If you're stuck in a job-search rut, here's a tip: the newspaper is a great place to look for leads.

I'm not talking about the classifieds (if anyone even reads want-ads anymore). I mean actually reading the paper. The "Marketplace" section of the Journal, for instance. The point is to pay attention to what's going on in business, in your field, and in your industry. You can learn a lot about which companies could be prospective employers this way. As it happens, this approach is a far-more effective path to job opportunities than ads.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't some very good sources of job postings. SimplyHired, for instance, is not only a great aggregator of job listings, it can also tell you which of your Facebook friends' employers are hiring .

Looking for companies instead of jobs though has two significant benefits. One is that you get a leg up on the competition. If you follow the news and see that a company may have a need, approaching someone there first -- before HR even drafts a job description -- puts you a mile ahead of all the candidates who will wait until they see the vacancy publicly posted.

More importantly, I think, is that this approach gives you more control over your own destiny. Haven't we all thought at some point, "I would love to work for John Smith, or Company X"? There's no reason such a thought is a fantasy. Why wait until those people or companies tell the world they have an opening?

So here's your resolution as a job hunter this year: Think big and be proactive.