From blatant job interview questions like, “What’s your greatest weakness, weakest attribute, or most significant failure.” To soft, “What might your previous employer say?” Even softer, “You certainly seem to have a lot of strengths, but we understand no one is perfect.” The question will come one way or another, everyone knows it, yet still befuddled by it.

Well, the presidential campaign is over—finally! It was a long, winding, sometimes torturous road for the two “finalists” for the job, Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama, both excellent candidates. But still, in the end, only ONE of the candidates was ultimately selected for the position, the President of the United States. It is ever thus for most “job searches.”

When you think about it (as I have done!), there are more than just a few parallels between how this, the most important of “job searches,” unfolded and how the typical, admittedly far more mundane, job search unfolds in the current job market.