With graduation, every student crosses that last bridge into adulthood and comes face-to-face with an uncaring world. All the support figures of youth are gone. You are on your own. From now on it's just you and what you manage to make of your life.

Today's graduates, besides entering one of the toughest job markets in history, also face a dauntingly complex professional future: a fifty-year work life stretches into the distance, marked by job changes about every four years, and even more disruptive, quite possibly three to five complete career changes during this time. Economic recessions will swing by every seven to ten years, and age discrimination will kick in around age fifty. In the professional world that graduates are entering, the only constant is change itself.

In response to these unsettling realities there is a groundswell of awareness and alarm that the skills needed for entry into and survival in this daunting new world of work have never been taught. In fact, state colleges typically have only one career services professional for every three thousand students; the ratio is about half that at private institutions, but still completely out of touch with needs. This means that many graduates have never been exposed to even the most fundamental job search and career management training that would allow them to find work; 80% of this year's graduates heading home without jobs is proof positive.

Heralded as "the career book of the year" by Joyce Lain Kennedy of Tribune Media, the just-published "Knock 'em Dead: Secrets & Strategies for Success in an Uncertain World," examines the tools needed to navigate a frightening new professional landscape. To use your summer productively, absorb and apply these four essential secrets and strategies to accelerate your entry into the professional world:

Your resume is the most financially important document you will ever own.

When it works, you work, and when it doesn't, you don't. Karen McGrath, Talent Acquisition Manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car (the country's leading employer of fresh graduates) says, "The biggest mistake is thinking your resume isn't that big a deal and assuming you've written a masterpiece when in fact it's typically total garbage."

A resume isn't about what you want, or what you think the customer wants; it is about reflecting your ability to satisfy the customers' stated needs. Your resume must focus on one job and describe someone capable of handling the challenges of that job. The only way you can achieve this is to collect and deconstruct a selection of job postings featuring your target job title. This will give you a template for your resume that reflects a composite of employers' priorities and the language they use to describe your target job. With this insight you can build a resume that works.

Professional connectivity is critical.

The goal of every job search in your life is to get into conversation as quickly and as frequently as possible with the people who can hire you; typically they hold the job titles 1-3 levels above yours. Thanks to LinkedIn and other professionally oriented social networking sites, it is increasingly easy to connect with exactly these high-value job titles. When your social networking activities follow a sensible network-building plan, you can quadruple your chances of landing an interview; and simultaneously contribute to your career positioning (visibility) for the future.

Problem resolution is the key to success.

At its core, every job in the world is about problem identification, prevention and solution. It doesn't matter what your job title is, you are always hired to be a problem solver with a specific area of expertise. Because you understand the target job's priorities, you can reach out to social networking contacts this summer and ask them about the specifics of problem identification, prevention and solution within each of that job's responsibilities.

Interviewers hate interviews.

They just want to hire a problem solver and get back to work. As a graduate, you might not have much experience, but your awareness of the problems in each area of the job and the tools of identification, prevention and solution, will turn a one-sided examination of skills into a two-way conversation between committed professionals. When it's clear you "get" the real essence of the job, offers flow.

You are at the start of a half-century work life, and control of professional destiny is within your grasp. The change will be constant, so invest this last summer of freedom in getting up-to-speed with the tools of self-determination and professional success.

An ex-Silicon Valley headhunter & HR Director of a publicly traded storage company, N.Y. Times bestseller, Martin Yate CPC, brings a lifetime of street-wise career management experience to his work.

The Knock Em Dead career management books unfold a new and unique approach to getting what you want out of life rather than becoming a powerless drone trapped in some high-rise salt mine.

With 17 career-management books collectively published in 81 domestic and 63 foreign language editions, he is increasingly thought of as the father of the new career management. Perceptive, direct and witty, you can join Martin here to change the trajectory of your life forever.

As Dun & Bradstreet says, "He's just about the best in the business."

Knockemdead.com delivers exemplary resume and coaching services and encourages affiliate relationships with professional colleagues.