Ask questions about what really matters to you. Focus on making sure the job is a good fit: Who you will work with, who you will report to, the scope of responsibilities, etc. Interviews should always be two-way, and interviewers respond positively to people as eager as they are to find the right fit. Decide what is important to you and ask; there’s really no other way to know you want the job. And don’t be afraid to ask several questions. Interviewers get sick of asking questions. As long as you don’t take completely take over, the interviewer will enjoy and remember a nice change of pace.

Mike Norelli, a 2010 MBA graduate from MIT, experienced a collegiate entrepreneur’s dream when an investor pledged seed capital for the startup he and a few classmates had founded to convert food waste into fuel. Just as the venture was to receive that financial boost, however, Norelli backed out to accept a job at GE Energy, whose recruiter met with him after Norelli arrived at MIT’s Sloan school of Management (Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile).“No matter what I do afterwards, I’ll be in a better position—and that includes doing a startup,” Norelli says of his GE experience.

How do you know if your idea is any good? The real test for me is if the idea builds momentum the more time you spend with it. I’m a big believer that you have to spend a lot of time with an idea. Good ideas get stronger the more you work on them. You begin to lose interest in weak ideas.I’ve also gotten to the point where I view that ideas are relatively cheap. Having an idea alone is not what makes a successful company. You need to have a great idea, great timing, and the most important piece: sufficient capital. The idea will need multiple iterations, and that takes time and money.

“When you’re in a home, your networking opportunities are limited,” Yerushalmi says. “How much feedback and advice will you get?”