What people don’t understand is this: if you don’t explain your career moves in the resume itself, there won’t be any interview.

The typical job opening fetches over 100 replies from job applicants. Why would a hiring manager interview a person whose resume raises troubling questions?

Here are five hot question-raising issues that you’ve got to put to rest right in your resume–or get ready to sit by the phone waiting for the interview invitation that never comes.

1. Employment gaps
You have a right to get off the conveyor belt once or twice in your career. The reason for your employment gap could be child rearing, your own or a family member’s health, or even a sabbatical if you were lucky enough to finagle one. You need to explain your employment gap in a way that will make sense to an employer. A good way to do that is in your resume’s summary, where you can say something like “Returning to the paid workforce after four years raising my twins, I’m excited to help my next employer boost its website traffic and online sales.” You have nothing to apologize for–but you’ve got to spell out why you stopped working, and why you’re coming back.

2. Sudden drops in altitude
If your resume shows that you were a VP of sales one day and working a retail job the next, you’ve got some ’splainin to do. Maybe you needed to be close to home for a while for family reasons. Maybe you went to work for your cousin in his retail store, to support him and help his business grow. There’s no shame in moving abruptly from a senior-level position to a more junior assignment, but resume readers will be dying to know: What happened?

3. Geographical moves
People don’t like to disclose personal information in a resume, and I don’t blame them. But a resume bullet like “Left Acme Dynamite to join my fiancé in Boulder, Colorado” could make the difference between getting an interview and missing out. Unexplained cross-country moves have a tendency to alarm employers, who wonder, “Was this person asked to leave the state, or what?” Spell it out.

4. Jumping in and out
It used to be that if you’d spent much time consulting, the corporate world didn’t have any interest in welcoming you back. Those days are gone, but you’ve still got to explain why you consulted for two years, then took a corporate job, then consulted again, and then went back to the salaried world. The best way to bring a reader into your decision process is to describe the specific challenge you were asked to surmount in each case. No one can blame you for following the most exciting challenges you came across, whether those were W-2 or 1099 assignments.

5. Getting laid off
Workforce reductions are so common that we think, “This screener or hiring manager will know I was laid off as soon as they see the short-term job on my resume.” Don’t bet on it. We’ve got to make it plain in our resume that we were laid off (and not fired for cause) if we don’t want our prospective employer to see us as a flaky job-hopper. It’s easy to tell your story. Use the last bullet under that job to say something like “Left Acme Dynamite when new legislation prohibiting the use of dynamite against roadrunners forced the company to downsize.”

The 6.8 million long-term unemployed aren’t all from the manufacturing lines in Flint—they cross industries and sectors, ages and education levels. Before the start of the recession, the financial services sector had among the lowest average durations of unemployment, at less than 16 weeks, according to an analysis by the National Employment Law Project. Today, financial services ranks No. 1 for average unemployment, with an average stint of 33 weeks of unemployment among the jobless in the sector.

If you’re among those who have been out of work for many months, or a year (or more) here are some strategies for getting back to work now:

First, stop blaming yourself. Sure, some companies are hiring again. And maybe your friend who lost his or her job two months ago just found a new one. But the job market is still in pretty lousy shape and employers are still, by and large, sitting it out. Last month, a survey of small business owners found that only 18.4 percent believed the recovery would continue into 2011. “Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent saw no benefit from the stimulus bill,” says Al Angrisani, founder of Angrisani Turnarounds, which has published the monthly survey over the last six months. Business owners cited a range of new issues: They are starting to see price increases from vendors; they’re feeling for the first time the impact of state and local tax increases; there’s still little or no access to credit. “This has been the heart of the American economy,” says Angrisani, who served as assistant labor secretary under President Reagan.

Stop wasting your time. As time has gone by, your job search may have gone from a targeted pursuit of relevant positions to an anything-goes, resume free-for-all, as you apply for just about anything within your commuting area. You’ve got nothing to lose, you figure, by sending your resume in response to every available opening, when it takes so little extra effort online. But some employers have become so overwhelmed by the process of sifting through irrelevant resumes that they’ve begun to construct discriminatory filters—even refusing resumes from the unemployed. While such a response is extreme, the effort put into flinging your resume around the web can be better directed. “There’s nothing that takes the place of a strategic and targeted job search,” says Judy Conti, federal advocacy coordinator for the National Employment Law Project. “You will be taken seriously for the jobs for which you are truly well qualified.”

Spend most of your time making new friends. Job seekers generally have the best luck finding a job through their friends and contacts, given that nearly a third of external hires are found through referrals. Networking is even more important for people over age 50, according to a study by the Impact Group. New friends can be found in person and quickly connected with online—thank you, Facebook and LinkedIn. Once you’ve made an online connection, there are easy applications to use to search for jobs where friends work. Check out the Facebook and LinkedIn integrations offered by SimplyHired.com and Indeed.com.

Pitch yourself to your last employer. When the economy was in the pits early last year and late 2008, employers were cutting payrolls with hatchets rather than scalpels. Many companies cut too deep, and as demand has picked up in the nascent recovery, employees have struggled to keep up with their workloads. Still, employers are hesitant to take on permanent hires, so they’ve been using temps. This presents an opportunity for you, given your institutional knowledge of your last employer and your willingness to take on freelance or contract work. “Going back to former companies and even former bosses or coworkers, wherever they might have gone, is a great strategy,” says John Challenger of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. These people know you and your work. That freelance assignment can help you fill a hole in your resume.

Find a project. You may not find paid work, but that doesn’t mean this time is a complete wash. “Always be working on projects, even if you aren’t paid for them,” says Dan Schawbel, author of Me 2.0. “Don’t walk into an interview with a period of no work activity.” Put your energy into non-profit work or a favorite charity. Blog intelligently on a topic you’re passionate about. Pitch an adult unpaid internship to an employer. While money pays the bills, it doesn’t need to validate your work: Remember that employers don’t have salary records from your previous jobs, Schawbel says.

See, hiring managers understand that the last couple of years have created a kind of traffic jam—lots of people looking for work and very few companies hiring has left many job seekers at a standstill. Nevertheless, “if you’ve been out of work for a year and can’t show anything you’ve done with that time, that’s going to concern me,” says Alison Green, chief of staff at a Washington-area nonprofit and U.S. News contributing. “The most important thing out-of-work job-seekers can do is to find something useful to do with the time—volunteer, take classes, get active in your professional society.”

Practice interviewing. Most Americans tend to stop practicing for things after college, when speech class requirements and stage plays disappear into the ether of adulthood. But holding mock interviews—however silly it may feel—is an important step in job-search preparation, particularly if you’ve been out of work for a long while. Hiring managers often find that some job candidates appear beaten down by their unemployment. “Keep your interview skills sharp,” Conti says. Practice describing what excites you about the position and the employer.

Sell, sell, sell yourself, you big discounted talent! Some employers may wonder why you’ve been out of work for a year or more, but others may be open to the possibility that this is an advantage. First of all, if you’ve taken a job at Starbucks just to tide you over, don’t hide it. Some employers may see it as quite honorable. And some companies may see you as an opportunity to get skills and talents at a discount (if you’re willing to cut your salary requirements). Also, companies may just believe you when you tell them that you will do everything you can to succeed at this job so that you never have to be unemployed again. “They might think that, ‘this person is going to go flat-out to prove that hiring them is the best decision I ever made,’” Challenger says.

Act hopeful (whether or not you feel like it). A job seeker’s hope that they’ll find work (at some point in the next month) declines as their stint of unemployment grows longer, according to a recent Gallup poll. Among those out of work for four weeks or less, the hopeful make up 71 percent. After six months of unemployment, the percentage of hopeful job seekers falls to 36 percent. It’s an obvious challenge for someone who has faced a litany of disappointments over the past year (or two) of job seeking to put on a happy face. But studies show that a positive attitude is closely correlated with success finding a job. Negativity compounds the challenge of joblessness for the long-term unemployed. It’s hard to get the kind of fresh-faced enthusiasm for the search that a new job seeker might have, but that very difference gives them an edge.

1. Inappropriate Pictures

It may go without saying, but prospective employers or clients don’t want to see pictures of you chugging a bottle of wine or dressed up for a night at the bar. Beyond the pictures you wouldn’t want your grandparents to see, seemingly innocent pictures of your personal life will likely not help to support the persona you want to present in your professional life.

2. Complaining About Your Current Job

You’ve no doubt done this at least once. It could be a full note about how much you hate your office, or how incompetent your boss is, or it could be as innocent as a status update about how your coworker always shows up late. While everyone complains about work sometimes, doing so in a public forum where it can be found by others is not the best career move. Though it may seem innocent, it’s not the kind of impression that sits well with a potential boss.

3. Posting Conflicting Information to Your Resume

If you say on your resume that your degree is from Harvard, but your Facebook profile says you went to UCLA, you’re likely to be immediately cut from the interview list. Even if the conflict doesn’t leave you looking better on your resume, disparities will make you look at worst like a liar, and at best careless.

4. Statuses You Wouldn’t Want Your Boss to See

Everyone should know to avoid statuses like “Tom plans to call in sick tomorrow so he can get drunk on a Wednesday. Who cares that my big work project isn’t done?” But you should also be aware of less flamboyant statuses like “Sarah is watching the gold medal hockey game online at her desk”. Statuses that imply you are unreliable, deceitful, and basically anything that doesn’t make you look as professional as you’d like, can seriously undermine your chances at landing that new job.

5. Not Understanding Your Security Settings

The security settings on Facebook have come a long way since the site started. It is now possible to customize lists of friends and decide what each list can and cannot see. However, many people do not fully understand these settings, or don’t bother to check who has access to what. If you are going to use Facebook professionally, and even if you aren’t, make sure you take the time to go through your privacy options. At the very least, your profile should be set so that people who are not your friend cannot see any of your pictures or information.

6. Losing by Association

You can’t control what your friends post to your profile (although you can remove it once you see it), nor what they post to their own profiles or to those of mutual friends. If a potential client or employer sees those Friday night pictures your friend has tagged you in where he is falling down drunk, it reflects poorly on you, even if the picture of you is completely innocent. It’s unfortunate, but we do judge others by the company they keep, at least to some extent. Take a look at everything connected to your profile, and keep an eye out for anything you wouldn’t want to show your mother.

Facebook Can Help You Get Hired … or Fired

The best advice is to lock down your personal profile so that only friends you approve can see anything on that profile. Then, create a second, public profile on Facebook purely for professional use. This profile functions like an online resume, and should only contain information you’d be comfortable telling your potential employer face to face. Having a social networking profile is a good thing — it presents you as technologically and professionally savvy. Just make sure your profile is helping to present your best side — not the side that got drunk at your buddy’s New Year’s party.

“People screw it up all the time,” agrees Connie Thanasoulis, a career services consultant at the job search Web site Vault.com. “They think they should walk you through their entire résumé.” Instead, Thanasoulis, Attridge and other career and communications pros agree, job seekers should be prepared with a 15- to 30-second “elevator pitch,” so-called because it should be so vivid and concise it could be delivered in the space of an elevator ride.

How do you sum up your life’s experience and job ambitions in 30 seconds or less? First of all, think about the benefit you can confer on the employer, advises Jane Praeger, a media coach who heads Ovid Inc., in New York City. “People are too apt to go in with a laundry list of skills–I can do this, I can do that,” she says. “Instead, say, for example, ‘I can make sure your employees are well supervised and motivated.’” Praeger’s own elevator pitch? “I help people figure out what to say and how to say it, to get the results they want.”

Thanasoulis’ strategy: Start by filling a whole page with what you would want to say to a hiring manager. Cut that down to half a page. Keep cutting until you get to a quarter page. Then pull out three bullet points that give a snapshot of your career. Thanasoulis’s pitch: “I spent 25 years on Wall Street heading up a staffing organization for Fortune 500 companies. Now I take those insider secrets and teach people how to run an efficient, effective job search.”

Thanasoulis, Praeger and Attridge agree that practice is essential. “Practice until it’s as easy as saying your name,” says Attridge. Always rehearse out loud, in front of a mirror, or to a friend or into a tape or video recorder. Force yourself to sound enthusiastic. Too often job candidates recite their pitches in a monotone or rush through them without passion. “Often the content is very good, but the delivery is so bad you don’t hear it,” Attridge notes.

Career coaches suggest preparing more than one pitch, for different audiences. Win Sheffield recommends tailoring a specific one for each interview. “Develop your pitch with a specific person in mind,” he says, and make sure it includes where you’ve been, where you are and where you’re going.

It’s helpful to have a pitch designed to work in a social setting that doubles as a networking opportunity, such as a college reunion. In that kind of situation, Thanasoulis advises, mix in personal details along with the professional ones. For her that would mean something like, “I worked in corporate America for 25 years. I created my own business, and I absolutely love it. My husband and I built a home on Staten Island, and we just adopted a 180-pound mastiff.” Then see what your conversational partner picks up on.

As much when you’re selling yourself as at any other time, it’s important to pay attention to your audience. “The pitch is no substitute for developing a relationship with a person,” Sheffield notes.

There could be a million reasons why this person’s not prepared for the job interview, from the fact that it’s Monday morning to that he’s out of practice. The challenge for you, the job candidate, is to try to turn the interview around, make a favorable impression and work the situation to your advantage.

It is possible to save a lackluster job interview — it just takes a little bit of finesse mixed with some assertiveness. Here are three different problem interviewer types you may encounter and how to handle them.

The Harried Interviewer

Problem: This kind of hiring manager is late, completely unprepared, forgets your resume and maybe even spaces out that today is the interview.

Solution: “Give the person time to get settled, and express sympathy, [as in], ‘I can tell that your work here is important and busy,’” says Joanne Meehl, a career coach called The Resume Queen. Also, give the interviewer a chance to reschedule.

If you cannot push the meeting back, lead the interviewer into the interview by saying something like, “Would it help if I told you about myself in relation to this job?” The key is saying this in a friendly, professional tone. “How you do it says a lot about you,” says Meehl.

The Overly Chatty Interviewer

Problem: You may get a hiring manager who spends too much time talking about the job, the company or any number of other things. You know you only have about an hour to sell yourself.

Solution: “At some point, they do have to breathe,” says Meehl. Wait for a pause, and then ask the hiring manager a question that you immediately follow up with an answer. For instance, you could say, “How would you describe the work systems in this department? For example, in my last job I created a backwards calendar so all team members knew what was due when and the projects were always completed on time.”

Another tactic is to give the interviewer something to read, like your portfolio, and then lead that into a discussion about your skills, Meehl says.

The bottom line is to “treat the person with respect but interject to some degree, [because] if you don’t, your competition will,” Meehl says.

The Unskilled Interviewer

Problem: This is an interviewer who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Maybe the person was “roped into being there,” says Meehl. “Maybe they just don’t know what to do.” In a way, it is you who is teaching them how to be an interviewer, she explains.

Solution: Once again, you have to take control of the interview, but in a subtle way. Ask them questions about the company and the job to get the ball rolling. Show them your portfolio. Keep thinking about how you can help them learn more about you and your skills, and then turn the conversation in that direction.

Remember: You’re in Control

Even if you run into one of these three types of interviewers, you have some control over the interview. Clearly communicate the points you want to make about yourself, and make sure those points “stick in their minds,” says Meehl.

Lastly, realize the job search is a process, and as such, you need to continue networking. “Keep up your activity level so that this is not your only interview and there are other prospects for you,” Meehl advises.

Some 60% of workers say they intend to leave their jobs when the economy improves, according to a survey by Right Management, a talent and career-management consulting firm in Philadelphia. It might be tempting to give the boss an earful if you land a new job in the coming months. But the way you quit can have a long term impact on your career. How to resign on good terms:

• Be prepared. Review your employee handbook or employment contract before announcing your decision, so you know what company policy is regarding resignations, severance, the return of company property and pay for unused vacation time. Also, find out the company’s reference policy to see what information will be disclosed to a prospective employer. If you have another job lined up, be sure to have your offer in writing before you resign.

 • Use it or lose it. If you haven’t used your vacation time and will lose it if you quit, you might want to use your time before leaving or link it to your resignation date. States like California consider accrued vacation time to be part of wages and must be paid upon resignation or termination says employment attorney Michael J. Goldfarb, president of Northridge Calif.-based Holman HR. But if you don’t want to burn any bridges, don’t take vacation and announce your departure just after you return.

• Make an appointment. “Be formal and make an appointment with your boss,” recommends Tanya Maslach, a San Diego, Calif., career expert who specializes in relationship management issues. “Prepare what you want to say. Be direct and engaging—and be transparent,” Ms. Maslach says. She also recommends offering to help make the transition easier; ask your boss how you can best do that. After the discussion, put your resignation in a hard-copy letter that includes your last day and any transitional help you’ve offered. Keep a copy. Two weeks advance notice is still standard but experts recommend offering more time if you’ve worked at the company for more than five years. You also need to be prepared to leave right away—some companies require it. 

• Don’t take the stapler. “It’s not worth it,” says Mr. Goldfarb. “If there are security cameras or coworkers with a grudge, stealing from the company doesn’t look good.” In some cases, you could also end up getting billed for the missing equipment—or even taken to court, he says. 

• Scrub your digital footprint. Clear your browser cache, remove passwords to Web sites you use from work, such as your personal email or online bank account and delete any personal files on your work computer that aren’t relevant to work. Don’t delete anything work related if you’re required to keep it.

• Be honest but remain positive. Be helpful during the exit interview but keep responses simple and professional. Don’t use the session to lay blame or rant about coworkers, bosses or the workplace. “Whatever you do, don’t confess about how much you disliked working there,” says Ms. Maslach. “If you want to leave a helpful bit of advice or opinion, consider offering your expertise to your soon-to-be ex-boss … offer to be available to them for advice when they get in a rut.” 

• Stay close. Consider joining an employee alumni association, which often serves as a networking group for former employees. It can be a good way to keep up with changes in the company and industry—and find leads to new jobs down the road. Keep in touch with coworkers you worked closely with; they may end up in management roles.

Although job-related skills an experience rank high in importance in whether or not you land the position, during the initial hiring process they have less power than most of us think. That’s because the first thing we notice about someone is their appearance, and more specifically, the way they are dressed.

According to a study by Frank Bernieri, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Oregon State University, within the first 10 seconds of meeting your interviewer–otherwise known as the meet-and-greet–that person has decided whether or not you’re right for the job. Those who come across as polished and pulled together are quite simply more likely to be hired than those who are seen as putting in less effort.

According to Bernieri, dressing the wrong way is equivalent to the worst social faux pas: “like picking your nose during an interview.” And with last month’s unemployment rate for women age 20 and older at 7.9%–the latest data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics–the competition alone should provide impetus to ace your interview.

Dressing 101
When it comes to dressing for an interview, the consensus is that conservative is best. “Dressing conservatively means you care on a couple of different dimensions,” notes Bernieri. “One, you’re making an effort; two, you’re making an effort not to offend; three you’re polite and respectful.”

The most common mistake among candidates is not paying attention to the details, says Kim Zoller, founder and president of Image Dynamics, which advises companies like Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton on image and communication skills. Ill-fitting or too-tight clothes and casual ensembles make you look lazy or sloppy. “If you’re not dressed well, you can say all the right things … but you won’t get the job when you’re being compared with a lot of other capable people who are dressed better,” explains Zoller.

Zoller, who used to work at a staffing agency, started her business because “I saw women coming in to this agency, and they had great résumés, but they weren’t getting jobs because they didn’t know how to dress.”

She noted clients who would go to interviews showing cleavage–a huge no-no–or wearing see-through garments. One woman wore fishnet stockings. “It’s those silly details that get in the way [of getting the job],” she says.

When you’re thinking about what to wear, Zoller advises choosing an outfit that is customary to your industry and taking it up a notch. For conservative businesses, for example, you should wear a matching skirt or pantsuit with pantyhose–carry an extra pair on hand in case they run–and closed-toe shoes. In an Internet or public relations firm, consider dressing a little trendier: sling-back heels, a button-down shirt and a pair of slacks.

No matter the industry, however, sexy should always be avoided. “If you are wearing a blouse, absolutely no cleavage, and if there is any gap between the buttons, put on a shell underneath,” Zoller advises.

Multiple accessories and bright colors should be reserved for an evening out with friends. The idea is to give the interviewer the impression that you are already part of their company.

That’s not to say you have to break the bank to ace the interview. Stores like Ann Taylor and T.J. Maxx offer ensembles at reasonable prices. “I walked into T.J. Maxx the other day and they had a beautiful Theory suit for a quarter of the retail price,” notes Zoller.

The Reasoning Behind the Rules
Proper attire for an interview will create a halo effect, meaning your interviewer will see you in a positive light and forgive any minor gaffes you may make.

The phenomenon was first studied in the early 1900s by psychologist E.L. Thorndike, who noticed that when an individual is found to possess one desirable trait, that individual is assumed to have many other desirable traits too. “We would like to think that we’d make decisions based on rational evidence,” says Bernieri. “The truth is, it’s about how well they dress.”

In fact, says Zoller, other factors that affect hiring, such as being prepared for the interview, researching the company and following up after the meeting, are all trumped by appearance. “Dressing is something you can control, and people realize that.”

And you’re sabotaging yourself if you choose to go against the grain. Employers have every right to discriminate against those who are dressed in a less professional manner, says James McDonald Jr., a partner at the Irvine, Calif., offices of labor and employment law firm Fisher & Phillips. “An employer would be justified in refusing to hire an individual who it deemed inappropriately dressed for work,” he explains.

“Although it may not seem fair, it isn’t worth it to dress differently if you have a goal in mind,” says Zoller. “It takes time to make up for a bad first impression, and in an interview you don’t have that opportunity because it goes by so quickly.”

1. It’s Covered in Glitter — Literally. Yes, it has been done. In an effort to make your resume stand out, you may find that it gets thrown out. Less extreme attempts such as including image files or using non-traditional symbols or fonts should also be avoided. While it may be a nice break for a recruiter reading through hundreds of Times New Roman documents, you run the risk of the fonts or images not loading properly. And you can bet that busy recruiter isn’t going to contact you for a simplified copy.

2. There Are References. Listing your references on the resume is a definite no-no. References should always appear on a separate page, and should only be produced when asked for. Also, be sure to delete the “References: Available Upon Request” line. It’s understood that you will, so save some space and your potential employer’s time.

3. It’s Written in Full Sentences. The headhunter has likely received dozens if not hundreds of applications — help them out! Your resume should be short and sweet and bulleted. You aren’t writing a novel, you are trying to catch a skimming employer’s eye and prove you are worth a second look — and an interview.

4. There Are No Numbers. One of the worst things you can do on a resume is be vague. Don’t just list your accomplishments in a general way — have the quantitative data to back it up. If you exceeded a goal, by how much did you exceed it? If you created and distributed company performance reports, how many did you do? Adding numbers concretizes your accomplishments and paints a better picture of what you actually did.

Also, make sure you are answering the “how” question. If you completed five projects this year instead of the expected four, how did you do it?

5. It Includes the Words “Duties” or “Responsibilities. “When you are writing your current or former job description, focus on your accomplishments, not what you had to do. As an alternative to “duties” or “responsibilities,” flip your tasks into achievements. For example, instead of being “responsible for the sales team,” consider “directed the sales team to beat their repeat client objective by 10%” — remember that number thing!

6. It Lists an Objective. For the most part, objectives sound insincere and, worse, can limit your options. Let your cover letter do the talking when it comes to why you want that particular job. And remember, each cover letter and resume should be individually tailored to a specific job posting — not just a specific field. Taking an interest in the specifics of the job makes you look professional and focused and not like you are mass-emailing anyone who might hire you. Desperation is no more attractive to an employer than it is to a date.

7. It Contains Spelling or Grammatical Errors. We all know to avoid this one. It makes you look sloppy and negates the part of your resume that proudly describes you as “detail-oriented.” The best thing you can do for a resume is send it to a professional resume service or a professional editor. If you are a student, your career center likely offers free resume counseling or at least free information to help you fine tune your CV before sending it out. At the very least, have a friend look it over and check for basic language errors — spell check just doesn’t cut it.

8. It Lists an Unprofessional Email Address. In a world where email is free, and most of us have multiple addresses, make the effort to have a professional email address. Keep it simple — using your name is best. Just make sure you leave the sparklebaby@hellokitty.com for personal use. One more tip? Don’t use your current work email unless you are self-employed.

9. It Includes a Picture. The ONLY time this is appropriate is if you are applying to be a model or an actor, and in both cases, a separate portfolio is preferable. Including a self-portrait could exclude you for not being serious and may make you appear unprofessional. Let your skills and experience speak for you.

10. It Is Too Personal. Resumes should demonstrate how professional you are — that means the anecdote about the time you met Britney Spears is not appropriate. That being said, let your personality come through in your resume by including volunteer experience or a (very) short section about your interests.

The Bottom Line When times are tough, getting a job is a stressful undertaking. Don’t sell yourself short. Instead, make sure your resume is the best example of you as a potential employee and before you know it, you’ll be employed once again.

But you may be guilty of other less horrible but just as damaging behaviors. While you’re trying to wow hiring managers with your knowledge and enthusiasm, you may forget that they’re watching you as well as listening to you. In fact, hiring managers actively search for annoying mannerisms in job applicants. They assume that if you are a little annoying at an interview, you will be much more so once you’re hired and off your guard.

Unfortunately, lasting impressions are formed within 90 seconds of first meeting. So, consider whether you’re guilty of any of these less than horrendous but still irksome mannerisms, and take steps to eradicate them:

Gum Chewing. Not a high crime, but a really easy way to look unprofessional. Throw your gum away before even entering the building, or find another way to get fresh breath.

Hair Twirling. It may simply be a habit, but it makes you look young and silly. Ask a friend if this is something you do. If it is, consider sweeping your hair back for the interview. Outta sight, outta mind.

Slouching. Good posture communicates energy and confidence, while slouching communicates lethargy, boredom, or insecurity. Note: If you’re an “older job seeker,” know that experts recommend you make an extra effort at posture so you project youthful enthusiasm and health.

Avoiding Eye Contact. If you can’t meet someone’s eye, it looks like you’re hiding something. If gazing into someone’s eyes freaks you out, look at their nose. It works just as well.

Knee jiggling or finger drumming. Do you want to appear nervous, even out of control? Do you want to drive your interviewer crazy? If your answer is no (let’s hope so), train yourself to keep still by breathing deeply and consciously relaxing your muscles.

Yawning or Sighing. Yawning may seem like something you can’t control, but your interviewer will see it very differently and might think: “He’s bored” or “What, she didn’t get enough sleep the night before her interview? She must not care enough.” Remember: you’re supposed to be on your best behavior in an interview.

Playing with your pen. This is an easy one—set the pen down.

Checking your cellphone. Leave it in the car. Or just shut it off. You won’t need it, and you really don’t want it to ring during the interview. If you forget, and it rings, swiftly grab it and shut it off, and apologize quickly and concisely. Then move on. Definitely do not answer your phone or check your texts during your time at the company.

Nail biting. Come on, are you in high school? Stop biting your nails!

Sniffling. If you have a cold, take a decongestant, or make sure you blow your nose before the interview. If you sneeze, simply say: “Forgive me for sneezing, I have a bit of a cold.” You definitely don’t want to give the impression that you’re sick a lot, so don’t sniffle through the whole interview or make it an issue in any way.

Picking at, rubbing, or scratching any part of your body. Eww. Bottom line: The interview is not the place for personal hygiene of any kind.

Waiving your hands while speaking. Using gestures to punctuate your ideas can be part of being an effective speaker. But overdoing it derails your answer and the impression you’re trying to make. This is another area where feedback can be very helpful.

Tugging at your cuffs or at the hem of your skirt. Fiddling with your clothes communicates discomfort and insecurity. The interviewer may conclude you’re not used to wearing a suit or you’re not comfortable in your dress, and that’s not good. An employer wants to hire people who look like they were made for the job—like they already suit the position.

Resting your chin in your hand. You bored? Tired? Bored and tired? Wish you were somewhere else? No problem. The hiring manager will wish you were there, too.

Smiling too much or not smiling at all. Yes, it’s important to appear congenial and interested in the interviewer and in the job, but you don’t want to come off like a con artist or a fake. Ask someone close to you if you tend to smile too much when you’re nervous.

Bet you didn’t know there were so many ways to be annoying! Before your next interview, practice with a trusted friend or adviser. Or videotape yourself answering questions. It could be the best thing you do for your job hunt.

• You don’t interview every day and uncertain as to how well you will do.
• You” really” need and want this job.
• This is the only job opportunity in your pipeline.
• You’re not exactly sure about what they’re looking for or what they’re going to ask.
• You’re not comfortable “selling” yourself.
• You think you have to be all things to all people.
• You don’t know for sure if you answered the question(s) correctly.
• Fear of rejection.

Interview nervousness is a natural reaction. We all want to ace the interview. Interviewers were once candidates and expect it. But, there can be times before, during, and after an interview that nerves simply explode out of control. Like being in quicksand, the more you focus on composure, the more nervous you get.

The best remedy to get past interview fears is to demystify and understand interview process. Take control and boost your confidence by doing your homework:

• Know the company and potential interviewers.
• Investigate the job requirements and position needs.
• Understand the types of questions that are usually asked.
• Have a series of short well rehearsed accomplishment talking point stories that can be used along the way.
• Have a series of thoughtful questions for the interviewer.

Believe in yourself and your abilities. Work on your interview skills. Practice interviewing with a trusted colleague or mentor so that you can paint a clear picture as to why you are the perfect match for the position. Remember, a job interview is not an inquisition. It is an information exchange where you will be the interviewer 50% of the time.