Job interviews are not a one-way street.

You are interviewing the company just as much as the company is interviewing you.

While your questions will largely depend on the company and specific job responsibilities, there’s one that many candidates fail ask: “Why is this job open?”

The answer you receive will lead to important insights that, should you get an offer, will play a major role in your decision to take the job.

Here’s why you should never end a job interview before asking this important question:

Have a job interview coming up?

Get ready to answer one of the most common questions: “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?

This is a behavioral question hiring managers ask to see if a candidate has enough self-awareness to know what they’re good at, and what skill sets need improvement.

Before you pick up the phone or write that email, first identify the top 6 skills for the position you’re interviewing for.

It seems like interviewing and hiring have changed overnight. Employers are now using more AI or artificial intelligence than ever before. The pandemic produced a significant challenge for employers since they could no longer do face-to-face job interviews and they had an increase in applicants' applying for jobs.

These AI changes include:

Interview scheduling, Text interviewing, Phone interview screening, Pre-employment testing and assessment and Video interviewing – on-demand or live

The other influencing factor is the current abundance of job candidates. With so many applying, a company either hires more recruiters or adds in AI assistance. Here’s what you should expect if you are in the job search hiring process in 2021.

If you haven’t spent much time job hunting, the process can sometimes feel a bit like assembling a puzzle when you don’t know what the finished product is supposed to look like. You know you need to create a resume and a LinkedIn profile, and you should apply to interesting job postings and network as much as possible.

But what else can you do to stand out?

Enter the missing piece to your job search puzzle: a personal website.

For new grads, having a professional online presence will serve as an automatic differentiator and establish you as a candidate who’s willing to go the extra mile. A personal website will not only enhance your chances of landing a job, but also enable employers and recruiters to find you more easily.

In every job interview, your success depends on your personal story.

When meeting with HR or a hiring manager for the first time, either via phone or video, you’re going to be asked to demonstrate your skills. And your flaws. There are qualifying questions and disqualifying answers - how will you respond?

Here are 5 narrative techniques that can help you to change the conversation and

present yourself in the best possible light.

This is a fundamental irony of most people's lives. They don't know what they want to do with their lives. Yet they are very active.

Most kids go to college without a clue why they are there. They are floating along waiting to be told what to do next. They haven't seen or thought enough to know what their ideal life would look like. So how could they possibly know how to distinguish good advice from bad?

Most presenters lose their audience's attention because they ramble and get lost in the weeds.  But if you can be precise and concise, you'll keep your audience (and employers) interested, engaged, and excited.

Crafting a 50-word pitch comes in handy for a wide variety of scenarios.

In 50 words, an entrepreneur can persuade an investor to look at a pitch deck or a sales professional can persuade a prospect to watch a demo or schedule a meeting.

Interviewing for a job right now is a little different than usual. Instead of sitting across from your potential employer and getting a feel for the company in person, you might be calling into Zoom or Google Hangouts. That makes it somewhat harder for you to make an impression on the people interviewing you, and for them to gauge whether you'll be a good fit for the role.

Catching the attention of a job recruiter has long been a challenge, but it’s especially difficult right now. Over 1.4 million Americans filed for unemployment.

It’s estimated that 90% of job recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn to fill their openings, so if you’re looking for work, you’ll want to know how to use that platform to catch a recruiter’s eye.

Surprisingly, it’s not as bad as you’d think. The volume of responses to job listings has remained relatively steady compared to pre-pandemic numbers. The more people you have in your network, the greater the likelihood that a recruiter will find you through your connections.

So yes, we all know of Pinterest as the go-to place to design a wedding mood board or pin recipes to try for summer barbecues. But did you know that you can also it for your job search?

Here are a few ways you could use your Pinterest to help boost your job search.