I have always taken job hunting seriously. I feel that it’s something you have to take on whole-heartedly, not half-assed. Me, I hunt down all job resources I can find, weed and sort, schedule interviews (schedule a few throwaways first so you can get some practice in), research the job and the company as well as you can, dress up and arrive a few minutes early (not too early), so forth and so on. In the end, if you’ve done it right, then you will have a few good job offers at least, and can take your pick.

But nowadays I am on the other end of the process. Like I was ten years ago, I now find myself making, not reading, the classifieds listings and sorting through resumes. Between then and now were the blissful years of only working, but recently I was called back in for a spell to manage again for a while. And it is depressing to see what comes forth when you list a job.

I mean, seriously. Far more than half the applicants do not have the basic, bottom-of-the-barrel, “must-have” qualifications for the job. Okay, maybe they think that they’ll get lucky, maybe they hope that the employer is aiming too high. But some of these people clearly just shoot out resumes to everyone in sight–the scattershot approach. Clumsy. Messy. Maybe even desperate. But hey, at the very least, take the trouble to send a separate email to every employer instead of lumping them all together in the Cc list for all to see.

You wouldn’t believe how sloppily some people put together these things. This time around, we needed several different positions filled, and included several in the same ad. Very few specified which position they were applying for, even though the positions were widely variant; I wound up having to read the resumes closely and guessing which position the person is applying for. Sometimes I have to read really close, because the information is often muddled. Education histories don’t specify what major the person’s degree was in. Employment histories leave out vital details. Heck, one person didn’t even bother to add which city he lived in.

Reading these things, it really makes me want to write down a primer on how to write a good resume. So here goes. Note that this is for an average job calling for moderate experience and qualifications–if it’s a minimum-wage job, just send a one-pager; if it’s for Rocket Science, then maybe send a tome. But most times, it’s in between. Points to consider:

• Format Counts: as superficial as it may seem, careful attention to formatting makes a difference. Don’t use templates–anyone who reads resumes for a living has seen them all and can spot the people who use the standard forms. Use a good font–Optima for sans serif, Garamond for serif. I can’t explain why, but many outstanding applicants I have interviewed had Garamond resumes. Use character spacing, small caps, regular tab settings, the works. Try to make it look neat, organized, and elegant. How your resume looks tells the employer how important this is to you.
• (If by email) Save your resume as a PDF: send both MS Word and PDF formats if you must, but PDF preserves formatting perfectly, and is a universal format.
• Use a cover letter: a cover letter is like a thesis statement–it explains very quickly to the employer why they should hire you. Explain what position you are applying for, and list the basics as to why you’re qualified. The cover letter should be three medium-length paragraphs–not too brief, not too long. If you’re sending your resume by email, then give a truncated cover letter in the email, and a full one in the cover page of your resume.
• Avoid the clichés: don’t say that you’re a “team player,” or that you “want to make a positive contribution to the company.” (Yes, I actually get those.) Be a bit more original than that. Sculpt your patter to fit the position. Don’t go too far or else you’ll make your interviewer gag. Reign it in.
• Cover the basics: Put your name, full address, telephone number(s), email address, and all vital information on the resume. Sounds basic, but you’d be surprised at how many people mess up this stuff.
• Customize: don’t use the same resume for every application. Research each job you apply for. Find out something about the company and the job you are applying for, and rewrite that specific resume to match it. Several times I have gotten resumes that were obviously intended for a different job, and it makes the applicant seem like they don’t give a damn. Generalized resumes usually give a weaker impression.
• Make it easy for the employer to be impressed: I can’t tell you how many times I have had to scour resumes for any indication that the person has the qualifications for the job. It should all be apparent, right up front. Education first–be brief but informative. Degree, major, university, years, honors. Then employment history–but here’s where you have to be careful. Don’t just go listing every job you’ve ever had. Do you think I care if you were a waiter at a pizza joint if you are applying for a job as a graphic designer? Okay, if you leave all of that out then there will be big holes and the employer will wonder why. So categorize: list the positions relevant to the job you are applying for first, then list other positions later, under a different heading. But don’t make the employer sift through every part-time and temp job you’ve had in order to find the few jobs that show you have the experience they want.
• Be specific where it counts: When you list qualifications specifically relevant to the position, then you go into detail. Make sure they’re aware that you know how to do the job in question. If you are applying for a job managing a bookstore, then mention the specific duties you had when you worked for Barnes & Noble, but leave out the details of how you were the personal fitness trainer to that country & western singer, no matter how cool that was.
• Be thorough but brief: Don’t take 30 pages to list the stunning array of publications you’ve authored and seminars you’ve given. Keep it to 2 pages, maybe 3. One page is too short, often not giving me enough reason to be impressed; more than three is showing off. If you’ve got so much, list only the most impressive stuff, and then add a note that there’s more where that came from “upon request.” If they’re interested, they’ll request. If you absolutely must, then send a brief resume and an “extended” resume–don’t force them to read a novel.
• Add references: most jobs will want them, and they will check them. List them in your resume. If you have letters of reference, okay–but make sure to give email addresses and telephone numbers for them to check, and alert your reference people that they may be contacted.
• Have everything ready, on request: anticipate what the employer might ask for. Have copies of every degree, every college transcript, every letter of reference, every supporting document you can think of, ready to fax/email/carry in upon request. They will ask for it; “I’ll have to look into getting that for you” is less impressive than “here, if you want the originals let me know and I’ll get them for you as soon as I can.”
• Spell check: nothing says “don’t hire me” more than spelling errors on your resume. Don’t just check for the squiggly red lines, actually read the thing, several times, and look for any errors, in spelling, wording, style, etc.

That’s everything that comes to mind right now. Follow these rules and your resume should be in the top 5 percent at least. As depressing as these resumes sometimes get, I always have the assurance that if I ever need to look for a job, I will most definitely stand out amongst the applicants.

Smashing Magazine has a “top ten” good-things article about the Mac, and #2 is intuitiveness. I couldn’t agree more, but the example they use–installing apps by drag-and-drop–brings to mind something which is somewhat less than intuitive about how that process often works, and I thought I might take a crack at explaining and hopefully simplifying it here.

If you’re a PC-to-Mac switcher, you may have noticed some difficulties in installing apps using files with the “.dmg” filename extension. It’s because how the “.dmg” (“disk image”) works can confuse people. Software developers will often use disk images as a way of conveying their software to users, so you’re bound to encounter them–like when you download Skype or Firefox.

Disk images are what the name implies: virtual images of a physical disk. Double-clicking on a .dmg file will cause a disk image to appear on your Mac, just as if you had plugged in a physical disk, like a USB flash memory stick, an external hard drive, or a data-DVD. Except that the virtual disk is not physically there–it’s just a representation of the data in the .dmg file.

What’s hard to visualize is that the .dmg file and that virtual disk image are the same thing–one of them (the virtual disk) being an accessible but temporary version of the other (the disk image).

A bit more confusing is the added step of copying the software from the virtual disk to your Applications folder. So, you downloaded the .dmg file, opened it up to show a virtual disk, and then copied the software from the virtual disk to your Applications folder on your hard drive. You can see how this gets a bit confusing.

After saving the application on your hard drive, you then have to close or “eject” the virtual disk, thereby “closing” the .dmg file. Then you can choose to store the .dmg file for later use, or (more likely) delete it from your disk by putting it in the trash.

After you get used to all of this, it becomes second nature, and just another level of metaphors to use. Before you get used to it, however, some difficulties can occur.

Problems arise when people take a different path to using new software presented in a .dmg file: instead of dropping the app into their Applications folder, they simply open the program on the virtual disk image and use it that way. And that works–most apps can operate from any location, even a virtual one. This is common when app developers make the stupid move of not including an Applications folder shortcut in the virtual disk with a cue for the user to copy the app there; since many virtual disks also disable the window sidebar which contains the usual shortcut to the Applications folder, it can be doubly discouraging to taking the correct action. So a lot of people will simply try to use the app directly from the disk image’s virtual disk.

The problem: when you eject the virtual disk (or just shut down your computer), the virtual disk, and the app, are no longer available, and users are left to wonder where their app disappeared to. (Answer: it’s tucked inside the .dmg file, and if you tossed that, then you tossed the app too–which is why you should have copied it to your Applications folder.)

Some users might drop the app into the Dock while the virtual disk is still open, and then eject the virtual disk–believing they have “copied” the app to their computer. Since the Dock icons are just shortcuts, the app is still not on a real, physical drive–even worse, when you try to open the app, it will react by re-opening the .dmg file automatically and loading the virtual disk again. If you erased the .dmg file, the Dock icon will become a question mark when you try to open it.

So just remember the simple process whenever you get a .dmg file: open the disk image, drop the app into your Application folder, then close/eject the image and then archive/erase the .dmg file. Then use the app you copied into your Applications folder.

Okay, it’s not a “simple” process until you get used to it. But it’s a process you should be aware of. Hope this explanation helps.

Having helped several people make the switch from Windows to Macs, I have seen pretty clearly some common problems people have when making the switch. Walt Mossberg wrote a short article on this, and his observations are pretty spot-on, albeit abbreviated and limited. I just figured I’d do my own long-winded version.

First, and Mossberg touches on this, you should get used to right-clicking. This is less a tip and more an important preparatory step. Your Apple mouse can do a right-click even if there is no apparent second button–just press or rock the mouse on/to the right side. If that still results in a left-click, then go to System Preferences (in the Apple menu at the far left of the menu bar) and select “Keyboard & Mouse”; click the “Mouse” tab at top (illustrated here), and make sure that the right side of the mouse is set to “Secondary Button.” Also, keep in mind that you can buy and use almost any 3rd-party mouse with the Mac. Alternately, a right-click can be simulated by holding down the Control key and clicking the left mouse button. On a trackpad, holding two fingers on the trackpad and then clicking also activates “right-click” (contextual menu).

That out of the way, for anyone who is using their first Mac after years of Windows dependency, here are some tips that’ll make it much easier:

1. Quitting programs: Mossberg puts this somewhere in the middle of his tips, but I find it’s the #1 difficulty Windows users have getting used to. Windows users are used to quitting everything by clicking the red “X” button at the top right of the window. The problem with that system is that it’s not consistent: sometimes by clicking the “X” you’re closing a window, sometimes you’re quitting the program. And in some apps, a double set of buttons appear, the top ones for the program, and the bottom ones for the document being viewed.

On the Mac, you don’t quit the program by closing the window; clicking the red button on the top left (Window Close Button) will not close the program, only the window the button is on. The program itself is based in the menu bar–which, on the Mac, is always at the top of the screen, and is not part of the window. Switchers will close the window they’re working on by clicking the red button, and think they’ve quit the program–but will not notice that the menu bar for the program is still active (you can tell by looking at the “App Menu,” the boldface menu just to the right of the Apple menu). At this point, the menu bar is all that is “left” of the program. Since Switchers usually click on something else and, in so doing, switch the menu bar’s attention to the new program, they don’t realize that the previous program is still running and taking up valuable memory space. I have often discovered Switchers who think they’ve got no programs running, but in fact they have more than half a dozen still open.

If this happens with you, then you should learn a few easy things that will help you avoid this problem. First, learn to quit by using the keyboard: Command (Apple key) + Q. It’s an easy left-thumb-and-forefinger move, much easier than reaching for your mouse and aiming it at the little button. It will not only quit the program, but it will close all windows which are active, meaning you don’t have to click the red buttons for multiple windows if you’ve got them open. As an added bonus, some programs, like Apple’s Mail app, will remember the windows you had open, and will re-open them in just the same way as you had before when you open the program the next time.

Next, take a closer look at your Dock, that strip of icons at the bottom of your screen. If you’re using Leopard, you’ll notice that the open program icons have a little, blue-ish indicator light under them (on older versions of the Mac OS, it was a back triangle). This is a quick and easy way to check which programs are still running.

And finally, master the Command + Tab shortcut, which allows easy switching between programs. Although this is one of the few features that Apple stole from Microsoft, it’s one that few Switchers seem to know about–most Windows users I have encountered don’t know about Alt + Tab on Windows. On the Mac, Command + Tab (you should keep the Command key depressed while repeating the Tab key until you’ve picked out the app to bring forward) will by its nature show you which apps are still open. As an added feature, you can hold down the Command key, hit Tab until you get to the app you want to quit, and then type “Q” with the Command key still depressed (easy, as the Tab and Q keys are adjacent); this will allow you to quit programs without even making them active.

Get used to those three points and you’ll not only fix your problem, but you’ll be navigating and quitting much faster and more efficiently than you ever did in Windows.

2. Switching Between Windows: Another problem I have seen Switchers deal with is getting from one window to another. I’ll watch a Switcher do this by moving the active window over to one side, then clicking on the window below it. While this works, it’s messy and is generally not an efficient way of doing things.

As I described before, using the Command + Tab shortcut can be a quicker and easier way to switch between apps. Another way is to use the Dock–just click on the icon of the program you want to switch to. If the program has several windows open, and you want to switch to a specific window within the program, just right-click on the Dock icon, and you’ll see a menu appear above it with a list of all open windows in the app, as well as other options.

But the best way to switch between windows–especially from within a single program–is to use Exposé. Not found on Windows, Exposé is a very cool tool that makes life easier. By using a few easy keystrokes, you can spread out all your windows and choose the one you want, keeping everything neatly in place.

Out of the box, the shortcuts are: F9: spreads out all non-hidden windows for all open programs (pictured at right); F10: spreads out all open windows in the current app you’re using; and F11: clears all open windows to the sides so you can temporarily see the Desktop, until you hit F11 again to bring the windows back.

With F9 and F10, the windows spread out so that all are visible in reduced form (with the background darkened out to make the windows more visible); as you pass your mouse over each one, the window’s title appears; when you click a window, they all fall back into place, with the window you selected on top and ready to use.

The F11 (Show Desktop) feature is the best: it allows you to sweep aside the open windows, grab an icon from the Desktop, sweep the windows back in, and drop the icon into the desired window.

There’s more you can do with this feature, but mastering those basics will save you a ton of time and trouble.

3. Customizability: The Mac is highly customizable. This includes more than just wallpaper. While themes (or “skins”) are available only with special software, most everything else is changeable.

You can add or subtract icons to and from the Dock, including programs, folders, and documents (apps go to the left, folders and files to the right), and “stacks” of icons which spread out in an arc can also be added. Folders added to the dock can be right-clicked to expose a hierarchical menu of its contents.

OS X windows can also be customized. Aside from the view (which includes an iTunes-like Cover Flow), you can activate or deactivate the toolbar and left sidebar by clicking on the white button at the top right of the window. You can control exactly what shows in the sidebar at left; either open “Preferences” under the “Finder” menu and click on “Sidebar” (to turn on or off basic sidebar items), or simply drag-and-drop folders, files, or programs into the sidebar under “Places.” If you click on a folder in the sidebar, that folder will open into the existing window. Clicking on a document will open the associated app, while clicking on an app in the sidebar will simply open the app (kind of like a Quick Launch or substitute Dock).

Furthermore, the window toolbar (pictured directly above) can be customized (right-click on the toolbar) to add or delete buttons and features; even outside of this mode, one can always drag files, folders, or apps into the toolbar for another quick-launch style of shortcut. Once added, these shortcuts will appear in every Finder window.

However, a key point of customization is with keyboard shortcuts. Many people don’t use these, and might not even feel comfortable with them–but I strongly urge such people to try to get used to them. It is the same kind of difference in efficiency as you would see between hunt-and-peck and touch-typing; knowing your keyboard shortcuts can make you fly through stuff that you used to take a long time with. But what’s nice about the Mac is that you can customize just about any keyboard shortcut–and not just with the OS, but with any program. Go to the Apple Menu, System Preferences, and Keyboard & Mouse. Then click on the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab at top left. This will not only tell you what the existing shortcuts are, but it will allow you to change them–any of them.

The immediate list will show you all of them main Finder shortcuts, which you can change by clicking on the shortcut and then typing your own (conflicts will raise flags). But in addition to these, you can set your own by clicking on the little “+” button at the lower left. In the dialog box it brings up, select the application you want to change (or else let it default to all applications), then type the menu command and the shortcut. The next time you open the app, the shortcut will be active (and will show up in the menu listing for the command).

There is a lot more which can be customized–just look around the system preferences and the preferences for any app or for the Finder–but what I have just described should give you an idea of how much you can change how the OS responds to you.

A few key shortcuts: Command + Delete (the delete key next to the “+” key) will put selected items into the trash; Command + Shift + Delete will empty the trash. Command + “?” will open Help; Command + “,” will open Preferences; Command + “.” will often stop a process in action. Command + Shift + S is usually “Save As…”. Command + E will eject a selected disk.

Extra Stuff: I just wanted to add a few things you should know about:

Dropping icons: while Windows is limited as to where you can do this, in Mac OS X you can drop just about any icon anywhere to open or add it to what you are doing. Drop a document onto an icon on the Desktop, the Dock, the Sidebar or toolbar, and it open the file in the app to which the icon belongs.

Easy Uninstall: Want to “uninstall” an application? Except for special circumstances, it’s easy: just drag the icon into the trash. This will leave behind related preference files in Library folders, but they are usually small in size and not a trouble to leave behind. Uninstalling will not risk screwing up your system like it does in Windows.

Spring-loaded folders: Drag an icon over a folder (anywhere, including in the Sidebar) and hold it there for a moment; the folder will open for you. This can be done for as many folder levels as you like. After you drop the icon, the various folders will snap shut, except for the one you dropped the icon into.

Quick Look (Leopard only): select any icon, then hit the space bar; if it’s a supported file type, then a preview will open up. If the content is more than just one page, you’ll be able to scroll through the whole thing. Music and movies will play.

PDF: Mac OS X has always been PDF-friendly. You don’t need Adobe Acrobat, Apple’s “Preview” app will open them OK. And any app can create PDF’s in OS X: just go to Print in the File menu, click the “PDF” button, then select “Save as PDF…” and you’ll have a PDF of whatever file you’d otherwise be printing. Excellent for sharing docs between computers.

There’s lots more, but that should be enough for one sitting.