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One important thing you want to remember is that when you go on a job interview, it is a two-way interview. While the company is going to be trying to see if you are a good fit for them, you need to also learn and observe as much as you can to determine whether the company and the interviewer (especially if they are your potential boss) is going to be a good fit for YOU.

CareerJournal.com offers some things to look for to determine whether the potential boss-to-be could also be a potential headache for you down the road:

Easily Distracted: He arrives late for your twice-postponed interview. He can’t find your resume in his huge pile. He frequently interrupts you to take calls, check email or glance at his watch. Clearly, you or your coveted position isn’t his highest priority.

Poor Interaction: She offers a limp handshake, scant eye contact and shallow answers to your detailed questions about the business. She stays seated behind a huge desk, arms folded across her chest, and relegates you to a lower couch. This isn’t exactly someone committed to collaboration.

Me, Me, Me: The hiring manager talks solely about himself, giving current and former associates no credit for their accomplishments.

The head of one major Philadelphia nonprofit organization spent much of his 30 minutes with a prospective fund-raising manager bragging about his feats there. The new hire soon found he was abusive. “He would scream at me in the middle of meetings in front of board members,” she says. “I went into a very bad depression while I was working there.”

Negative Buzz: The fund-raising manager had checked out her would-be boss with other community groups, but ignored their hesitant responses. She now believes that “if references aren’t effusive, that’s a warning sign.”

It helps just to look around the office. The twice-burned Ms. Dantz subsequently withdrew applications when no one seemed happy at a potential employer.

Wrong Line of Inquiry: Your interviewer wants to know your marital status, but he doesn’t ask much about your relevant skills.

Intrusive personal questions could signal problems ahead with discrimination or workplace harassment. Meanwhile, a lack of serious talk might mean an aloof boss.

A man seeking a public-relations vice presidency at a big Florida company earlier this year was surprised when the chief executive never asked about his communications-strategy plans. The CEO was distant, then eliminated the new VP’s position three months later.

Stress Overload: How well a boss-to-be copes with stress during your interview speaks volumes about what it would be like on the job.

The recently launched site CareerDNA promises to be able to do with their website and software what you normally would require traditional offline career counseling.

From their press release:

Washington, DC - June 13, 2006 - CareerDNA (careerdna.net) announced today a new service that provides the first digital mentoring and career coaching center that will help recent college graduates get a job they will love based on their individual traits and talents. The process is based on the premise that successful careers start with loving one’s work; yet finding the right match between talents and a job can be a frustrating process with significant implications for an individual’s entire career and life’s work. Instead of trial, error and luck, CareerDNA is designed to provide scientific and psychological analysis that provides users with a strong understanding of how their unique dispositions, talents and experience can be applied to very specific career and job options.

This service is broken down into four key components:

* Self-Assessment and Validation (identify psychological type, skills etc.),
* Career Finder (which job is right for you?),
* Marketing (how to market themselves as a product), and
* Digital Coaching with Peter Weddle (valuable guidance and bi-weekly emails).

The service is $49.95 for 12 months.

I recently had the results of a number of job interviews reported to me. The position was to be an agent handling high-end transactions and bookings. Some of the candidates turned out to be less than ideal.

Here’s a few examples of what did not make a good impression on the interviewer:

• One candidate had a day job already, so she was accommodated with a 6:00 PM interview. No problem there, this is business after all. However, she showed up dressed unprofessionally and had her full assortment of face piercings on display.
• When asked about her weaknesses, one candidate confessed that she “talks way too much”.
• Several candidates were asked if they considered themselves more customer service driven, or sales driven. It was somewhat of a trick question, the company would prefer to find someone who is a mixture of both. Most candidates however, answered with one or the other, sometimes denigrating the alternative. Not wise.

How did these people make it through an initial screening? Turns out there really wasn’t one. Plus, the employer is having a very hard time finding qualified candidates. Some these were found through their resumes on Monster.com.

A quick but excellent article over at Careerbuilder outlines six basic but important tips for making sure your cover letter makes an impact. Here are the tips, and you can go to the site to read the explanations of each tip.

• Sending it to a specific person.
• Using your connections.
• Staying relevant — and brief.
• Keeping your goal in mind.
• Ending with a call to action.
• Proofreading.