Unfortunately, these blunders distract me from absorbing the information that matters — qualifications, experience and passion for the position.

Next time you email your resume to a prospective employer, make sure to avoid these mistakes:

Don’t paste your resume into the email message

All email clients render text differently, so your resume probably doesn’t look as intended on the receiving end. Plus, this makes is difficult for the employer to organize, share or print your resume.

Don’t send me a doc or docx file – use PDF

While doc format is somewhat standard in the business world, don’t use it for resumes. Sending an editable Word document means that you can’t be certain the layout and style of your resume will look the same on the employer’s end. For instance, I’ve had people use a font in their resume I don’t have installed on my machine.

The result? Gibberish.

You don’t want gibberish in your resume. Presentation is everything with a resume, so ensure the fidelity of the file by saving it as a PDF. This embeds the fonts and layout so you can control exactly what your future boss will see.

Pay attention to the file name of your resume and cover letter

Fifty-percent of the resume files I receive are titled something like “Resume_New4.doc”. This is poor form. I don’t care that this is your “new” resume and that you’ve gone through three revisions before this one. When I download these resumes to my computer, I don’t know whose is whose.

Make sure I can find your resume quickly by including your full name and the word resume. Something like “Andrew Bird – Resume.PDF”.

Put some thought into your resume design

Some of the resumes I receive are so poorly formatted that I can’t even read them. These applicants are immediately disqualified.

Other resumes are readable, but just plain ugly. You have one chance to impress me — don’t use center-aligned Comic Sans font.

Generally I tell people to avoid resume templates (you can download these in Word format) since they lack originality. But if you’re not confident in your design prowess, it’s better to use a template than build an unattractive resume.

Don’t send your resume from an awkward email address

I’m talking to you, hottgurl2002@hotmail.com. This isn’t high school anymore. You should be using a professional sounding email address for professional correspondence.

(At Idea Works you get bonus points if you use Gmail)

Don’t be too casual

I like it when people allow their personality to shine, but there’s a limit. Show off your personality while retaining a respectful tone throughout all your communication.

Avoid slang words or abbreviations like ASAP, LOL and Thanx.

Go one step beyond the standard application process

Just because the job ad doesn’t mention a cover letter doesn’t mean you can’t send one. Provide more than the job ad requests and you’ll stand out from the crowd.

For example, have an old boss email a recommendation a few days after you apply. Or, give a quick call to the office just to see if they have any questions about your resume.

The extra effort shows me that you’re genuinely interested in the position and willing to work hard to get it.

Don’t tell me you’re just looking for anything, or looking to pad your resume

I’ve actually had people say they are looking for a job that looks good on their resume. This doesn’t impress me. Neither does admitting that you’re just looking for any ol’ job.

Employers are looking for applicants who are specifically qualified and interested in a particular position. In your email message or cover letter, tell me exactly why the job description appeals to you.

Ditch the boring objective statement

I know most places recommend including a Object or Purpose Statement on your resume, but I don’t see the point when most people write a generic purpose like: “To find a position that utilizes my strengths…”

I find myself skipping over these content-less Objective statements. If you have something unique to say, go ahead and put it in there. Otherwise leave it out.

Conclusion: Pay attention to details

Employers often sort through hundreds of applicants to find a handful worth interviewing. The content of your resume and cover letter are the meat-and-potatoes of your application, but the details matter, too.

Before sending anything off, stop and think about the impression your application will make on the employer:

• Is your resume nicely formatted, named and easily opened?
• Is your email message professional and individualized for the position?
• Have you given the employer a reason to pay special attention to your application?

It doesn’t take much time to think through the details of your application, and guarantee that your prospective employer sees your value, not your mistakes.

WhenIsGood.net compiled a random sample of over 100,000 responses to meeting invitations and found that event invitations are most likely to be accepted on Tuesday at 3pm.

Groups have been using WhenIsGood.net since 2007 to find meeting times that work for everyone. The meeting coordinator simply starts an event, suggests a range of times and dates, then circulates an invitation link via email. Participants indicate the best time for them, so the coordinator can make an informed scheduling decision.

In addition to confirming the optimal meeting time on Tuesdays, WhenIsGood.net anonymously sampled user data and found that the afternoon is generally freer than the morning (especially first thing in the morning).

Interestingly, they didn’t find much variation between days of the week. People are just as available on Wednesday as they are on Friday or Monday.

Funny thing is…we used to always reserve Tuesday at 3pm as our flexible meeting time, to meet about a specific subject if necessary. Of course, now we’re juggling the daily schedules of full-time students, hourly workers and distributed employees, and Tuesday at 3pm doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

What about you? Has your group found a meeting time that tends to work for everyone?

Here’s the full report from WhenIsGood.net.

1. Software Developer – Should be smart, self-motivated, productive, and willing to learn new things. Also need to be friendly and a good communicator. You will use Perl, MySQL, HTML/CSS, Javascript, Subversion, Trac, Linux, and a bunch of other technologies every day; it’s all right if you don’t yet have experience with these technologies, but be ready to learn the minute you step in the door. Excellent software design and debugging skills are required above expertise in any one technology.
2. Business/Marketing – Should be a creative thinker, with strong writing skills and a broad understanding of Web 2.0. We want someone who is self-motivated and innovative. A background in marketing or business is a plus, though we’ll consider applicants from any background. Having some research experience is also a huge positive.

Both positions are paid internships for the summer, with the possibility of full or part-time employment after the internship. Check out our jobs page for more information.

Start with The Big Picture. You should begin training by giving an overview of the company and its projects and later climb down to specifics. Even though your employee will not vividly recall all the general information you give them about the vast array of tools and procedures you use, it’s still important to expose them early on. It is the foundation of their learning, and you can revisit The Big Picture before going into each new tool or area of information to be learned. It takes a lot of sleep to assimilate vast amounts of information to the point where it can be usefully applied.

You’re a team. If you are pointing out a mistake your trainee made, it is often better to say something like “It looks like we forgot to…” or “We accidentally put this in wrong…” This lowers both stress and anxiety and lets you share responsibility for their learning. Share credit for tasks completed with your trainee, even if you did most of the work. They are doing a lot of work by learning. Using these methods, confrontations are minimized, more issues are openly resolved, and enthusiasm and morale are maintained.

It’s OK to make plenty of mistakes. You’re going to mess up, type in the wrong thing, be lost for an example, or explain things in such a way to incite laughter from your coworkers. Don’t worry about it. They would be doing the same thing. It’s more important to admit that you are wrong as soon as you realize it, and work towards finding the correct solution. That’s the essence of your work–problem solving. You’re an expert at making mistakes and finding solutions, not perfectly reciting facts and procedures you already know. Plus, making mistakes in front of new employees will create an atmosphere for them where it’s okay to make mistakes as a part of creative problem solving.

Explain the same things over again and again. You should expect to do this and not get frustrated too easily. Be very patient. Make sure your employee knows it is OK to ask for an explanation of anything you are doing, even twice, thrice, or the umpteenth time. Having them take notes is good, but you can’t expect every piece of information to make it into the notebook, or be easily found and applied to the current situation.

Take a break. Have someone else take over training for a day or two so you can catch up on other pressing issues and recuperate. In part II of this article, we’ll explore some topics to help you along after those first few critical days of training. You will learn about increasing efficiency, preventing burnout, and transitioning your trainee into being a productive employee.

The award “honors a faculty member for a record of entrepreneurial innovation that demonstrates commercial utility, contributes to the public welfare, and brings visibility to the University of Missouri.”

Well done Ed!

Since we are such a small company, we decided that we all would go through the entire hiring process — even though we were just hiring programmers. This ended up being an exceptionally lengthy and time consuming process, as I’m sure that you can imagine. As I don’t speak tech there were times in the interviews when I wouldn’t understand what was happening. That is always exciting!

Anyways…We hired two excellent people to come on as interns! We have bumped the number of employees up to 8 now. We’re growing. The interns have a significant learning curve (PERL programmers are hard to find out here) but they are smart and get things done. Those are the important aspects for us, much more than the letters.

We had to expand considerably. We had room for 6 — and that was pushing it. We spent a couple of days rearranging the office and BOOM! Now we can fit 8.

Both of our interns would have begun work by next Monday. I will continue to apprise all of the situation.