These days, interviews don’t come easily. When you get The Call, make the most of your time — and go for it!

1. Investigate the company’s culture, markets, and finances. But resist the temptation to show off what you’ve researched: “I just read that you’re about to embark on a new product line”) unless you have a question directly related to your career.

2. Look like you belong. Learn the company’s dress code and err on the side of conservatism. When you’re seeking a senior position based on industry experience, you’ll be expected to know the rules without being told.

3. Take charge of the interview! The most successful interviews feel like friendly conversations. When your interviewer has an agenda (such as the infamous “stress interview”) stay relaxed. Think of playing a game.

4. Assume everyone you meet will provide feedback to the decision-maker. Some companies hand out comment forms to receptionists, security guards and potential peers who take you to lunch.

5. Communicate interest and enthusiasm, even if you’re not sure you’re ready to commit. You’ll rarely have all the facts until you’re looking at an offer.

6. Bring extra copies of your correspondence from this company as well as your resume, references, writing samples, portfolio and current business cards. Interviewers lose documents and conversations move in unexpected directions.

7. Create a relaxed, positive attitude by devising a realistic game plan. When your career isn’t riding on a single interview, you’ll have fun and make a confident, relaxed impression.

8. Write a thank you letter within forty-eight

Perhaps one of the most wonderful assertions that can be made about Holy Scriptures is that it clearly shows man in all his humanness. If you really want to understand yourself, if you really desire to know who you are, then it would behoove you to study the sacred Writ and let God speak to your soul.

When we read David’s Psalms (55:6), we immediately sense his state of emotional being. He is hurting deeply. Not physically, but emotionally and spiritually. His soul is heavy; his spirit is at an all time low, his heart pierced and his lips chapped with pain as he cries, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.”

This is a very human cry, is it not? Everyone at one time or another has felt the way David felt: those times in life when everything seems to go wrong; when everything we touch seem to disintegrate, when all news is bad news. Maybe you have felt that way when your doctor gives you the cancer diagnosis. Maybe it was when you suffered a financial reversal; just when you were about to get on your feet, the rug is pulled out from under you. Maybe it was when you suffered a family tragedy or when the plans you made begin to crumble. Maybe, it is during those moments of betrayal, extreme disappointment or profound loneliness that you find yourself like David, crying out in utter agony, “If only I