

Sometimes it takes a looming deadline or personal crisis to spur job seekers to productive action. For Lisa Rawers, 47, who was terminated from a computer services sales position, realizing that her unemployment compensation was about to end propelled her to make the shift from investigating to finding a job.

"From the beginning I felt optimistic, mainly due to the good economy, and I was enjoying talking to people and exploring new possibilities, but when the money was about to run out, I got scared," she says.

To calm her fears, Ms. Rawers played "what-if" games -- What if I don't get a job? What if I lose my house? -- and realized that the worst possible outcomes weren't that bad and she always had options and possibilities. To keep her spirits up, she stayed involved in church and social activities and regularly touched base with friends and networking contacts.

She also addressed each roadblock and sought ways to get over or around it. One of her greatest obstacles -- authorities who were "just too busy to interview, even when they really needed to hire someone" -- was beyond her control. Ms. Rawers focused on being "patient and professional but incredibly persistent," and her dogged follow-up efforts regularly resulted in second and third interviews.

Another obstacle, the need to keep her computer skills updated, was relatively easy to address. Previously, questions about her computer skills would leave her feeling defensive and vulnerable in interviews. But after she sought training, she found that the added expertise boosted her self-confidence.

Now an account executive for Cincom Systems, a Cincinnati-based software manufacturer, Ms. Rawers says that becoming unstuck during her job search required persistence, resourcefulness and good problem-solving skills and was valuable to her personally.

If there's a common theme to these accounts, it's accountability and taking responsibility. Accepting ownership for your career, the progress of your job search and your actions and choices is instrumental to moving toward a position that meets your personal and professional goals. During a job search, regularly assessing your progress -- perhaps during a Sunday evening review, strategy and planning session for the coming week -- will help you to measure your results and avoid the trap of being busy but unproductive. You'll be revving your engines and moving toward a new, satisfying position.

-- Ms. Kursmark, a certified resume writer and job and career transition coach, is president of Best Impression, a career-services firm in Cincinnati.