Each and every job interview you will ever sit thru will consist of standard questions about your background, talents, career objectives, and so forth. But the interviewer will also wish to get a sense of how you would actually handle your self if you get the job. For some fields, like advertising or corporate communications or webpage design, samples of your previous work are considered reliable indicators of what your future work will be like. But in an area like management consulting, problem solving on your feet is the skill your interviewer will be especially interested in. Accounts of your previous successes are no substitute for actually seeing you in action. That is where the case interview comes in.

As we all know, the job market is pretty challenging right now, especially for new grads. Recently, I was asked by some soon-to-be graduates about how to get started in a creative career. Nabbing that first job, either as a freelancer or permanent staffer, is going to take some time and drive. So think of marketing yourself as your first job. Design some stand-out business cards and come up with a strategy as to how you are going to make your first "sale."