You can still go to Las Vegas and get married in one day. In the movies they used to hire the preacher’s wife as the witness, invite the next couple in line as their guests and BAM! — an instant wedding reception. If that’s not fast enough for you, there’s a chapel with drive-up service, and you don’t even have to get out of your car. It’s a cost effective approach to getting married, but such unions have a high rate of divorce, and it’s not a strategy I would recommend.

Unfortunately, I believe many career decisions are similar to getting married in Vegas. People are extremely unhappy with the job they’ve got and accept the first alternative that comes their way. Their primary objective is to get away from their current employer, but six months later, it’s a decision they regret.

It might sound odd that in today’s challenging job market I’m suggesting you should decline a job offer, but I really believe there are circumstances when you should hold on to what you’ve got and don’t accept just any job. Jumping from the frying pan to the fire feels good while you’re in the air, but once you land in circumstances that are worse than what you’ve left, you have created the dilemma of having to explain why you keep moving from job to job.

So, how do you avoid making a career move you regret?

Of course, it starts with the interview. As soon as we hear the words “job interview,” the most natural response is to anticipate the questions we’ll be asked. If my answers are better than the other candidates, I’ll get the job. It makes sense, and I strongly encourage you to do your homework and be prepared for your next interview. If you have access to YouTube, type in “best interview questions & answers,” and you will find approximately 2 million videos to help. Seriously, that’s not a typo — you will find 2 million videos that will help you prepare for your next job interview.

But, if you type in “questions to ask the employer” you will find 6,000 videos. Whoa — 2 million vs. 6,000. I think that’s the primary reason people make career decisions they regret. Now, 6,000 is still a lot of help, and I encourage you to visit YouTube, but here are my words of wisdom that may help avoid a bad decision:

If the interviewer asks, “Do you have any questions?” be prepared with strong ones that showcase your interest and curiosity about the company and the position.

I read an interview in the New York Times and the CEO of a large corporation was asked why she likes to be the last person in the interviewing process. Her response was that she always asks the candidate if they have any questions and she said that 60 percent of them say no. She also noted that 60 percent are immediately eliminated from her list of potential candidates. Her logic is that people who don’t ask a lot of questions are running away from something not toward something. If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it.

If the job requires great attention to detail, and that’s not your strength, then you should think twice before accepting the job. If you’re interviewing with a start-up company that requires a significant deal of flexibility, don’t complain when your job responsibilities keep changing and it no longer looks like the job you signed up for.

I recently read that eHarmony, the famous online dating service, is making plans to enter the job assessment testing business. They figure that if they’re good at helping people find a mate for life, then they should be able to match up people with good jobs they enjoy. There’s some logic to their thinking, and we’ll have to wait and see how this works out.

At the end of the day, I hope you have a new appreciation that it’s important to look before you leap. Don’t rush to Vegas to get married, and remember it may not be wise to accept the first job offer you receive. And when the interviewer asks you if you have any questions don’t say, “No.” Come prepared and find out if this is a good move for both you and the employer.

Kaminski is president of Stone Associates Training. He is an HR consultant with 35 years of experience in the employment field, teaching managers the art of hiring great employees. He also is an adjunct instructor at Keuka College. You can contact him with your questions, suggestions and comments at bill@stoneassociatestraining.com.