The rule of the day relates to how your life is based on a true story and is probably better and more believable than a lot of fiction.

Some people think they’ve never accomplished anything interesting in their life or career and feel like they need to embellish their resume to make things sounds better.

Other than the fact that lying usually gets caught one way or the other, the truth is that you’ve probably accomplished a number of interesting things that can help to illustrate your experience, skills and talents and make you stand out from other candidates who are applying for the same jobs you are.

When I think of things I’ve done or experienced in my career, I’ll bet that some people reading this might have accomplished or experienced something similar and I’ll bet at least some of those things would be an interesting talking point in an interview.

Below is a list of some things that I’ve experienced in my career that I think are worth noting.

Among other things, I:

• Know what it’s like to work internationally, having worked overseas (in New Zealand) for 4 years.
• Have survived several corporate downsizings while many of my colleagues were being laid off.
• Have experienced being laid off twice myself during corporate downsizings.
• Know what it’s like to be self-employed.
• Have helped many people find better jobs.
• Have observed people lose jobs at every step of the job search process and most of the time they didn’t even know where they’d lost the job until I told them.
• Have written numerous online articles on job searching and career management.
• Wrote an ebook for career-minded individuals called Recruiter Secrets Revealed that can be bought and downloaded online.

I think at least some of those things are interesting and in each instance I can tell you a few things that I learned or experienced with each point that made me a better person.

During an interview a few years ago, I was asked numerous times about the fact that I’d started up a few websites on my own and the interviewer was very interested to not only hear about how I did it, but about other entrepreneurial endeavors I’d been part of.

Moral of the story: Think about things you’ve done, places you’ve visited, people you’ve met, experiences you’ve had. Chances are you have plenty of interesting things to weave into your resume or into a conversation that while not necessarily related to a job might give the person you’re speaking with an indication that you’re more just what is written on your resume.

The rule of the day relates to the various job search and career scams that abound. Some of them are variations on old ones and they continue to exist even though they are a waste of time, effort, money and the hope that you waste that it might actually work and help you.

Today I read yet another career service-related website trumpeting a mass resume sending service that will fax your resume to a thousand companies and spoke highly about the service. The article tried to justify and promote the service with numbers, stating that if you fax out to 1000 (!) hiring managers, you should get 10-50 “quality responses” (their words) and maybe 5 interviews. They also suggested that a job search is “based on a numbers game” which couldn’t be further from truth.

The article went on to say (and this is the real lie) that using this service would enable you to have “nearly ZERO competition” (again, their words and their capitalization) from other job searchers.

The absurdity about this service is that you just need to think about the logistics alone to realize it won’t work. Unless you are the only person using this service – you might very well be actually – the only thing it guarantees is that the 1000 hiring managers receiving these faxes will probably run out of toner ink once they start receiving the faxes from the other people who also use this service.

In other words, all you’re doing is mass emailing your resume to a groups of nameless, faceless companies who may or may not have a suitable job and who may or may not actually get around to reading your resume.

Maybe your current employer is among the companies getting the fax. That would be ironic! You’d probably have some explaining to do to your manager I’d think.

The rule of the day relates to the scent that you can give off during a job interview which can help play a role in determining the impression that you leave once you depart.

I recall a few interviews I’ve done with people where the moment they walk into the office, I can smell the cigarette smoke that followed them in.

With other people, they might wear (a bit too much) cologne or perfume and the strong smell follows them everywhere they go that day.

Whether you forgot to shower or wear deodorant or ate a spicy lunch or one with a lot of garlic immediately before attending an interview, these sorts of scents can leave an interviewer with an impression about you and not necessarily a good one.

This is especially true if you’re interviewing for a client-facing role like a sales position or one where you’d in front of customers regularly.

I used to work with a guy who was a heavy smoker and the whole day, any time you walked near him you could smell the smoke on his clothes. Some of the others in the office used to mention it so I wasn’t the only person who noticed. He worked in sales too and I can’t believe his customers didn’t notice too especially if they were non-smokers.

When it comes to foods, this is also a consideration given how strong and spicy certain foods are that hours after eating them can continue to give off pungent smells that you might not be aware of.

Remember to take these sorts of things in consideration before attending an interview or being in front of someone who can influence your job search or career.

The rule of the day relates to how people talk about you after you’ve left an interview whether with a recruiter or with a hiring manager.

The question is what have you done or said during the interview that they could talk about and is the talk good or bad? What sort of impression did you leave them with?

In my experience as a recruiter, there are a few questions that tend to get discussed after someone has left an interview:

How well do they communicate? In other words, how well do you speak? How well do you comprehend questions that are asked of you and how well do you deliver your answers? This can be a contentious issue when it comes to people whose first language isn’t English (for those of us who live in English-speaking countries) because some people will discriminate against people with accents. Having said that, if your English isn’t very good, it will probably cost you in some interviews when the job requires (or when the company demands) a strong communicator.

How well do they present? Do you “look” professional and like someone that the company would want to put in front of customers or do you not portray the image that the company and job requires? Presentation skills and how a person presents themselves – their dress, their mannerisms, their professionalism – are always being critiqued during the interview process.

How do they compare with other people being considered for the job? In other words, how do you compare with your competition, with the other people who are being considered for the same job? They’ll probably compare how you stack up against the other candidates in terms of how about much money you’re looking for, where you live (ie. is your commute to the job longer/shorter than other people. If you live far away it can be a negative), why you’re looking for a new job, when you can start a new job, and things of that nature.

Given what I’ve mentioned above, what sort of impression do you give to people when you attend an interview?

The rule of the day relates to no showing an interview, showing up late, and excuses that people give to justify it.

I was kidnapped by aliens.

My car tires were flat, too.

Then I missed the bus.

The dog ate my homework, too.

Fortunately, I haven’t heard any of these excuses for not showing up at an interview (no showing) or being late for one – and I’ve never had to use one myself – but if the excuses given above sounds pretty unbelievable when you read them, remember that they sound even more unbelievable when you try to use them or ones like them and think that someone will believe it.

We already talked about timeliness and not being late but we know that sometimes it does happen and we can’t do anything about it. The question is what do you do about it?

This morning, I was 30 minutes late for a doctor’s appointment but I didn’t care because he’s never on time and I knew it wouldn’t matter. Sure enough, the doc was 35 minutes late so he actually got to the office after I did.

But in an interview – whether with a recruiter or hiring manager – showing up late or not at all just doesn’t cut it.

I’ve only had a small number of cases where a person no shows an interview with me and I can only recall one case where a candidate of mine no showed an interview with one of my clients – although he did have a good excuse and the client was ok to reschedule it.

But I do know of recruiters who have had people simply not show up at a job interview and they never hear from the person again. Weird. Talk about unprofessional.

Bottom line: Plan ahead and show up on time. In the case where you can’t make it on time and know you’re going to be late, make sure you’ve planned ahead. Have your cellphone handy and charged up, and bring the phone number of the person you meeting with so you can call them and let me know before you’re late.

When a person no shows an interview with no legitimate reason, I stop working with them. If they show up late and don’t seem to care, I don’t care either and won’t work with them. If they call ahead and let me know they’re running late, at least I know they’re trying.

It’s not as good as being on time, but it’s better than nothing.

The rule of the day relates to working from home. Working from home is a dream that many people have and often wish it was something they could do. Perhaps you know people who work from home every day or one or more days per week and wish you were in their position.

Other than eliminating the daily commute, working from home can certainly have a number of benefits namely flexible hours, no office politics, no distractions from chatty co-workers, and things of that nature.

Having said that there are also things to consider if you work for a company and either have the opportunity to work from home or are considering asking if you can:

You might be expected to produce more: Working from home means that you are going to have to be self-motivated and self-disciplined that goes without saying. If your firm has a policy like most do where people are expected to show up at work each day in person, if you’re the one person working from home you might be expected to produce more to compensate for the fact that they’re letting you work home. At a minimum, it’s likely that you’re employer will want to ensure that you’re actually doing your work and producing as you would in the office.

Some jobs aren’t conducive to working from home: If you’re in a job that requires frequent interaction with others or where you need quick answers normally achieved by walking into someone’s office and asking, this is clearly going to be different once you start working from home.

Some people get lonely: Some people are social animals and like the idea of being in an office, seeing people, hearing other people’s voices, etc. Being at home by yourself is totally different and some people can’t adjust and find it lonely.

You might find yourself out of the loop: Since you’re not around in the office as much if at all, you might find that you find yourself losing track of what’s going on in the company and might find that you need to do a better job of keeping up to date which all the news and rumors that you’d otherwise hear about had you been in the office. You might find that your profile in the company is lower too since you aren’t actually going into the office.

Distractions might be more than you can bear: Kids, the tv, your phone, your cellphone, instant messages from friends, social networks. These are all distractions that you’ll be facing if you work from home. Sometimes you need to shut some/all of these distractions off and concentrate on work and often it can be difficult.

The rule of the day relates to quitting your current employer and exiting with class.

The last thing you want to do when you leave a company is burn any bridges. This isn’t the time to spill your guts about everything you hated about the company – although you might have a chance to take part in an exit interview and get some things off your chest – but I’d remain civil anyways.

Remember to plan ahead and give the proper notice period when quitting. You don’t want to leave your employer in the lurch by quitting early without their consent. I remember doing a reference check for a woman with her former manager and the only thing he mentioned was that she had quit suddenly without giving proper notice and that he didn’t want to do a reference for her as a result. I guess she’d forgotten about doing this. Her former manager obviously hadn’t.

I’d also try to help out and wrap up loose ends before I left the company so that I don’t leave anyone holding the bag and wondering what to do with the work I was handling. I recall a colleague leaving our company and me getting some of her work dumped on me without any direction as to what to do. Other than wasting my time trying to figure all this out, it left me with a bad impression of this former colleague since she didn’t bother to fill me in before she quit.

A clean break is the best way to leave your current employer.

You never know, you might have to work with these people again.

The rule of the day refers to how your current employer’s name and reputation in the market often has an impact on your ability to get a job elsewhere.

As a recruiter, I can tell you that the company you’re working for – and the companies you’ve worked for in the past – often has a big impact on hiring managers and other people who might have a say in hiring you.

I’ve seen hiring managers who specifically want to hire people who are currently employed by a certain company.

Conversely, I’ve seen hiring managers who say that they specifically don’t want people who come from certain employers or industries, too.

I’ve also seen hiring managers who ask me about a person’s current employer because they’ve never heard of them ie. Who are they? What do they do? How many people work there? That’s usually not a good sign.

Hiring managers often want to hire someone who is coming directly from their competitors. Mind you, some jobs might be better for someone who has no experience in the industry as the hiring manager would like someone with a clean slate who they can train from scratch.

The industry you work in can often have an impact on your options too. If you work in pharmaceuticals for example, working for a generic manufacturer might have an impact on your ability to get a job with a brand name manufacturer. Some people might consider going from a brand name to a generic manufacturer a big career decision.

In IT and other industries, consulting firms often only want to hire staff who come from other well-established and respected consulting firms.

I’ve seen hiring managers who specifically want people who have worked in large corporate environments and not small companies. Specific examples I’ve seen were for customer service and technical support roles where the hiring manager wanted someone with experience supporting hundreds or thousands of users and not several dozen.

You can’t predict what future employers will think of your current employer or your future career choices, but it’s best to at least think about the possible impact before jumping ship and taking a new job.

The rule of the day relates to odd things that happen during a recession.

During a recession or downturn in the global economy as we’re seeing now, people who are searching for a new job often find that things occur that seem counter intuitive:

1. Companies that are laying people off are also hiring. Just because a company is laying people off, doesn’t mean they aren’t hiring too. Specifically, just because they are letting some people go doesn’t mean they aren’t also looking to hire someone like you with your skills. In this economy, companies will use jump on the bandwagon and get rid of staff either to save money or to get rid of dead wood, staff that they’ve probably wanted to get rid of for awhile. Laying people off doesn’t look good on the company who is letting people go, but when everyone else is doing it too, it can go unnoticed because we expect it and the company saves themselves the bad press had they laid these same people off in a better economy. Companies will often cherry pick the best staff who were laid off from their competitors even if it means getting rid of one of their poor performing staff members to do so.

2. Industries that are performing poorly are hiring. Last month, a local GM dealer where I live was closed, a victim of the downsizing of the GM dealer network. One month later, a new Hyundai dealer opened in its place. A few weeks after that, I saw an ad in the paper that the local Ford dealer had hired three of the staff from the old GM dealership. So while one of the car manufacturers was closing dealers, another manufacturer was opening a new dealership and an existing dealership was hiring new staff. Look beyond the headlines and look for your next job in places where people aren’t bothering.

3. Companies hire at all times of the year. This point is actually valid when the economy is good, bad or otherwise, not just during a recession. Companies hire when they need staff whether it’s in the summer, the night before Christmas or on New Year’s Eve. People often think that companies stop hiring when the weather gets better and the summer has arrived. Sure, things might slow down for a few months as hiring manager go on vacation, etc but if someone quits in July and needs to be replaced ASAP, the company will hire immediately. As a recruiter, the best month I ever had was in July. I’ve seen people get job offers on Christmas Eve (maybe the hiring manager was going away until the new year and needed to get the person hired before then?) and on New Year’s Eve (perhaps the hiring manager had to hire before the year ended and they lost budget for the job?). Companies often keep interviewing and keep looking to fill a job right after Christmas and before things shut down again for a few days around New Year’s Eve, too.

The rule of the day relates to networking and your career. Don’t neglect networking when managing your career and/or looking for a new job.

Whether it’s joining networking groups like industry associations or your local Chamber of Commerce, or using newer online technologies like LinkedIn or Facebook, there are plenty of ways to network, meet new people and expand your list of contact that can be valuable during your career.

When it comes to networking, remember to make it a two-way street so that both you and the other party benefit.

When using online technologies like the examples of LinkedIn and Facebook mentioned above, remember too that face to face or phone contact often beats just firing off emails with people you’ve never met or spoken with. Anyone can hide behind a keyboard linking up with people and getting new friends in an online sense but at one point or another, you’re going to need to speak with and meet people to really make a difference.

Figure out where people in your industry or profession meet in a networking sense and find out what’s available to you in your local area in terms of business associations or networking groups that might interest you.

These days, networking can be done in a variety of different ways and using several or more of them effectively can help to open doors that you didn’t otherwise know about.