Hiring managers seek applicants who can make an immediate impact in their new jobs. Therefore, you need to stress current skills that make you the ideal candidate for the position. Remember that "current" is the key word.

If you switched careers years ago, for instance, don't fill your resume with details about former job duties that have little to do with your present-day activities. A brief, general snapshot of your past roles will suffice.

The following applicant, who has worked in accounting for several years, was employed as a genetics researcher after college. This is great experience, but a hiring manager with an opening in accounting or finance will have little interest in -- much less understand -- the highly specific scientific information the candidate provided in his three-page resume.

"JOB DUTIES: Ran agarose gels; performed RNA, PCR and DNA purification using robotic instruments; and hybridized nucleic acids to GEM microarrays."

A candidate who never met an acronym he didn't like.

This longtime personal assistant to a company president took up valuable space in her cover letter to detail a decade-old retail job:

COVER LETTER: "As a men's denim specialist, I knew every style, fit and cut."

A jean-e-ologist.

When gathering information for this column, I frequently come across cover letters and resumes that leave me scratching my head, smiling -- or both. Here are some recent examples:

COVER LETTER: "I'm an author, nutrition and common environmental hazards expert, and apologist."

No "apology" necessary.

COVER LETTER: "As a meteorology technician, I compose e-mails."

Tonight's forecast calls for a steady downpour of spam.

Following is one of the more bizarre statements I've seen lately:

"OBJECTIVE: (Type Objective Here)"

Aren't you supposed to do that?