The Interview or The Job?

What are you doing to find your next job? Are you blindly chasing interviews, or are you focused on finding the one job that's r

ight for you?
If you're not sure whether you are looking for the right job, you need help defining the job you want. Often, a good place to start is with the job you have. Write out your responses to the following exercises. The results will help you keep an eye on what you really want.

1. What

Describe the job you would want to be promoted to at your current (or last) company. Be honest with yourself, and be realistic. But let yourself dream about what you really want to do next. List the title, salary, responsibilities, and level of authority. What are the three most important goals you would have to achieve in that job, to be successful? What are the daily tasks you would be expected to perform?

2. How

How would you do this job if you had it? List the things you would need to do to achieve each of the three goals you described above. How would you perform the day-to-day tasks better than they are being performed now?

3. Why

Why should you be assigned this job? What profit would you add to your company's bottom line if you accomplished your goals? Make your best estimate. If you need to do some thinking and research to figure this out, do it. The profitability question is at the heart of every hiring decision.
If you're not satisfied with what you came up with, select another job and do the exercise again. Keep practicing until you feel good about the work at and the job you want to do.

4. Reality Check

Review your plan with someone you respect and trust at the company, or with someone who understands your business. You may even be able to review it with your boss, explaining that these are your professional goals over the next year. Ask for suggestions to improve your plan. Listen carefully to all comments. (If you think this exercise might land you a promotion at your current company, you're right. The same planning that will net you a new job elsewhere should work with your employer too.)

Now, use what you've learned here to define the job you want to find. Do not interview for jobs that fail to meet or exceed these requirements. Why waste your time settling for anything less?
Once you have identified the right job, you cannot be as powerful a candidate for any other job. In fact, you will fall on your face in such interviews. Don't go after interviews -- go after the right job.
Please tell us what you think of this article. (Nick Corcodilos)

How to avoid a "bait and switch" job offer.

There's a new reason people are changing jobs: they get hired to do one thing, but are assigned to do something else. Nothing takes the bloom off the rose like finding out you're expected to make the coffee (it happened to a new manager) or that the design engineering job is really customer support. These are extreme situations, but many people find themselves performing tasks unrelated to their job descriptions. While we all know that job descriptions change and evolve, it's something else when you never get to do the job you were hired for.

Protect yourself before you accept a job. Ask to have your main responsibilities and tasks put in writing, along with the assurance that at least 75% of your time will be devoted to those tasks. You should also "vet" the job during the interview process. People rarely do this, yet it's critical to your success and happiness on the job.
Ask for a brief written description of the work you'd be doing day one, week one, month one and through the year. Few employers will spell this out, but their reaction when you ask will reveal a lot about their integrity.
Request wording in your job offer that says if the company needs to reassign you, this must be negotiated. If the reassignment is a step down or outside the work you were hired to do, you want the option to leave with a defined severance package.

Ask to see your work area and the tools you'll be using. This is a good indication of whether the job is what you were told.
You must ask, dig, poke and demand the information. You must "triangulate" and talk with others in the company to figure out for yourself what the work really is. If you get the runaround, reconsider accepting the offer.
Make no mistake: good jobs evolve and you should expect the nature of your work to change, too. Even in companies with high integrity, changes in the economy can mean shifts in job responsibilities. You need to be flexible. But that doesn't mean an employer has a right to unilaterally determine that you'll be doing work different from what you agreed to do when you were hired.
When job candidates don't assure themselves what a job is about, they wind up job hunting again very soon. Don't get suckered into a "bait and switch" job offer. Before you accept an offer, make sure the work matches the job. (asktheheadhunter.com)