The hiring process can seem a lot like a Cinderella story sometimes – with hiring managers and recruiters running to and fro looking for just the right fit.  It’s time consuming, and the only thing worse than not finding your fairy tale prince or princess, is having to comb through a thousand duds.

Time is money, and if you’re a small startup, you might not necessarily have a lot of experience handling recruitment. That’s problematic when you’re predisposed to being picky, since each new talent you bring in has a massive impact on your company’s success.  So what can you do to streamline the process and better filter incoming candidates?  Well, it all starts with your job posting.

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After hours slogging through job postings, uploading resumes and firing off e-mails, it’s hard not to feel a bit dehumanized by the impersonal nature of the modern job search.  Human faces rarely pop up until after you’ve been considered for a position, and until then, your only interactions with an employer come from the little dropbox you upload your resume into. 

On top of that, continuously re-configuring your qualifications for every new role can leave you feeling less like a person and more like a robot.  Robots are devoid of any personal goals or passions, and last time I checked, we hadn’t gone all C-3PO just yet.

Remember, at the end of the day, most jobs have a large human component to them, especially at smaller companies with tight-knit teams.

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For those with little work experience, the dreaded “references” list is usually the least enjoyable part of crafting a resume, and even for those who have a good number of footprints in the working world, it can be tough to know how to utilize references effectively.  Luckily, Forbes’ Jacquelyn Smith wants to help. 

Know who your best references are
Before you add someone to your list, ask yourself whether they’ll be seen as a key or credible individual because that will decide whether your reference has any real impact on an employer.  If you decide that they are the right kind of people, make sure they’re actually going to say something good about you.  Seems obvious, but just because you had an amiable relationship with a supervisor or co-worker, doesn’t mean they’re going to paint you as a star worker when pressed over the phone.

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The job search is already hard enough on its own without us unknowingly bungling our chances somehow.  Sometimes, it’s tough to know whether you’re taking the right approach, but at the very least, the Wallstreet Journal’s Sarah Needleman has a few pitfalls that we would all do well to avoid. 

Don’t claim that every job is “the one”
People tend to roll their eyes whenever they hear someone talking about “true love”, especially when they seem to use it to describe every attractive person they meet.  Hiring managers are just as likely to face-palm when your cover letter describes one position as your “dream job”, only to find out that you said the same thing in your cover letters for two or three other positions.  Only apply to the roles that really speak to you, and if you truly do believe that several of their openings are the best thing since rainbow unicorns, condense it into a single cover letter that addresses all of them rather than copying and pasting a single template multiple times.

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Ever clicked past a job posting that just barely seemed to exclude you from applying?  It can be frustrating when you feel like you’ve got the right key for the door, but one of the notches is just barely bent out of shape.  Well, HBR keymaster Tammy Johns has some helpful advice that might turn those disappointing “almost got-ems” into great career opportunities again. 

Avoid itemized lists

A general listing of your skills and experience isn’t going to do much to woo an employer who’s looking for someone with a very specific profile.  Instead, tailor your profile to display your current abilities in the context of the employer’s current needs and business priorities.  Also, use language that emphasizes how your specific skill set will help them succeed in achieving their current goals.  Doing this can go a long way in making you much more employable with less experience.

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We all know we’ve done great work, but it’s tough showing others that sometimes.  Behance’s Matias Corea understands that, and he has some great tips on how you can make your portfolio go from dud to daring. 

Curate the kind of work that you want to keep doing
You wouldn’t want to pad a resume with irrelevant or unimpressive work, so avoid falling into the trap of trying to balloon your portfolio with sheer numbers.  A large portfolio might look more impressive at first glance, but like a chef might say, you’re only as good as your last dish, and utilizing sub-par examples will reduce your appeal under closer scrutiny.  Even worse, it might encourage employers to come to you with work you absolutely hate doing.

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Whether you’re a recent grad’ or a long time workforce horse, the unemployment gap is no stranger to many of us.  Luckily for us, employers are plenty familiar with it as well, and they have a couple tips that might help downtrodden job-seekers keep their resumes from falling into the discard bin. 

1) Take a class
This doesn’t necessarily have to mean going back full-time.  After all, the last thing most of us want on top of joblessness is another couple thousand dollars in debt.  It can be something as simple as attending a few professional seminars or taking a certification course.

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The path to a great career is a winding one, and it’s easy to feel like you’ve fallen off the treadmill sometimes.  Business Insider blogger, Eric Barker has some great tips to keep you on the right track. 

1) Make sure your accomplishments are as visible as you are
Never assume that anyone, whether it’s your superiors or co-workers, knows that you’re doing great work.  Everyone’s got their own problems to worry about, and people tend only to take notice of an individual when something goes wrong, rather than when things are flowing smoothly. Don’t brag unnecessarily, but if you know you’ve done an awesome job on something, make sure your name is in the credits. 

2) Shape perceptions of your work early and on a consistent basis
It should come as no surprise that perceptions are tough to change, especially when the first impression is lackluster.  Even if you end up doing a great job later, it can be tough to break that initial image of being someone who is unremarkable or under-performing.

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Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but the idea of working at a startup or small business is increasingly appealing to many.  Whether it’s the close-knit nature of teams, the need to wear multiple hats, or simply the ability to influence the direction of the company more, small businesses are becoming the go-to destination for new grads and established works alike.

Smaller companies rarely hire through advertised job postings or recruiters the way larger firms do.  Every employee is critical, and it isn’t uncommon for the CEO to be directly involved in the process.  That’s good news for aspiring candidates who want a direct line to those doing the hiring.  Avoid just submitting the usual cold resume/cover letter.  Find a way to engage the company in conversation by starting discussions on twitter, facebook or linkedin.  Don’t be afraid to send them e-mails because they’re far less likely to get lost in the vacuum of space, as they would at a larger company.

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The dreaded “Where will you be in five years?” question. Really, can anyone actually answer that with any degree of certainty? If you asked a business where they will be in 5 years do they know? Makes you wonder why it ever comes up.

Yet, it does come up. What’s more, there’s a lot more to the question than meets the eye and taking some time to answer it can provide you with some real insight. Much of the eye-rolling that goes on when people hear this question is because they’ve never taken the time to actually think out a reasonable, well-articulated answer. You might not be able to predict where you’ll be in 5 years, but it provides you with a chance to pause and reflect where you would like to be. From there, you can decide what steps you need to take to get there.

A recent article by Amy Gallo in the Harvard Business Review blog tackled just this kind of question and we thought it had some great takeaways that we wanted to summarize and share.

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The nature of work and the job market are always shifting, but the same can’t always be said for the nature of job-seekers.  A lot of people with great qualifications are scuffing their chances at landing a job or an interview by using tactics that should have been left in the ‘80s along with spandex and jazzercise. 

Liz Ryan, of Bloomberg, has a short list of job search strategies that you should avoid like a sparkly, rhinestone-studded plague.

1) Using Dedicated Resume Paper/Envelopes – Unless you’re applying for a creative position like Graphic Design, overly fancy or colorful stationary is only going to make you amateurish and out of touch.  Most resumes are read electronically, and simplicity and readability is the key when it comes to proper digital formatting.

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There are few professions that rival politicians when it comes to the frequency and extensiveness of interviews. Given all the coverage of the Republican Party presidential primaries at the moment, we thought it seemed like a good time to draw out some lessons we can learn from politicians when it comes to interviewing well. 

The following is a list inspired by Shawn Graham’s article in Fast Company and our own experiences from watching politicians try and work their magic in front of the country. Here are some key tips to keep in mind next time you’re in an interview:

Don’t dodge and deflect
When you’re faced with a tough question, don’t take the easy route. It’s just that, easy. The chances are you’re going to sound like everyone else and won’t distinguish yourself in any meaningful way.

Take Pause
A canned answer doesn’t sound authentic and will win very few people over.  Try waiting a few seconds before you answer a question - it gives the impression that you actually gave it some thought.

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Two jobs on the table and one you’d rather not take. It sounds like an unlikely scenario given the recent recession and the difficult state of the job market, but it’s one that Jodi Glickman of the Harvard Business Review insists is becoming more common again as the economy starts to pull itself out of the gutter. Turning down an employer is never an easy thing to do, especially if you’re not the type who enjoys confrontation.

For a lot of us, it can be like that terrible grade school moment when you discover a friend’s unreciprocated crush and realize that you’re going to have to tell them “sorry, but no.” And just like you would with a friend, you want to let the employer down easy. Glickman wants to help you do this by making sure you include three specific elements in any “thanks, but no thanks” discussion that you have with a potential employer.

The first is, appropriately enough, a simple thank you to the employer. Common courtesy dictates that you’d give thanks to anyone who offered you something of value in your personal life, regardless of whether you decide to take it. It’s a simple gesture that lets them know their goodwill is appreciated and that you respect them as a person, or in our case, as an organization. 

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New Year’s day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean it’s too late to make resolutions for the coming year. Some of us will want to become better people or take on more of a leadership role in our careers, but we might not necessarily be equipped to get there yet. Allow me, if you will, to suggest a particular set of resolutions (courtesy of HBR) that can help you in both endeavors.

Find a trustworthy mentor
A good mentor should do more than just tutor you professionally; they should be someone who you jive with intellectually/emotionally and is genuinely committed to your development. If you want to become a great leader and not just a great businessman, then find mentors who you admire for their character as much as their success.

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Making decisions is hard, and whether we realize it or not, we often go out of our way to make it even harder.  We become so obsessed with making the “right” decision that we confuse our neuroses with legitimate concerns and end up running our brain in circles.  While there aren’t any hard-set rules on decision-making, 99percent writer, Jocelyn Glei has a couple tips that might help us become a little more clear-headed.   

1) Satisficers vs Maximizers

Ever spent hours or days agonizing over a decision when you know you’ve already got an adequate solution?  You might just be a maximizer—the type who lies awake at night because they’re not sure they got the best possible deal on that new camera they bought – even though it was already well below their budget point.  Well, if you value your productivity, and your sanity, you might want to consider becoming more of a satisficer.  Set the criteria for your decision early and take action once those specific areas have been met.  Don’t spend a lot of unnecessary time scrutinizing factors that aren’t really that important to the outcome.  Do you really need to save an extra $30 on that $500 camera?

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When it comes to employment, nobody likes feeling “stuck”. Even in a down-turned economy, a survey from Rights Management shows that nearly 84% of workers are planning to find new jobs in the new year. That number seems optimistic in a job climate where many people are just thankful to have work in the first place, but the fact is that people who aren’t feeling valued are ultimately going to look for alternatives. If companies want to avoid turnover, they’re going to need to axe a couple prevailing mentalities from their workplaces, and workers need to look for employers that won’t indulge in these myths.

Underpaid employees will stick around

Regardless of how many side perks or pats on the back you offer. Everybody has to pay their bills, and no amount of cajoling is going to get someone to stay when they know they’re being ripped off. If you know you’re getting a raw deal, then don’t be afraid to look for someone who will pay you your full value. For employers, it’s better to pony up the money now rather than spending it later on recruiting fees when your employees inevitably go vamoose.

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If writing a great resume was easy, it’s likely there’d be far fewer than the 40 million plus results you get when you do a simple search for a “resume expert” in Google.  At its most basic, the resume is just a 2-3 page document – shorter than even most of those grade school assignments you once handed in – and yet it causes the working world more headaches than some of most complex PhD theses. 

We decided to ask our members what they thought were some of the biggest challenges when writing a resume, here are the most common we heard and some tips to address them:

The need to be concise without being too vague

Perhaps the only thing harder than having a huge word limit (think first-year papers) is a really tiny word limit - every word all of sudden becomes that much more important. The typical career posting is often a long-winded affair, detailing every responsibility to the letter. While it’s probably a good thing for employers to be as descriptive as possible, that’s not the case for you when you’re responding. You risk providing far too much information, while losing the ability to catch the HR manager’s eye with your key points. 

Tip: Give yourself less room to write – try working everything into a page. A concisely written resume makes you look confident, ensures you only focus on the salient points, and easily highlights your strengths.   

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Whether you’re the big cheese or just another seed on the cubicle farm, Tony Schwartz of the HBR Blog has a couple of disturbingly prolific work myths that you can stand to toss out the window.

Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand.

To be short, multi-tasking doesn’t work the way we think it does. As a species, we’re not particularly good at doing more than one thing at the same time. What we are good at is rapidly switching between tasks. Cognitively, when
we’re concentrating on one thing, we’re barely registering the other, and studies show that the more we activities we try to juggle, the longer it takes us to accomplish each task (up to 25% in fact). If we want to get things done faster, it’s actually better to focus on each individual task for as long as possible. If you’re the boss around the office, you can help by not asking your employees to check their email every 15 minutes.

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