As you may recall, my mother was an English teacher. She stockpiled red ink pens for proofreading our papers. The Elements of Style was always within arm’s reach. And she would beat us like rented mules when we used improper grammar.

• Salutations that read “Dear Ms. Claire Kittle” – What? When did folks start using the person’s whole name in the salutation? Madness, I say! A business letter salutation should include the personal title (Mr./Ms./Mrs./Dr.) and last name followed by a colon (Dear Ms. Kittle:). If you have a personal relationship with the recipient, it is acceptable to use instead the first name (Dear Claire:).
• Simple spelling errors – My sweet mother edited using only her brain and a red ink pen. Luckily for smaller brained people like me, today we have the wonder of Spell Check. Since many organizations will summarily dismiss a candidate for spelling errors and since all word processing programs worth a hoot have spelling check capability, let’s use it!
• Misspelling individual and organization names– My last name is Kittle – with a K. It’s plastered all over the Talent Market website, job postings, and my email signature, but that doesn’t stop people from spelling it with an L or – my personal favorite – a T.  Sigh.  The same goes with my clients. Are you sure you’re interested in a role with the “Institute for Human Studies”? If a candidate isn’t careful enough to double-check names in a cover letter, how will he or she perform on the job?
• Incorrect formatting – Cover letters should be in business letter format.  Perhaps this isn’t being taught in schools or at home anymore, but here are a few useful online resources for anyone who wants to brush up on the format:
  • http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-format-a-business-letter.html
  • http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/653/01/
  • http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/BusLetter_Block.html

Today I want to spend a little time on one of my favorite topics. Shockingly, I’m not referring to college football or dating; I’m talking about résumés.

I often say that you have about eight seconds to prove you’re worth a hoot when someone is reviewing your résumé. Well, it turns out I was two seconds too generous.

A recent study by TheLadders suggests that recruiters spend only about six seconds on a résumé before making the initial yes/no decision. Yikes, right?

So, what you can do to ensure your résumé ends up in the “Yes” pile? Here are three tips.

1. Make it easy to find critical information. It’s a résumé, not a treasure map.  That means that key information should be easy to locate. Specifically, here are some of the things hiring managers care most about:

• Name
• Current title, employer, and position start/end dates
• Previous title, employer, and position start/end dates
• Education

Make sure this information is easy to find, read, and understand.

2. Avoid confusing the reader. If I need to call in a translator to figure out what in the dickens you’ve done for the last few years, you’re in trouble.

Case in point: I recently received a résumé that listed eight simultaneous roles with no explanation. Were these all part-time, contract positions? Was one of them full-time?  Was the candidate a vampire who didn’t require any sleep? I have no earthly idea because the résumé didn’t clarify.

3. Photographs, tables, and lively colors are great in your house – but not on your résumé.  As stunning as you are – and trust me, you are  – don’t include a photograph on your résumé. And leave the crazy colors for the designers on HGTV; keep your résumé in black and white.  Finally, since you aren’t Piet Mondrian, let’s avoid using tables, distracting boxes, and superfluous lines. Instead, use simple formatting – including bolding, italics, and white space – to organize your résumé. 

You can learn more about résumés here; more about cool treasure maps here, more about selecting paint colors here, more about Piet Mondrian here.

We’ve all been rejected at some point along the way. Perhaps you got cut from the football team or didn’t make the cheerleading squad.  Maybe you received a thin letter of rejection from your dream school. Or perhaps in college you were shunned by the hot and completely unattainable Dale Beaverman.

No matter what it was, you remember clearly that sting of rejection. It hurts. It’s embarrassing. It’s unsettling. And when it happens, we’re tempted to lash out.

But a wise man knows better. He knows two things:

After all, the football coach might call you up after losing his starting QB. And your dream school might move you from the waiting list to acceptance. And, of course, Dale Beaverman might come to her senses.

However, if after the rejection you (Excuse my language, but my grandmother used this phrase; and I think it fits perfectly here.) “show your ass,” then it doesn’t matter. You’re toast.

Ok, Claire. Thanks for making me think of my high school tribulations and your sassy grandma, but what’s your point?

My point is that taking rejection well also applies to the job world.  Case in point: a candidate I was working with recently ended up in the second choice slot for an opening. After going through all the interviews and discussions and coming up shy, he could have been a jerk about the whole thing. But he wasn’t. He was gracious, positive, and understanding.

And guess what happened? A few weeks after he didn’t get the job, the organization called him to offer him another role. He took it.

Great Disney ending, right? You bet it is. Now if only our dating lives could have such pleasant finales…