Reply #6: Oh, and a couple other pieces of actual serious advice-- [View All]

[Technowitch]

(1) NEVER claim to have worked someplace or performed some duties which can be easily refuted by a single phone call to said company.
(2) NEVER give as a professional reference someone who isn't going to give a stellar recommendation.

This second amazed me sometimes... how a person would give me three names, and two of them would basically say the thought the candidate was a complete fuck-up. Well, usually not *quite* that bad. But you know it's a warning sign when the reference says, "He's very smart, but difficult to work with. Doesn't get along well with teams, and sometimes the engineers complained about him." (Close to an actual quote there.)