One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Gold

“Succeeding is not really a life experience that does that much good. Failing is a much more sobering and enlightening experience.” – Micheal Eisner

There is nothing like a garage sale. The best ones are the ones where it is a town-wide sale. It is truly amazing the things that people will (try to) sell. Better yet, it is even more amazing the things that people will buy. Not to say that everything at a garage sale is junk. In fact, most of the items have real value and are just “looking for a new home”. But my favorite part of the garage sale is when it’s over and looking at the leftover items that find their way to the curb for trash pickup rather than back in the garage for next year’s sale. This is, of course, when the scavengers come out and collect their “gold” from the discarded items. By now I’m sure you’re wondering where this is going and how this can possibly have anything to do with job search – read on.

A large portion of available jobs (most likely the majority of jobs) are “vacancy” jobs. These are jobs that are open because the former job holder is no longer in that job. Maybe they got promoted, or maybe they left the company. Sometimes it’s for better opportunity and sometimes it is because they were “let go”. Whatever the reason, it is your job to find out why the job is available during the interview. In fact, it is your job to drive the interview rather than the interview driving you.

• SIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ASK – Posted on Jobdig.com, this article provides some great questions that you should ask on an interview, including “what happened to the last person”. Most importantly, read the final paragraphs to remind you about the important things to consider when making your decision on your next job. While you are on the site, take a look at the related links on the left hand side of the page (job search, career advice, etc.). Right side of the page has top jobs.

• 10 Ways To Signal Strength In A Job Interview – How you answer interview questions (and what questions you ask) is not the only deciding factor in an interview. Qualifications aside, it is the total impression that will make you or break you. This article, by Tim Tyrell-Smith and posted on timsstrategy.com, provides both the prerequisites and the “what do I need to do” information you will need to ace your interview. Want more? Take a look at the related links at the bottom of the page.

• How to Quickly Recover From Bad Job Interviews – This article was posted on JobMob and, if you’ve ever had a bad interview (and who hasn’t), take a read. Just when you think you’ve lost all hope, you too can salvage your interview. The article includes advice regarding what to do both during and after the interview. While you are there, check out all of the great resources on JobMob.

• 50 Worst of the Worst (and Most Common) Job Interview Mistakes – Who would have thought that there would be a list of 50 job interview mistakes (and most common at that). Posted on Yahoo Finance, some of these you will recognize and many you want. All are worth a read so that you don’t make the same mistake. My personal favorite is “Chewing gum, tobacco, your pen, your hair.”

• The most ridiculous job interview questions – And now for the lighter side, the difference here is that these are real interview questions. You know what they say, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. Hopefully you won’t get any of the questions in this article, but you never know. You will recognize most of the companies (but hopefully none of the questions). Enjoy.

Good luck in your search.

Author: CareerAlley

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.