It's bleak out there, and your options are a little limited, Mr. Grad -- the job of your dreams certainly isn't going to fall right in your lap. Either you get creative with the self-promotion or you're going to spend the foreseeable future living in your parents' garage and feeling like you're in high school again. And no one wants that

To get a little perspective on a few things that you can do to up your marketability, we consulted the advice of writer and speaker Lindsay Pollak, who specializes in career advice for young professionals. Her book "Getting from College to Career" gives 90 tips for building up your career mojo, dealing with the more obvious ones (make sure you're over-prepared for a job interview -- even if it's an "informational interview") as well as the more psychological (get rid of the "shoulds") and the unusual (work as a tour guide).

A few of her choicer bits of counsel, including what films to watch to make yourself a good catch, after the jump.

Pollak emphasizes a kind of holistic approach to the job search -- staying flexible and open to new ideas, matched with an understanding of how to grab what you want when it's there.

1. Read a newspaper (beyond just the sports section). Pollak says that by actively reading a newspaper every morning (she suggests the New York Times and Wall Street Journal), you'll be more aware of opportunities, you'll be able to have credible conversations about a variety of topics with recruiters and you can find inspiration for entrepreneurial ideas. Pollak doesn't mention that newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur, and may not be around much longer: Subscribe while there is still something to subscribe to!

2. Take those pics with the beer bong off Facebook. If you want an adult job where someone will pay you a lot of money to do important things, Pollak suggests it's not a bad idea to learn how to e-mail without using all lowercase letters, clean up the raunchy pics on your social networking profile and get some business cards made up with your information on them. Don't worry, you can still get trashed and act like a moron on the weekends -- just keep your daytime image a little bit more tame.

3. Do five minutes of stand-up comedy. You probably aren't that convinced that you're actually funny enough to be up on stage, but getting up in front of people to tell jokes can help you learn the confidence, poise and rhythm to be a good public speaker, writes Pollak. She says that taking an improv class is a good way to start. And if you bomb miserably and people throw food and insults at you, well, hey, free food.

4. Watch "The Godfather" (again, probably). Pollak writes that if you want to stand out from your peers, it's not a bad idea to know the types of things that experienced people know -- like the famous lines from the 10 greatest American movies of all time. These include "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Graduate." At least know what it means when someone tells you to get into "plastics."

Good luck on the job search. If you're lucky and persistent enough to land a sweet gig based on our (and Pollak's) sage advice, feel free to send us gifts with your new, fat paycheck.