When you bad-mouth, you look like the one with the problem.

We have a new client.

She's absolutely incredible: smart, cool, interesting and probably among the kindest people you'll ever encounter. I'm near giddy that we've earned her business.

This client considered hiring our competition. Which, truthfully, is fine. We absolutely recognize and honor the notion that we're not all things to all people. We also believe wholeheartedly that it's vital to find a career coach / resume writer that aligns incredibly well with your personality, goals and style ... even when that's not us.

This client admitted to us that, during her exploratory conversations, one of our competitors said some not-so-informed things about our service, seemingly in an effort to coax her into hiring her, not us.

Specifically, the competiton shared input on our "areas of expertise" (which, go and figure, were not in line with our client's needs) and our limitations. Interestingly, we have not ever had one conversation nor meeting with this competitor, nor any reason to believe she has any idea whatsoever what our specialties are, or are not.

Lucky for us, life worked out in the way it should:

The bad-mouthing backfired.

The bad-mouthing made the competition look like sour grapes. It also affirmed to our new client that we were worth hiring. Because, really? Does anyone bad-mouth competition when they feel that they are no threat whatsoever?

No, they do not.

Same exact concept is true in job search and interviewing.

While you may feel that you have every reason in the world to gripe to a potential employer about how you were wronged, or the shortcomings of your former boss/colleagues/ employer? The risks are high, because most often your effort will have the exact opposite effect you're looking for:

You'll look like the one with the problem.

And people don't tend to hire the one with the problem, as a career coach nor an employee.

No matter how bad you want the business, the job, the project ... you simply must vow to never, ever use "cut down the others" as a core (or ancilliary) part of your strategy.

Because guess what? It's almost always a losing proposition.