Here are ten ways to lose your competitive advantage—or even eliminate yourself from contention—against the competition when competing for a specific tech. comm. job opening:

  1. Overlooking any typos or grammatical mistakes on your resume and samples.
  2. Not including a cover letter with your resume.
  3. Arriving late for an interview.
  4. Being inflexible and limited in availability for interviews.
  5. Lack of preparation for an interview.
  6. Slow to respond to questions or requests by those in the application chain.
  7. Demonstrating lack of enthusiasm with any of the hiring players.
  8. Presenting a list of demands before an offer is made.
  9. Making unreasonable demands.
  10. Not containing your ego—e.g., overstating your value. Items 8, 9, and 10 above are “red flags” for the interviewer/screener that this candidate demonstrates very poor judgment–for starters.