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Over on one of our new favorite sites, IttyBiz there is another collection of what not to do during the job hunting process.

Jamie offers some helpful reminders for when you’re filling out and submitting applications, with some examples of what not to do.

The areas covered include:

1.) Proofread.
2.) Take the application process seriously.
3.) Make it easy.
4.) Follow Instructions.

Simple, yes, but as Jamie points out, there are people every day who mess up on the simple process of filling out and submitting a job application…the time when they want to be putting their best foot forward.

We’ve had a chance to sit on the other side of the table this week, having been asked to assist in the hiring process for a technical position. We reviewed a few dozen resumes and then selected a half dozen people to interview.

A few observations of what not to do from the resume stack:

• If you’re applying for a computer job, it’s poor form to submit a hand-written (poorly at that) resume on yellow legal paper.
• The application asks the candidate if they have even been convicted of a crime. If the answer is yes, with the exception of traffic violations, it asks the candidates to list these convictions. The wording is such that you should not include your traffic stops. One applicant then proceeded to list out his very impressive history of speeding tickets, dating back to 1978.
• I know you’re very proud of the technical certifications that you’ve been awarded, you even have a prominent section of your resume devoted to it. The trouble is, you spelled the header CERIFICATIONS.

There were a few other gaffes that stood out, but those were the cream of the crop. We’ll have some more observations from the interview process soom…

In the digital age, our resumes like many of our personal documents are stored online and in a digital format. If you belong to a job search site which stores your resume, such as Monster.com, your information is kept in a huge database and is only found when it matches specific keywords. You need to make sure that your resume is found.

Brian Krueger from collegegrad.com offers advice on this topic in this one-minute video tip:

Resume Finesse: Tell Me Again, Why Did You Leave Your Last Job After Six Months?

That’s not a question you want to field during an important job interview, especially if the details are gory. And why would you be asked such a question? Because you included it on your resume so that it would be sure to come up during the interview!

A resume isn’t just a bunch of facts typed up neatly. A resume presents the best picture of you, the professional. A good resume shines a spotlight on your business accomplishments while sweeping your shortfalls and shortcomings under the carpet (or at least putting the best face on these ‘difficult’ resume entries.)

The Fudge Factor

There’s a big difference between emphasizing career highlights and creating highlights that never took place.

During your last semester of college you dropped out to tour as a roadie with Aerosmith. Good times. But, you never quite went back to get that degree. You almost got it, but not quite.

You might be tempted to apply the fudge factor here and claim a degree that you haven’t quite earned. Don’t do it. Your resume must be 110% accurate in every fact. However, what facts are included or excluded and how the remaining facts are positioned are simply aspects of good resume preparation.

Resume Blemish #1: 12 Jobs in Four Years

You quit for a better job, got laid off, downsized, moved across country and picked up an additional certification so your staying power at any one position is rightfully suspect to a prospective employer.

Pick the jobs that are most relevant to the one for which you’re applying. No lies. Just put your relevant experience to the forefront.

Provide accurate employment start and end dates and when the subject comes up during an interview, you’ll be prepared to explain the holes in your work history. This brings up blemish number two.

Resume Blemish #2: Holes in Your Work History

Prospective employers like to see a nice, steady work history with nice, steady advancement as you move from company to company: more responsibilities, more varied experience, and greater impact on the company’s bottom line. (It all comes down to the bottom line.) That’s what your next employer is looking for.

So how do you explain the fact that you left your last job in the previous millennium? Or that two year block of time when you hiked through the Andes?

Holes like this stand out, but they can be addressed in your cover letter. Again, honesty counts, so be truthful. You’ve been out of the workforce since 1999 raising your family, and now, you’re ready to re-enter the job market (with your completely up-to-date skill set). Or, you wanted to follow your dream to trek the Andes before you got too old. Straight up, tell the truth.

The Resume Statute of Limitations

Typically, you can leave off anything older than 10 years. In today’s job market, anything before that is ancient history. So, if you had a few “misfires” early in your career, leave them off.

Also, if your most relevant experience also happens to be your most recent (usually the case as you work your way up the ladder), you can omit that old two-year stint as a bank teller before you got into marketing. Again, the key is to choose selectively the information that best demonstrates your value as the company’s newest employee.

Finally, the Details

Read it. Reread it. Read it again. Have your spouse read it, the kids, or your mother-in-law – anybody you can collar. You’re looking for input and reaction. Does it grab your attention? Does this sound right? Edit and polish each entry accordingly.

Proof it. No mistakes. No spelling errors, grammar’s up to snuff, proper format. If it’s professional, it’s perfect.

Don’t Try This at Home

If you don’t have a clue how to structure your work history and play down your job-jumping binge, hire a professional resume preparer. It’ll cost a few bucks, but it’ll be the best investment in your future you ever make.

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Teena Rose is a columnist, public speaker, and certified/published resume writer with Resume to Referral. She’s authored several books, including How to Design, Write, and Compile a Quality Brag Book, 20-Minute Cover Letter Fixer, and Cracking the Code to Pharmaceutical Sales.

The folks at GetHiredNowTV have this quick video explaining why it is a good idea to include a postscript (PS) in any cover letters that you send out.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

The Boston Globe this week had an article from Don Aucoin, who profile six people in the Boston area who are working their dream jobs.

It is interesting to see the differences in the professions here, which include a dog walker, a director of communications, a dean of a technical college and a director of new media. Each person explains why this is their dream job, compares it to a nightmare job that they’ve had in the past and offer advice to others seeking their own dream jobs.

A terrific post on Randsinresponse walks us through the process the author uses when reviewing resumes.

We’re told which parts of the resume are skimmed and which ones are skipped altogether. Two passes are made over the resume, with the second pass in a little more detail than the first.

The post concludes with these words:

A resume will never define who you are. It’s not the job of your resume to give me a complete picture, and if you’re struggling to include every last detail about who you are, you’re wasting your time. Your resume should be designed to give me a glimpse and a hook.

The glimpse is a view into the most recent years of your professional career. It should convey your three most important accomplishments and it should give me a good idea where your technical skills lie.

The hook is more important. The hook will leave me with a question. Maybe it’s something from your other interests section? How about an objective so outlandish that I can’t help but set up a phone screen. I’m not suggesting that you make anything up, I’m asking you to market yourself in a way that I’m going to remember. A resume is not a statement of facts. It’s a declaration of intent.

The entire article is absolutely worth a read.

GetHiredNowTV has a video that has some good tips for doing job searches via Google.

Simply putting in a job title and city will bring you back millions of results. The video provides some tips on narrowing down those options a bit. Using terms like “submit resume” along with the job title and other keywords will likely bring good results.

The video is about two and a half minutes.

One time I received a call from a former co-worker who was in the process of looking for a job. At the time, I was still with the company that we had worked for together. I also knew the circumstances of his departure from the company, and that it wasn’t a pleasant situation.

Because of that situation, he was having a hard time finding a job, because when the company he interviewed with would call the old employer, and get a not-exactly-enthusiastic response over the phone. Hoping to avoid this, he called me and ask if I would write him a letter that outlined his job skills, and nothing else. This way, he would have something to show the potential new employer from the old employer. I told him I’d think about it.

Here are some of the thoughts that I had that led me to my decision:

Am I qualified to write this letter?
I was his co-worker, not his manager or supervisor. I was aware of the things he was working on, and so forth, but I wasn’t fully aware of the quality of the work that he did. Does the company want me to be the one to write such a letter?

What does management think?
I wanted to make sure that this was going to be ok with the higher ups, so I checked in with not only my manager, but his manager as well. (An assistant director of the company)

Do they want me representing the company?
If I were to write a letter, whomever reads the letter is going to see it as an endorsement from the company. Is that what the company wants? Am I going to be an official representative of the company in this regard?

In the end, the decision was out of my hands. When I brought up the subject to management, they said that any letters of that sort are to be written by them. I’m glad I checked. Not that I would’ve gotten into a great deal of trouble, but it may have put me in an awkward position.

Before you write a letter of recommendation for someone, consider the impact on all sides before you agree to do it.

Sean from CareerTV has a one minute video on the importance of writing thank you letters following a job interview.

He offers a few specific tips on making sure your thank you letter is going to be effective.

I personally have always made sure to compose a thank you letter, and have gotten very good feedback from doing this. In fact, on the last job I had in the corporate world, my boss told me I was THE ONLY ONE to send the thank you note to him, and it was a big factor in my getting the job.