There are no silver bullets in job hunting

I've been reading a lot of Stack Overflow lately, especially the questions related to interviewing and job hunting. It's making me a little sad.

So many of the questions seem to be from people looking for silver bullets that are The Right Way to do things. There are questions like:

• I'm supposed to interview someone for a job tomorrow. What should I ask?
• Should a web designer interview an HTML jockey?
• What's a good practice task for junior developers in an interview?
• What is the best website for .NET interview questions?
• What kinds of code would you want to see in a portfolio?

Asking "What will a prospective employer want to see in my code portfolio?" is like asking "Where should I take this girl on a date tomorrow?" There's no way to answer. We can answer in vague terms, like saying "Put your best code in the portfolio" or "Don't pull a Travis Bickle and take her to a porn movie," but that's about it.

These people seem to be looking for definitive answers where none can exist. Don't fall into that trap yourself. Treat every job in your job hunt as a brand new case, with unique requirements and a unique set of ways that the job can use your skills.