Back in December 2006, I published an article on this site, where I listed my New Years resolutions, one of them being getting my weight down to 175 lbs by the end of the year. At that time, my weight was 213 lbs. I started losing weight in February, and reached my goal in June. I plateaued for a while, but now my weight is down to 173.

When I was growing up, my weight problem was being one of the skinniest kids in class. But when I came to USA at the age of 16, it all started to change, especially in college: every day, I ate food that was available on campus - pizza, Burger King, Philly cheese steaks at student cafeteria, etc., and drank a lot of soda. When I graduated in 2003, my weight was 235 lbs (I am 5′ 10′’ tall). I also started losing breath if I ran for more than two minutes. It was really bad.

(I used to be very much overweight)

It was then that I decided some changes are in order. I started learning about dieting, and going to the gym. My eating habits became different (but not much better) - I started cutting carbs and going easy on the soda. Junk food became a weekend treat, instead of a daily occurrence. I also started eating home-made food again, instead of on-campus garbage. After about a year, my weight dropped down to around 215, which was good, but still very much overweight - ideal weight for someone of my height is around 160-165.

After my weight wouldn’t go down any further, I decided to go on a diet and exercise on a regular basis. In a dramatic move, I cut all the pastries, dessert and most carbs from my diet, and went to the gym twice a week for 1.5 - 2 hours. Looking back now, I realize how much of a fool I was thinking that was the answer. Low-carb/fat diet required tremendous willpower effort, as every time I saw somebody eating chocolate, I got a primal urge to rip the chocolate from their hands and devour it together with foil. Fortunately, I quit after a few months, as most people do, before that could happen. My gym experience didn’t last much longer. I went kept to the diet and gym religiously for four months, and I did lose a lot of weight - I was down to 195. But like it always happens with diets, once I stopped I gained all that weight back and more - soon enough I was back to 215. The same pattern continued for the next couple of years, with 0 results.

By the end of 2006, I’ve decided that this time, I REALLY was going to lose weight, permanently. And so I wrote my New Year’s Resolutions article, which got featured on Lifehacker and gained a bit of popularity out there. In that article, I stated that one of my goals for 2007 was to get my weight down to 175. I was too embarrassed to mention that at the time of writing, my weight was 213 lbs.

Three months after starting, I was down to 180, and by June I reached my goal of 175 lbs - what I thought was going to take me the whole year took only 6 months! I was, and still am, incredibly happy with that, and want to share what I did with the world.

I started by talking to my cousin Eugene, who’s a Sgt. in the Marines and knew a lot more about nutrition and exercise than I did. He told me a lot of very interesting things had no idea about, and that experience really opened my eyes at the fact that I was clueless in regards to proper nutrition. I realized that just like anything in life, I need to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and some research is in order. Eugene also told me, in the best tradition of old karate movies, that I needed to prove I was serious about the learning how to eat right - I had to pass the Raw Diet challenge.

(In order to gain the knowledge, you have to pass the test)

For five days, I had to eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables, and drink nothing but water. Needless to say, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do in my life. Fortunately, my beautiful fiancee agreed to take this challenge with me, and that made it a lot easier.

Still, it was helluva difficult. By day 3, the cravings for meat and processed sugar became almost unbearable. By day 4, I developed a supernatural sense of smell - I could smell meat all the way across the floor at work. By day 5, however, the cravings subdued and I started to enjoy it.

The experience was incredible. I went beyond my comfort zone and discovered some amazing things. For example, I used to think I wouldn’t last a day without meat. In reality, it turned out to be no problem at all. The first day after the diet, I rewarded myself with a huge meal (including lots of meat.) I never felt that bloated in my entire life - I thought I was going to explode!

Another eye-opener for me was the fact that you don’t have to restrict how much you eat to lose weight, if you eat healthy. We never ate so much as during the raw diet. Every time hunger would appear, I would eat a fruit - apple or orange, usually. We had humongous salads for lunch and dinner. And my fiancee was on seventh heaven, because she LOVES watermelon - and boy, we ate a LOT of watermelon in those five days!

Still, in my opinion, raw diet is not entirely practical for people whose time is limited. There’s only that many different ways to eat raw fruits and veggies. And using tools like dehydrator is against the spirit of the diet, because food is supposed to be raw and unprocessed by humans.

(I am in much better shape now)

After doing the raw diet, I started reading about what foods are good for you and what aren’t. I took nothing for granted and doubted everything that any book, web post or magazine article would offer. Soon enough, I got a clear picture of what’s the right way to eat - it’s easy, really. While I can’t, and don’t want to, recap everything that I’ve learned, here are some basic facts:

* Diets don’t work because they’re all based on the premise of denying yourself some kind of foods, be it sweets, carbs, etc., while still pumping away at food that won’t necessarily make you fat, but is bad for your health, and is highly addictive - such as red meat, chicken, turkey, sugar, coffee, etc. After a while, your willpower inevitably breaks, and you gain back all the weight that you’ve lost - and more.

* The main purpose of eating right is not to lose weight - it’s to LEAD A HEALTHIER LIFE. Foods like meat, eggs, chicken, milk, olive oil, fish are SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN to be bad for your health in the long run. (I’ve decided not to provide sources for any claims that I make in this article, no matter how outrageous they may seem to some people As I mentioned before, my goal is not to debate or convert anybody to my way of life. If you’re really interested, check out a couple of books I recommend after the article.) If you eat food that is good for you, your weight will go down to normal - as a side effect.

* The fact that most people cannot imagine their life without meat, sugar, white bread, and other harmful foods is because they are ADDICTIVE in the same way drugs are. That feeling of a rush you get when you have your first cup of coffee in the morning? You’re not actually getting any energy. That’s the feeling of relief because your body started to experience WITHDRAWAL after being without for the whole night. By the way, cocaine works the same way.

* Some good foods that are full of nutrients, vitamins, fibers, proteins and other necessary things are salad, fruits, veggies, legumes, whole-wheat bread, pasta, brown rice, nuts, berries and soy products.

* You can still have meat, chicken, milk, eggs, sugar, chocolate, white bread, etc. if you really can’t live without them - just in VERY small doses, on the side. If 90% of the food you eat consists of foods mentioned above, you will dramatically reduce the risk of getting cancer, heart attack, diabetes, stroke, and a whole bunch of other nasty diseases. Oh, and you’ll lose weight, too.

After I got it all figured out, the rest was easy. As me and my fiancee started to eat right, we really appreciated Eugene’s advice to do the raw diet before it. Compared to raw diet, it did NOT feel restrictive at all! Besides fruits and veggies, we eat potatoes, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta and bread, beans, nuts, soy products, etc. And thanks mainly to the magic of Internet, there are thousands of awesome recipes available that only include healthy ingredients - and some of those dishes taste better than a heavy, greasy cheeseburger ever did.

Some of you might say - wait a minute, didn’t he say that the whole problem with diets is that they are restrictive? And isn’t this “right way to eat” really restrictive too? Well, no. I THOUGHT it was going to be restrictive. But it is not, for two reasons:

1) You do not restrict the AMOUNT of food you eat. You’re SUPPOSED to eat as much as you can, and starving yourself is silly. In fact, you can gorge yourself and destroy everything in sight - as long as what you eat is good for you.

2) And more importantly… after a few weeks of eating the right away, after all poison leaves your body and your taste buds adjust, amazing thing happens. You actually LOSE YOUR APPETITE FOR BAD FOOD! Gradually, the idea of stuffing myself with a steak or a cheeseburger became less and less appealing to me - all because my taste buds lost the taste for bad food and reverted their natural state.

I’ve mostly lost craving for sugar as well - however, it was tough in the beginning, just like breaking any other harmful habit addiction. I quit smoking cold turkey a few years ago, and breaking the sugar habit was approximately just as tough. But it was most definitely worth it. In fact, if I had to pick just one most harmful food that humans eat, I would pick sugar. It has been a curse of our civilization ever since being discovered. There are thousands of people dying of diseases caused by sugar every day. For more details, check out the book “Sugar Blues” by William Duffy.

However, the tough part lasted only a couple of weeks. After that, amazing things started to happen. I was losing weight so fast, that I started to be concerned the pace was too fast to be healthy. I went from 213 to 175 in about five months. After that, I plateaued for a while, but now it’s down to 173. More importantly, my health is much better. The immune system is stronger, since my organism doesn’t have to spend energy on processing hard-to-digest food. The possibility that I get cancer, diabetes, stroke or a heart attack has been greatly reduced. And I just feel (not to mention look ) great.

I’ve lost count of how many people noticed I lost a lot of weight and asked me how I did it. Unfortunately, vast majority of them quickly lost enthusiasm when I told them about changes to my eating ways. Even worse, some people immediately start to argue and try to convince me I’m wrong and should go back to eating meat, eggs, sugar, and milk. I used to get into passionate debates over this that led nowhere, but not anymore. I don’t argue, and don’t really talk about my dietary changes to unwilling listeners. And for those that do really want to know how I lost weight, I put up this article.

Listen, if you want to lose weight, there is no silver bullet. All the diets that you hear about are B.S. Atkins, South Beach, Jennie Craig, the Mediterranean Diet, the Shangri-La Diet - they’re all really bad for your health. If something feels “too good to be true” - it probably is. As soon as you stop following a fad diet, you ARE going to gain all that weight back - and more. And the long-term effects on your health will be severe. The only way to lose weight is to eat right and exercise. And you can’t just take anybody’s word for what constitutes “eating right” - even mine. Do your own research. Only trust facts. Good luck!

Looking back at my weight loss experience, I can say that it was definitely hard - but it got much easier soon after beginning. Most importantly, it became NATURAL for me to eat right. As I mentioned in my working out article, once you get to the point where doing the right thing feels natural, and breaking it feels wrong - you’re golden and well on your way to achieve your goals.

If you want to ask me a question, feel free to post a comment or shoot me an email.

Recommended reading:

I don’t want to recommend too much, so just the two most important books:
“Eat to Live” by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
“Sugar Blues” by William Duffy

Sometimes when you think you got it all figured out, you know exactly what course your life is going to lead over the next few weeks (or more), God reminds you that it’s really Him that’s in charge, and something completely unexpected happens.

I guess that’s what happened to me over the last few weeks. Just as I finished working on the initial version of octop.us, and figured that from then on, I’d spend my free time working on that, I was faced with an opportunity that I simply could not pass up.

You see, both octop.us and this blog are projects I’ve created out of love, amd a way for me to experience new things, broaden my horizons, and just because I felt I had something to share with the world. Not that there’s anything wrong with making money off your site, I still may do that in the future, but it was just never my intention.

At the same time, my #1 goal professionally has been and remains making a living working for myself. And that means if there is an opportunity for me to reach that goal, I’m going to go for it, and prioritize it ahead of other projects, such as octop.us and this blog.

And now, such an opportunity has presented itself, and I feel I must go for it, if I don’t want to spend the rest of my days wondering what could’ve been if I did.

And that, my friends, was my explanation for not updating this site more frequently or working on octop.us (it’s frustrating.. there’s a thousand features just waiting to be implemented).

While I certainly don’t feel I owe anyone an explanation - after all, what I do with my free time is my own business, I know there are still users of this site, and registered users on octop.us as well. I haven’t abandoned either, but I must put them on the back burner for now, and concentrate on my opportunity.

So - I’m going to continue on this incredible journey called life, and post my progress as time allows

Wish me luck!

In the article “Some Community tips for 2007″ Matt shares some of the things that helped him turn MetaFilter into what it is now. I gotta say, some of those gave me some pretty interesting ideas for what to do with my website, and I can’t wait to start implementing them. Here’s my favorite one:

If I had to give a reason why most newspaper blogs are filled with cranky screeds posted anonymously, I’d have to say having a generic blank comment form is key. Most every community that I contribute to offers a comprehensive user profile/history page, letting members customize to their hearts content and allow their profile to reflect their personality. When I think of mainstream news, TV, and newspaper sites trying to solicit comments from readers, I’ve yet to find something close to even a basic community site. The New York Times requires me to register to read most stories, but their blog system gives me a blank generic comment form when I want to comment on a blog post.

I’d love to see a large paper like the NYT implement a real community system. Based on my existing NYT login, I’d love if I had a profile page on their site, tied to any comment I left on a blog or any article I wrote for the paper (I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but there are writers for the NYT that would also be active on the site). Let me list my blog URL and track any posts I make about NYT articles on my profile page (the NYT already has a “most blogged” feature on their site). Feel free to show me ads that would actually make sense (example: I don’t live in NYC, but I see NYC ads on the site — you might want to pitch me home delivery or general ads aimed at out-of-towners) based on my profile.

If you gave readers a real profile page on a real community system at a newspaper site, I suspect the quality of contributions would go way up. Of course, you’d still get trolls and griefers trying to game the system, but the remainder of readers would post more often and post better things. Heck, you could even let readers connect to their friends that also read the site and offer tools useful to members (like “your friends liked the following articles”) as well as gain additional traffic from repeat member visits.

This is so true. All of the community websites I like give their users something to customize, their own piece of land on their site, rewards for participation and a sense of achievement (MySpace takes it to the extreme by running a “who can create an uglier layout” competition, but that’s a different story.

I am definitely going to implement that on Octop.us. It’s going to be awesome!

After so many nights spent creating this, it’s almost unreal that I’ve finally reached a point where the site is online, fully functioning, and I’m writing these words on my blog, finally ready to unleash my creation at the unsuspecting world

It wasn’t too long ago that I thought I would never be done with it. Time and again, just as I thought - this is it, I got all the annoying little bugs that prevent me from going live, I would discover something else that was so small and annoying, yet unacceptable to be in the final version.

But I did it. I finally did it!!! The site is live and ready to go and I’m just so damn happy!

The site was born out of a conversation I had with a friend of mine about restaurants. He mentioned that if you don’t have a clue about any of the wines on the list, getting SECOND cheapest one is a bad idea. Restaurant people know our psychology - we avoid the cheapest stuff because well, no one wants to look cheap - and don’t want to go for too expensive if we don’t know what it is. So more often that not, we go for the second cheapest one. Restaurants know this, and that’s why they put their crappiest stuff in that spot.

After hearing that, I thought to myself.. “Wow, that was pretty neat! I wonder if there’s a site that has all that useful little tips about pretty much anything in life…” I didn’t find such a site because it didn’t exist, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I don’t want to spend much longer talking … So without further ado, may I present to you - a site whose slogan is “Tips on ANYTHING” - here it is:

My silence over the past few days can be explained by the fact that I’m getting very close to launching of my startup .. which is the first time I’m mentioninig it on this website, and it will be the last time until it’s actually released.

I don’t like talking about something I can’t show, so I’ve been very quiet about it so far. But after so many months of hard work, it’s so damn near that I can feel it… it makes me giddy like a little school boy The downside of that is I’ve been working extra hard to make it happen. But fear not, my faithful blog readers (yes, both of you), I’m not abandoing this baby of mine and will continue posting at my usual rate - as soon as it’s done

I feel like this year is finally it - everything is coming together for me, more and more pieces of the puzzle fit into place. I can’t wait

Some of these are easier said than done though:

If construction is scheduled on the interstate, take an alternate route. Avoid rush hour. Read your local papers and listen to local radio stations so you’re prepared.

But most are really great, like this one:

If the phone rings right as you’re leaving your home or office, let your answering machine screen the call. Unless it’s someone calling about the particular destination you’re about to leave for, then that message can probably wait until later on. It will still be waiting for you on your answering machine when you return. Believe me, if you pick up that phone, you’re going to be late!

For the full article, go here

Traditionally, the self-help industry’s standard advice has been to do your own thing. Books like “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” go into great detail as to why it is preferred to work for yourself. The personal development blogosphere has been echoing the same advice. And in fact, I wholeheartedly agree that there is no better way to achieve success and financial independence than to be your own boss.

However, I don’t think that people should be blindly accepting what authority dictates. Starting a business might have worked for the author, but it may not be the prescription for you. I think the smarter thing would be to consider the benefits and drawbacks of both, and then decide for yourself.

In his excellent book “Hackers and Painters”, Paul Graham discusses the concept of working for someone else as being unnatural. Throughout human history, people were always working for themselves (when they had freedom to do so.) It was only with the advent of industrial age that the notion of being an employee has been widely implemented. So, Paul makes an argument that being an employee is unnatural and everybody should start a business.

I disagree. At least at one point in human history, there was an example of a very healthy employer/employee relationship that worked well for both parties – namely, the master/apprentice relationship.

In medieval/renaissance times, there were artisans – masters of their craft. For example, a town usually had a blacksmith, whose job was to make and repair horseshoes, ploughs, swords and everything else made of metal. If business was flourishing, blacksmith could not handle the load by himself, and some other man in the village might send his son to serve as blacksmith’s apprentice. Blacksmith provided his food and lodging, and taught him the craft. In exchange, the apprentice helped him in the forge. Eventually, after the apprentice matured and learned enough to go off on his own, he would open a blacksmith business if he were so inclined. (This, of course, is a perfect scenario. As we all know, in real life things don’t always work out as they’re supposed to)

A lot of personal development books and blogs describe the modern employee/employer relationship as master and slave. In my opinion, this is not always the outcome. If you start to think of yourself as your employer’s apprentice, you’ll see many benefits for yourself. Your employer pays your salary (provides food and lodgings) and lets you learn the trade and build a network of contacts. In return, you do work they require of you.

If you have high ambitions (and I imagine most of my readers do), working for others is probably not something you want to do all your life (I know I don’t.) But if you look at it as apprenticeship, and use it to gain real-world skills, it’s going to be time well spent.

In the same book, Paul Graham talks about the intangible skill to “get it done” – something that distinguishes kids from adults. It’s the ability to complete the work, no matter how boring and tedious, because that’s what you have to do. This is the reason employers are reluctant to hire college grads – most of them don’t have it. In college, if you don’t want to do something, then you don’t. However, that luxury does not exist in the real word.

Where else are you going to get that ability, if not working at a real job? If you open a startup right after college, are you going to have the strength of character required to complete mundane and boring tasks? Your chances are much greater if you get real world experience at a job, and only then branch out on your own.

Of course, starting your business part time while working a full-time job is not easy. But then again, what is? Succeeding in business world requires tremendous effort and dedication. If you can not pull of starting your business part time, then the future does not look bright.

I’m in that boat right now - working a full-time job, trying to start a business and work on this blog in my spare time. The proponents of “don’t get a job” movement will be quick to point out that if I didn’t spend best part of the day working for “the man”, my business would already be up and running. The reality of the matter is that if I didn’t work for my company, I would not be where I am today. I wouldn’t have the necessary skills, maturity and perseverance that are necessary to get anything done.

I’m not suggesting that every fledgling entrepreneur puts his or her dream on hold and brushes off the resume. I am, however, stressing that you should consider your options and think for yourself before following somebody else’s advice. Maybe you have matured enough and learned all necessary skills by the age of 14. Or maybe you don’t know anything about starting a business other than “it would be cool to …”

Whatever you do, decide what’s best for you. And then, hopefully, we’ll see an increase in number of successful businesses and happy people all over the world

Do not split your list into categories

If you split your list into various categories, eventually you’ll notice that you tend to favor some areas over the others. For example, my “Things to-do around the house” category often got neglected to my fiancée’s dismay [Editor’s note: it still gets neglected.] Eventually I switched to having just two lists – “to-do now” and “to-do sometime”.

Do not fall into the trap of categorizing your list until it looks nice and neat! To-do list is supposed to be ugly. If you pretty it up by adding categories, levels, et cetera – eventually you’ll have a beautiful looking list that you can show to your parents. I’m sure they’ll be very impressed with how organized you are. If your list is online, you can also share it on one of those nifty social networking list-sharing sites.

Will you want to finish your tasks if they look like THIS?

The only problem is… nothing will get done! Without even realizing it, you will be reluctant to destroy this thing of beauty by crossing things off the list after completion. And if your list is ugly, subconsciously you’ll want to get rid of that monstrosity. Consequently, the only way of doing that is to…*drum roll*… do the tasks.

Make it easy to reach

By “keeping it ugly”, however, I don’t mean that you should be disgusted with it. On the contrary, if you want your list to be effective, you have to make it accessible at all times, meaning that at any time of the day, no matter where you are, you should be able to add stuff to your list. How can you, one might ask, when you’re on the run? There are many ways to do it, including smart phones, organizers and even “hipster PDA”, but I prefer a very low-tech method of just carrying my notebook everywhere I go. Whenever I think of something that needs to be done, I write it in there. I also use it to jot down my ideas for world domination and articles such as this one.

I’m still working on perfecting this system. For example, there’s no way to write anything down while I’m in the shower, where I get some of my best ideas. Of course, I could always buy a water-proof notepad and put it on the shower wall. Maybe I’ll do that one day

Actions, not abstract notions

If you are familiar with David Allen’s excellent “Getting Things Done” system, you’ll instantly recognize this one. If you put a “get a rebate for DVD player” on your to-do list, you will never do it. Your brain will get confused over the ambiguity of the task and you won’t feel motivated enough to do it. Instead, split the task into actionable items:

1) Find the receipt for DVD player

2) Find the box and cut out the UPC code

3) Find the rebate coupon and write down the address

4) Bring all of the above to the post office, buy stamps and envelope, and mail it out.

Having seen concrete instructions, your brain will not resist the task and you will not have to force yourself to complete it.

Weeding out the chaff

If despite your best efforts your to-do list is getting too big, it’s time to sit down, go through every item on the list, and ask yourself a question – do you really need to do this?

Here’s where a lesson from another excellent book, Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” comes into play. Think about your goals, your mission in life. If the task on your list is not going to matter in a few years, maybe it’s not worth wasting your most valuable resource – time.

For example, going through my own list, I notice a task “Arrange books on the shelf”. Do I really need to do this? Not at all. My home library is not big enough for that to be a concern. The time that I would spend doing that task would be much better spent doing something else.

If you follow this method and be really ruthless about it, by the end of the exercise your list is going to look a lot slimmer.

Don’t obsess over your to-dos

A lot of time, things on your list may not be of most importance to you at the present moment. It’s ok to spend the whole day without looking at your to-do list. I do it all the time, especially when I’m preoccupied with a project of utmost value. And for stuff that’s really important and you can’t afford to forget, I hope you set up automatic reminders, but that’s a whole another topic.

Used effectively, to-do lists can be a great tool at making our lives easier. However, when used incorrectly, they can be a source of anxiety, stress and distraction. I hope for you, it’s always the former. If you have any comments, questions, criticism or suggestions, you’re welcome to email me or post below.

(This is Part IV - the last one of the series. Here are Part I, Part II and Part III)

Once you get past the interview stage, the hard part is over. If the company starts talking to you about money, you can high-five or pat yourself on the back. They just gave you a sign that they could be (not necessarily are) interested in hiring you. All you have to do now is maintain a good impression that you left at the interview, agree on the money, and hopefully see what you’ve been waiting for – the offer letter. Here are some tips on making it happen.

Money negotiations

If a company decided to hire you, there are two ways in which your salary can be determined. One way is that the salary for the position is fixed. Usually, that’s true for big bureaucratic organizations such as US Government. In that case, there’s not much room for negotiations. The other case is when the salary for your position is flexible (as long as it is within the department’s budget.) That is where you’ll have the most freedom to negotiate your salary.

First you should do research to find out the average entry-level salary in your industry. Remember, the biggest weapon you can have during any negotiations is knowledge.

After you’ve done the research and found out what kind of money others are getting, you’ll be ready to actually negotiate. There are countless books and web articles written on the subject of negotiating, so I’ll be very brief: the most important thing is to not name the number first. When they ask you how much you’re looking to make, say you’re open to anything.

Take the focus off what you want, and try to make the conversation go to what they are ready to give you. Say that money is really not the number one priority for you, and you’re much more excited about the learning opportunity. If you’re hard pressed, name a range. A good possibility is that once the offer is on the table, it will be closer to the higher end of the range that you gave.

One last thing I want to mention about money negotiations is even though you’re talking about money, the interview is not over yet. If you’ve been on your best behavior so far, now is not the time to reveal your true identity as a maniacal psychopath. Wait until you get hired. J

Considering the offer

If you work hard enough and stay dedicated to finding the job of your dreams, then you will finally get a call that will make your heart beat tem times faster (sometimes it happens at the end of the interview while you’re still there, but don’t hold your breath.) Your hand may even visibly tremble as you press the “Talk” button. Feeling completely euphoric, you will not believe your ears when you’ll hear those magic words – “We would like to extend an offer.”

I was initially planning on advising you not to scream “Yes! Of course I accept, I’ve been waiting for this forever, when do I start!?”, politely thank the person and say you’ll think about it. But I know you’re going to do the former anyway – I certainly did.

But if you do decide to think about the offer before accepting, consider this: it’s not all about the money. There are other things to consider too – vacation, health insurance, 401k, etc. If you’re going to be in the situation where you have to choose between two offers, you have to take everything into account.

And so ends this series of articles. If you stayed with me through all of this, congratulations! You now know more about looking for a job after college than most graduates. Certainly more than I did at that time. If tips that I presented in this series will help even one person find a career, I consider my job well-done. As always, feel free to comment below or email me, as I’m always looking to hear from you. Good luck!

(This is Part IV - the last one of the series. Here are Part I, Part II and Part III)

While you’re talking to friends about job openings in their companies, and sending out resumes, you should keep in mind why you’re doing this. And even though your ultimate goal, of course, is to find a job, everything that I’ve described up to this point has been dedicated to one intermediate goal: getting an interview.

When does the interview begin?

Most people have a wrong impression of when the interview starts. They think that it begins with the question “So, tell me about yourself” at a formal sit-down with the hiring manager. In reality, your interview began a lot earlier, when the company contacted you – either by phone or email – regarding your resume. Everything you do from that point on will determine your hiring chances.

How to behave at an interview

One thing you always have to keep in mind about interviews is that appearance is key. Don’t listen to anybody who tells you otherwise. No matter how smart and talented you are, if you don’t act the right way, you won’t get the job. If you don’t dress sharp (unless they specifically tell you to dress casually) you’re not getting the job either.

Remember, you will be evaluated by people who are facing the prospect of spending the majority of their waking time sitting right next to you. And more often than not, they’ll have about half an hour to get to know you.

It’s not as serious as it sounds – use common sense and you should be all right. Dress in a business suit. Shave/put makeup on. Don’t pick your nose during the interview – wait until you go home. Speak clearly, don’t be arrogant or annoying. Don’t overdo the dressing part. Smile, use etiquette when applicable (i.e. hold doors for others). Don’t appear overly serious and nervous.

Another major thing to remember is to act enthusiastic. As I mentioned before, you always have to keep intermediate goals in mind. At the interview stage, your goal is to get a job offer. Even if you’re having doubts whether you really want this particular job, you should act like it’s your dream opportunity. If you’re planning to think long and hard whether to accent the job offer, you should still do everything in your power to get the offer in the first place.

Just about the worst thing you can do on an interview is to act like “I don’t really want this, and I’ll be doing you guys a favor if I take it.” Instead, you should be practically bursting with enthusiasm over the prospect of being hired at this place!

Asking questions

A major ingredient of being prepared for the interview is coming up with questions of your own. Asking questions about the company, the industry, the position, the team – everything relevant – shows the interviewer that you’re serious about this job. Put some thought into preparation, because a creative person that takes initiative is a trait that most companies look for in all their candidates.

What kind of questions should you ask? Anything and everything. Browse the company’s website before the interview and try to come up with some questions about it. Ask about the business, what technology they use, how the team works, etc. You should also ask as much as possible about the position itself, even if it’s just to elaborate on the job posting.

When asking questions – listen. Don’t just ask to put a checkmark that you did. Make sure you listen to the person’s response and ask any follow up questions necessary.

Answering questions

While you’re going to ask a lot of questions, most of the interview will be spent answering questions from others. Some questions are going to test your knowledge or experience directly related to the job. Others will be more generic, probably asked of all candidates this person ever interviews. Most of these are fairly common and you should get ready to hear them everywhere. Do you work well in a team? What do you think about working long hours? Tell me about yourself. What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses? For some of those questions, you should have the answer prepared.

Sometimes you may also get “impossible” or “puzzle” questions. These are designed to test your ability to “think outside the box” and the most famous example is “Why are manhole covers round?” (So it cannot fall through the opening)

Job knowledge questions

With questions such as “Do you know…”, or “Have you done …” there can be only two possible outcomes – yes or no. If yes, then great! Otherwise, the answering gets a little trickier. If you don’t know something, do not guess or lie. Guessing will make you look incompetent and will only get the interviewer irritated. Lies will eventually get out, usually with disastrous results.

However, what you also don’t want to do is just flatly say “No, I don’t know / Never done it.” In fact, the word “no” should probably not escape your lips at all. Always try to add something positive to your answer. If you can’t think of anything, you can always say “While I haven’t had a chance to do that, I am a very quick learner and always pick new things up very fast. I would absolutely love the opportunity to learn that, I’ve been wanting to for a while.”

General questions

When you’re being asked questions like how well you work in a team-oriented environment, you should remember a few things.

First, this is not a B.S. question, no matter how much it seems like one to your cynical self. If it was one, people that are interviewing you wouldn’t waste their time asking it.

Also, you should remember your goal. Why are you at the interview? Because you want to pass, and you want to get an offer. It then becomes obvious that the right answer is yes, you’d love nothing more than an opportunity to work in a team with a hundred people, even if all you really want from a job is an office with a door that locks, and the freedom to snarl incoherently in response to all attempts to socialize. Why shouldn’t you answer that you’re a “lone wolf” kind of person? Because it will decrease the chances of you getting the job.

Every question like the one above should be answered positively. Otherwise, you are ruining your chances of getting an offer.

Tell me about… questions

A lot of interviewers like to start with a broad question like “tell me about yourself” or “why do you want this job.” Another popular one is “what are your strengths and weaknesses?” Or “tell me about your biggest project” In your industry, there may be other, more specific ones.

The only trick to those questions is to prepare. Figure out in advance what you’re going to say, write it down if needed, and practice your speech in front of the mirror. But what should you actually tell? Believe it or not, that’s not as important! When the interviewer asks you those questions, he or she mostly wants to see if you’re able to speak coherently.

One exception to the rule is the ‘weaknesses’ question. This is actually a trick one. The intent of that question is to get you to reveal something that would hurt your chances of getting the job. Don’t fall into that trap. Instead, prepare the answer that turns the negative into positive. For example: “My biggest weakness is that sometimes I get so absorbed in a task, that I forget my surroundings. I forget to eat lunch, go to the bathroom, or go home until it’s finished.”

Puzzle questions

Finally, there’s a category of puzzle questions. I won’t spend too much time on it, since most companies don’t ask them. But generally, those questions will sound impossible to answer – “How many gas stations are there in LA? How do they make M&Ms? “. Microsoft is the company that made those questions famous on their interviews.

Once you know the secret, it’s very simple to answer these questions. Just remember: more often than not, there is no right answer. I mean, there probably is one, but even if your interviewer knows it, he or she is least interested in hearing it. What they’re interested in hearing is your way of thinking. They want to know that you don’t give up when faced with a seemingly impossible task. So start thinking out loud. When you need a number, take your best guess. “Hmm, so there must be about 10 million people in LA, and ¾ of them drive a car… “ In the end, if you come up with an answer that’s not obviously, outrageously wrong , the interviewer will be happy with it.

And that is it for Part III. Remember, I’m always looking for questions and comments, so feel free to email me or post below. Part IV (the last one) coming up very soon!

(This is Part III of the series. Here are Part I, Part II and Part IV)