Your real competition isn't some job hunter off the street. It's the candidate who was coached by The Headhunter. Use The Headhunter's insider perspective to your advantage; don't let it sneak up and bite you!

From The Archive

14. Who is your competition?

When you go after a job, you're competing with hundreds if not thousands of other potential candidates, right?

Wrong. Your real competition is the job candidate I coached: the person who was sent in by a headhunter. The headhunter has more insider knowledge about the job and the interview than you ever will -- and now his candidate does, too.

What can you do about this one very powerful competitor?

First, you must understand what the headhunter is up to. He's got one thought in mind: profit. His client's profit, his candidate's profit, and the food on his own table. So, the headhunter coaches his candidate to do one thing in the interview: demonstrate his ability to contribute to the employer's bottom line. Right there in the interview. Doing that requires a lot of research, thought and preparation. But it's what gets the candidate hired -- and it's how the headhunter earns his fee.