Here are some ‘gotcha’ questions I have heard:

What accomplishment are you most proud of at your last job? Candidate answer: “I was a whistle-blower at my last job and exposed some wrong doing, and got a couple of people fired.” Hmmm, nope, find another accomplishment and talk about that one. We admire whistle-blowers perhaps, but probably won’t go out of our way to hire one.

Where do you see yourself in 2 years? Candidate answer: “By then I’d like to be running my own business.” This might be factually correct and a dream of yours but few companies want to invest in your training and hiring when they know you are planning to leave. Think.

Do you have any questions of me about the job or the company? Candidate answer: “No, not at this time, I did not have time to do any research or look at your website, so I don’t know anything about your company.” Seriously? Always come prepared with a couple of pertinent questions about the company, its products or services. You would shocked at the number of candidates who do not even do this, making a gotcha question out of a normal interview question.

Over at US NEWS and WORLD REPORT today, I give a couple more gotcha questions and how you can handle them better.

What are the gotcha questions you have heard? There are lots of first time job seekers out there now, so any experiences would be helpful to many people.

But if you are alive today, you just have to know about all the new social media tools, how they are used, when and where. And how you can best use them in your daily and business life. Which is why you should run, not walk, to lulu.com ( lulu ) to buy a new book being released today called Age of Conversation 2, which is a total exploration of social media and its impact on business. Its kicker text is: Why Don’t They Get it? and it is broken into eight main sections;

* Manifestos
* Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation
* Moving from Conversation to Action?
* The Accidental Marketer
* A New Brand of Creative
* My Marketing Tragedy
* Business Model Evolution
* Life in the Conversation Lane

It is a book of articles and essays (limited to 400 words each) by some of the world’s best users, social media experts and writers today; 237 in all, from 15 countries, each one concise, on point, relevant and insightful. 237 viewpoints on how you can better understand the social media phenomenon….all in one book. Brilliantly organized and edited by Gavin Heaton and Drew McClellan, all proceeds from the sale of this book will go to benefit Variety, the Children’s Charity.

Here is the list of authors who contributed their time, ideas and insights:

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

That be me.

Sometimes this turns out ok…luckily. Others, not so good. It turned out great here at JobDig, where our employment media company is all about zigs and not about zags, or doing things how they ‘used to be.’ Frankly, it is a lot of fun to make a new business out of re-thinking common approaches.

It is with that mindset that I wrote a post today in US NEWS, suggesting a fictional letter to employees after hearing the bad financial news of yesterday. For every company that is hanging its collective heads today, I bet there are dozens more who are figuring out new, unique ways to prosper.

Do you agree?

How do you find these opportunities?

First, use your natural curiosity. Ask yourself why something is done that particular way. My first startup, Varitronic Systems, came about because Scott Drill and I asked why the only company (Kroy) in the lettering machine space, was still making users spin a dial to get the letters to print on the adhesive-backed tape..what if, we could attach a keyboard?…

Second, do the customers or users love the current service? If they don’t, there is room for another service or product opportunity. Said another way, if you not only find that they don’t love it, but HATE it…you are on your way to startup heaven. At JobDig, we simply took a look at the other employment weeklies in the marketplace, and found that only did employers not love the offerings, they could not even remember the name of the one they used.

Third, think value for money. There are businesses that are inherently susceptible to a creative entrepreneur who can dis-intermediate the offering, unless the business overhauls its business model completely. Obviously, most cannot. Basically, dis-intermediation means that you cut out the middleman or figure out a way to offer the same services for less money. I know real estate is going through this issue now, with companies like Zillow. Likewise, the contingency recruiter business, which finds its 25-33% of salary fee model under pressure today from companies like Dayak. But perhaps a future trend will be in the area of re-intermediation, where there is an undiscovered or under promoted value to the middleman who was eliminated. Levi’s started up a gi-normus website and then, closed it down. Another quick example: the GEEK SQUAD, a local computer service who would come to your home to help set up your computer. After Best Buy bought them, most think the services now are either too expensive ($350 for that?) or not customer-friendly.

I don’t even know where to start. Maybe with the GPS feature, it not only gives you directions to and from where you are, but with WHERE TO? from the App Store ($2.99), it finds restaurants, theaters, etc for you, no matter your current location. F-A-S-T.

But that isn’t even the coolest thing. If you have an I-Phone, try this: visit What Would Dad Say (this blog), JOBDIG, or LINKUP, then bookmark it, and then add it to the homepage. You will then see these ICONS on your home screen. Yet another justification for my I-Phone.