Hire This Guy #1: Tory's Plan of Action for Mariann

By Tory Johnson

There's one major way in which Mariann Donato's job search mirrors that of so many other people: She's relied too heavily on the Internet. She estimates that over the last two years she's submitted more than 1,000 résumés online, spending upwards of six hours on most days scouring the major job boards for openings. The result: 11 interviews, three of which were informational meetings. No job offers.

She began to realize that months would go by with absolutely no progress. "I started referring to the entire process as the proverbial 'black hole' job search," says Marian.

Here's the advice I'm offering to help her re-engergize her job search and take it in a new, more productive direction: