I'm always amazed by people who say they landed a job after only applying to less than 25 employers who have posted positions.

That has not been my experience in my whole working life after university. Of course, it depends the types of jobs where one is submitting their resume/application.

And getting the opportunity to be interviewed doesn't happen for all those employers either.

For the question on plans after 5 yrs., keep that response short and appropriate for the employer. My response has always been no more than 1-2 sentences.

I'm not certain if some office managers are comfortable dealing with educated candidates who have been trained in specific professions which don't fall into the clerical pool. I was interviewed by one, who clearly was not comfortable with managing/supervising strong candidates with specialized skill sets that aren't clerical. She was asking all sorts of questions that made me sense she would end up micro-managing.

I understand the firm is STILL looking for the right person...after 5 months. Pretty bad since I know my colleagues who aren't horrible people, experienced and well-qualified for the job also.

So if you are applying for clerical positions, where you are overqualified and if the office manager will be your manager/supervisor, try to determine if s/he seems to have a good managment style that is willing and open to suggestions, ideas to problems on the job.