I was talking with a million-dollar producer the other day who was about to go on her first interview in more than 15 years. We confirmed the logistics of the meeting-time, place, what the manager looked like. Then she surprised me.

"Danny, are there any interviewing tips you can give me?" she asked.

Just when you think you've seen and heard it all, here comes something new. The business sections of bookstores are awash with directories of executive recruiters, tomes on writing the best resume, and--yes--guides providing interviewing tips. And when you go to headhunting school, much time is devoted to prepping the candidate for the portions of the interview process that extend beyond the when and where.

In our little retail-brokerage world, however, we're in a candidate-driven market. Simply put, the hiring authorities are the ones doing the chasing, and the best brokers--the "candidates," in headhunter parlance--are the ones being chased. In general, the best brokers don't need to know how to interview. As long as the trailing twelve months are good, the assets hold up to scrutiny and the compliance record checks out, the offer will be forthcoming.

That said, I've seen plenty of advisors screw up the process. So here's a list of examples--culled from real-life situations--of how good candidates can make good managers not want to hire them. In essence, it's what not to do during an interview.

1) Asking about the deal first. We all know that the deals are there to be had. It's the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But the firms who provide this pot of gold only make money if they know that the advisor is able to bring over his existing book.

Furthermore, the best deals are only given to those advisors who are actually able to grow their business beyond their current levels. Think of the free-agent market in baseball. Great players with a phenomenal history of performance get wined and dined by the different clubs. Yet the top suitor doesn't always win. When it does, it's often a disappointment for both sides.

Advisors who want the top deal need to show their prospective employers that they care about their business enough to do a lot of homework about the new firm's capabilities. Does the new firm's platform support where they are now and where they want to go over the length of the deal? The advisor who disdains the process and only cares about the first big payday won't get the money he's after.

2) Lying about your current production and asset level. In this era of intensive compliance scrutiny and immense signing bonuses, it's astonishing to me how often I still see advisors lie about their production. One common kind of lie is an exaggeration of where the advisor is today. This is where the broker says that he's producing $1 million with $100 million in assets, when the real numbers are closer to $800,000 and $90 million. It's probably not a deal-killer. But just because your trailing 12 months' gross production was $1 million a few months ago doesn't mean you'll get that same deal today.

Unfortunately, the era of computer-generated production runs has created a small group of brokers who believe they can get away with forging their runs in an attempt to dupe employers into overpaying. A few years ago, a broker I was working with did just that. After claiming a production level of more than $400,000, he was caught when the astute branch manager suspected something fishy. The manager asked for W-2 confirmation. Lo and behold, the W-2 showed income of $80,000. With $400,000 in production and a 40% payout, the W-2 should show something like $160,000 in income. The outcome was that it wasn't just the big offer that went off the table. It was any offer.

3) Not being candid about any disclosure issues on your compliance record. Firms don't expect all of their prospective hires to have pristine records. (And this headhunter is giving many thanks for this fact!). But some problems are worse than others.

What firms will be very slow to forgive or forget is an issue that comes up in the formal disclosure paperwork that the advisor didn't mention during the interview process. If you want your prospective employer to doubt your credibility, then by all means don't tell them about your DUI from 15 years ago, or the limited partnership complaint that you got in 1986. But if you want to be perceived as a trustworthy professional, get all your dirty laundry out in the open early so the firm can decide whether it's a deal-killer. Make yourself and your business transparent to your prospective new employer, and you can expect the same from the firm.