Maybe we'll meet one day in Italy...

First impressions, especially when meeting potential employers, can make or break a relationship. When you meet someone new, what's the first thing you do? Shake their hand! Therefore, a lousy handshake can be just horrible!

Erin Caldwell's recent post on Forward blog, Shake it!, is a fantastic beginner's guide to getting the handshake right -- make that perfect.

I knew Erin had a lot more to offer than tips on avoiding the dreaded "dead fish" and "macho cowboy" handshakes (urgh, nothing's worse!).

I know you'll enjoy my e-mail interview with the Auburn grad (I guess I can forgive her...) and DC resident:

What does an out-of-towner need to know before visiting DC? Any secrets?

"I’m not sure if this counts as a “secret,” but it’s certainly a way that makes it easy to distinguish between DC natives and tourists. Have you heard of the stand-right-walk-left rule? Essentially, it’s the whole idea that when riding the escalators (primarily applies to Metro escalators), you should stand to the right so that people who want to walk up/down can pass you on the left. Countless articles and blog posts have been written about this. It’s an amusing pet-peeve of DC dwellers."

Any guilty pleasures?

"Guilty pleasure ... hmm goodness! (When I was in college, my guilty pleasure was a cheese calzone from Mellow Mushroom. But alas, no Mellow Mushroom up here. Boo...) These days, it’s a cheese, stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. I realize this is gross to some people, but I can’t help it.

What's the best thing about your job? (Erin is an account executive with the online advocacy group for Edelman. I'm jealous!!)

"Goodness, it’s hard to pick ONE “best” thing about my job. One thing that I knew -- and made clear when I interviewed with different agencies -- was that it’s important to me to have the freedom to be creative. My current job fits that perfectly! Plus ... we have the flexibility to work from home fairly frequently if we need to. Pretty sweet."

Dream vacation?

"Italy. Hands down. Actually, scratch that. I aspire to live in Italy one day, which means I would then vacation ... hmm ... on a private island in a tropical paradise. Yeah..."

Do you have time for TV? Do you have a favorite show?

"Alas, I don’t watch that much TV on a regular basis. But one show that I could stand to watch ANYTIME a re-run comes on: 'Friends.' Of course. I still laugh out loud to episodes I’ve seen a million times before."


I think Erin and I would get along so well -- "Friends" is my favorite show of all time, without a doubt. I can recite a little too much of it. And, I guess I could live in Italy too...