With nearly 10% unemployment and almost 15 million people out of work, more and more individuals are seeking the services of recruiting firms, resume writing companies, networking websites, and personal coaches to help them identify and find new positions.

While I feel utilizing these ideas are certainly a good one, I contend that most unemployed people fail to utilize one particular source when seeking a new job.

That source is themselves.

We all have had careers with industries and firms where we were the ones that got ourselves in the front door in the first place. So how did we do that before the dawn of coaches, resume writers, Facebook, and staffing firms?

Print out a copy of your resume. Look closely at the firms you worked for and ask yourself some questions:

1. How did I prepare myself for interviews?
2. What did I learn in college and post-college that was able to utilize on the job with ‘X’ firm?
3. What experiences did I have that helped me perform well and then take those life lessons to my next employer?
4. Why was I successful? Why did I learn from the failures and mistakes I made? How did I ensure I did not make those mistakes again?
5. What did I do every day at my job? How many hats did I wear?
6. Clearly, I sold myself to get in the door – so how did I do that? Did I rely on the help of others? If so, where are they now and how can they assist me?

If you take a few minutes and really study what you did to get where you were, you may truly find the best person to help you market yourself and find a new job is you. So what’s stopping you?