Having just been on the job market for 4 months over the summer (what a great time to be without a job), I can't agree more. But even before the first date is the talk with Yenta the matchmaker. That's a whole dance in itself, whether it's an agency or an internal recruiter.

In my recent job search, I found there were two types of first dates. One was like meeting over a cup of coffee at Starbucks or similar, and having a nice conversation. The other seemed to me more like being given a cup of coffee, but sitting in an interrogation room at the local police station and being grilled. Guess which one I favored.

Side question: I had an interview of the latter sort where after a half hour of grilling me, the interviewer excused himself and left the room. For over 30 minutes! Question to the audience: At what point would you have left? I didn't leave because this was my first or second interview being back on the market, and after the first 5 minutes I knew I wasn't going to come back for another, so I decided to use it as practice.

Cheers,

Tom