*Lots of closed doors that usually were open.
*Outsiders touring the facilities.
*Lots of spreadsheets being produced for outsiders regarding cash flow and finance.
*Usually talkative boss’ assistant goes silent.
*Non-owner management starts coming in late and leaving early.
*Over dressed management. Either shopping the business or themselves.
*Management starts taking all accrued vacation.
*late payments.
*reduction in perks such as free soda, snacks, etc
*document retention policies are changed to be more proactive in getting rid of docs.
*Changes in personality from outgoing to silent with management.
*in a smaller company, when owner starts taking as much out of the business as possible. Starts charging personal stuff to the business.
*revenue recognition rules are changed to speed up the accounting of revenue from contracts to when signed rather than when delivered or paid.

These and many more at this Metafilter question.

You know they’re coming: Those seemingly unanswerable questions that pop up during job interviews.

You can’t clam up. And you don’t want to stutter and stammer. So what’s a job seeker to do?

This article at HotJobs offers advice for the following type of questions:

• The ‘Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years’ Question
• The ‘What Salary Are You Looking For’ Question
• The ‘Why Should We Hire You’ Question
• The ‘Broad and Probably Silly’ Question

When you go in for a job interview, you’re not just a candidate seeking a job. You’re a potential problem solver and contributor. To play that role effectively, you must be armed with the right kind of information. That’s what pre-interview research is all about.

Break down your research efforts into four broad areas. That’ll make it easier to manage and also ensure you don’t leave anything out.

Personally, my favorite is this one:

Let them believe the final decision doesn’t rest with you
Once a negotiation starts, most people want to get it over with as quickly as possible. Let their impatience beat them. One great way of doing this is to let them believe the person they’re negotiating with isn’t actually you, but some other “authority figure”.

Say something like “Well, I’ll have to talk it over with my boss / spouse / partner before I can give you a definite yes”.

A skilled negotiator will always want to talk to the person who has the final decision, but don’t let them do it. Say the person with the authority over the deal wants you to sort things out but still needs to have the final say. Tell them you’ll discuss it and get back with an answer tomorrow. Ask them to make sure that’s their best offer you can take to your “authority figure”.

This is also a great strategy for preventing people rushing you.