“God is in the details,” my mother would say when she was planning a dinner party or a reception for the people who attended my father’s church.

She was quoting Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, though it’s almost certain that the saying wasn’t original with him. It’s also attributed to Gustave Flaubert, the art historian Aby Warburg, and others.

There’s also a popular variant: “The devil is in the details.” If you’re searching for work in this tight-fisted economy, you’d better memorize both forms. Details matter. Even when it’s not fair.

I started thinking about that when I read a great post by Alison Green, writing at US News and World Report. The title was “Why the Little Things Matter in Your Job Search.” Here’s a key quote.

“So, why do such little things matter? Well, when you’re screening applicants, you only have a small pool of information about each person. You know you’re only seeing a sliver of who that person is, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still all you have to base your decision on. When someone makes a mistake–arrives late, say, or gives a horrible answer to an interview question–instead of constituting less than 0.1 percent of the information you have about someone (as with a friend or coworker), it looms much larger in the whole.”

Little things matter because they’re a big percentage of the available impressions. They also matter because they bring the other person up short.

In my post here on “Business Etiquette and You” I mentioned a COO candidate who blew his nose on his napkin in the middle of lunch. I still remember it and it still jolts me emotionally.

There’s a fine post at The Effective CIO, titled “Effective Dining,” where Chuck Musciano talks about the importance of rudimentary table manners. It’s all part of the details.

If my mother were here, she would advise you that the best manners are invisible. They don’t call attention to themselves, but they show care and concern for others and an awareness of what behavior is accepted.

When Tom Beebe was Chairman of Delta Airlines, in their glory years, he urged cabin crew and cleaning staff to pay attention to the details. He put it this way: “Coffee stains on the flip down tray may make a passenger wonder if we pay attention to engine maintenance.”

Learn the basics. Pay attention to the details. If you make a mistake, admit it and apologize. God, and perhaps your future employment, are in the details.

Every week I check dozens of “career’ blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about starting a business from home, early warning signs, relocation, school and work, and the current job market.

From Tom Heath at the Washington Post: A High-Stress Hustle for At-Home Entrepreneurs
“When I have a bad workday and am stressed out, I dream about owning my own business.”

Wally’s Comment: This is a great piece. If you’re thinking about starting a business, read this to see how hard it can be. But notice also that the people in this story seem to be doing ok with the stress. Running your own business is hard work and long hours. Multiply that by a big number for the time when you’re starting up. But if it’s for you, you won’t be happy with anything else.

From Great Leadership: Head’s Up – You’re About to be Promoted or Fired
“When you work in talent management inside an organization, you often have advance information about which managers are going to be promoted and who’s about to be fired. Maintaining confidentiality is critical; as is being able to hold a poker face when people are speculating. Unfortunately, people don’t always know why they were promoted or fired. There are times I’d love to be able to just spill the beans, and let the person know ahead of time, and tell them why. If I could, the script would probably be about the same for each scenario.”

Wally’s Comment: Dan McCarthy lays out the early warning signs of getting promoted and getting fired. Funny, they look like mirror images of each other.

From the Wall Street Journal: Advice on Going Where Jobs Are
“Before deciding to relocate, career counselors advise workers to make sure they fully understand the local economy they’re going to, and what they’d do if the new job doesn’t work out as planned.”

Wally’s Comment: Relocation deserves a lot of thought and research. If things don’t work out you could be stuck far from your most important support group and out of pocket to boot. Read this piece and the one from Evil HR Lady that we linked to last week.

From CNN/CareerBuilder: Work and class can mean better careers
“In a CareerBuilder survey of more than 8,000 workers, 21 percent said they were going to school to make themselves more viable for employers. Of that group surveyed in March, 7 percent go to school full time, 3 percent attend part time and 5 percent take classes online. Have you toyed with the idea of going back to school, but didn’t think you could? Here are 10 stories from workers who thought they didn’t have time for school and how they made it work.”

Wally’s Comment: The way my life played out, I had to go to school while I worked full time in a demanding “fast-track” job. I resented the fact that I didn’t have the option to just go to school, like many of my friends. That was, until I realized that studying and applying lessons right away was a great educational and career experience.

From Peter Weddles posting at Gradversity: Being Out of Whack
“Today’s job market is unlike any we’ve ever seen before. It is, by any standard, horribly out-of-whack. Historically, there have been about 1.3 candidates for every opening in the workplace. Today, there are more than 5 candidates for each vacancy. In the past, this whacky situation would have disappeared with an economic recovery. That won’t happen this time.”

Wally’s Comment: Here’s a sober but realistic view of today’s current job market and how things may look in the near future.

I know I’m smart. People have told me that my whole life. They mean it as a compliment. They treat it like an achievement.

But every time it happens, I think of my mother’s warning: “God gets credit for the smart part. You get credit for what you do with it.” From the vantage point of 63 year, I’d tremendously glad she told me that.

Don’t get me wrong. I think being smart is fun and it can be a great foundation to build achievement on. But too many smart people don’t ever realize that potential. I think there are several reasons why.

Lots of smart people become risk averse. I think it’s because if your identity is wrapped up in your IQ, you don’t want to risk failing at anything. Then people might not think you’re smart anymore.

Lots of smart people don’t focus. Being smart can make it seem like you’re good at lots of things. That makes it difficult to identify your true strengths and put your energy into developing them.

Lots of smart people settle. If being smart is an achievement in itself, why do the extra work to dig in and learn, practice, and get great at something.

Lots of smart people don’t realize that smart is only one kind of skill. Most of the time it means you take a good IQ test, you’ve got a good memory, and you’re good at things like math and science.

Even among scientists, though, being smart is not enough. More than one study has concluded that Nobel Laureates are not necessarily smarter than their peers. They’re smart, alright, but they also have mastered the arts of structuring projects, getting funding, and, most important, finishing.

So, if you’re a smart boy or girl, what should you do? Start by asking a different question.

Instead of asking “How smart am I?” start asking “How am I smart?” Identify your talents and strengths and passions and you have something to build a career and a life on.

Start holding yourself accountable for results. Potential is great, but you won’t find “He had great potential” on any epitaphs. Performance matters.

Listen to my mother. Being smart is wonderful, but it’s a gift. What matters is what you do with it.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about relocation expenses and contracts, interview questions, bully bosses, helping clients, and impressing your boss.

From the Evil HR Lady: Relocation
“My question is regarding a relocation pay-back clause. I accepted a position with my company that involved moving from CA to TN in February of 2009. The company gave me a lump sum (after tax) of $10,000 to cover relocation and moving expenses. Since that time, I’ve decided that my long term goals don’t align with my company’s any longer. I’m looking to leave and actually have a new job opportunity on the table that I’m seriously considering. My problem is that when I went back and looked at the contract that I signed for the new position, it clearly states that if I leave the company within 12 months of the hire date, I am liable to pay back all (or a part) of my relocation expenses to the company. With this in mind, here are a few questions for you”

Wally’s Comment: As you might guess, the questioner has received money for relocation and now wants to leave his company. Evil HR Lady has a cogent response that’s worth a read. But the real value is in the comments on this post. If you spent part of your life being let off the hook instead of reaping some negative consequences from a choice or two, this will be especially educational reading for you.

From Fortify Your Oasis: Common Interview Questions: #3 Do you have any questions for us?
“At some point in the interview process, someone inevitably smiles at you and says, “I am sure you must have some questions for us?” Most candidates hate this part of the interview, regard it as being very difficult to do at the end of a tiring, stressful process and trot out one or two trite little questions that utterly fail to impress the interviewers. And that last point is the key – if you have intelligent, well-researched questions to ask, you have yet another chance to impress the powers-that-be and distinguish yourself from the herd.”

Wally’s Comment: Rowan Manahan is a master of explaining how and how not to answer interview questions.

From Bret Simmons: When the Bully Boss is Female
“The bully is counting on the fact that no one will say anything because they have learned that most people will not.  The best way to get the bully to behave differently toward you is to behave differently toward them.  Dealing with a bully is messy but necessary.”

Wally’s Comment: Whether your bully of a boss is male or female, this post has good, simple instructions for what you need to do.

From the Wall Street Journal: Helping Out-of-Work Clients
“Some companies are offering career counseling to customers who’ve lost jobs during the recession, hoping to help old friends and win additional loyalty when the economy recovers.”

Wally’s Comment: This is more than a feel-good story. It’s the kind of piece that starts you thinking.

From Terry Starbucker: 10 Surefire Ways to Impress Your Boss
“Nearly everybody in the business world has a boss. So there are a lot of people out there trying to make great impressions and move up the ladder of success. But only so many succeed. Why do some make it look so easy, while others seem to never get over the hump? The truth is, it’s really pretty simple, if you practice these 10 actions.”

Wally’s Comment: Almost all career success goes through a boss of some kind. You want to look good to the boss. Here’s how.

I call them the “Darwin shows.” They’re the TV shows that take several weeks to determine who the fittest of a particular type might be.

I don’t like all of them. I can do without the ones where people consume things that would gag a goat or the ones where over-the-hill athletes and television “personalities” I’ve never heard of have dancing competitions. Shows that include juggling, playing anything other than a musical instrument, or gargling are out.

What I really like are the shows where people who know how to do something I don’t know how to do compete. So Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, Project Runway and Design Star are all on my watch list.

Thanks to the magic of Tivo, we watched the final episode of Design Star last night. Antonio won. Dan lost. Here’s the conversation my wife and I had.

Me: “I thought Dan was a better designer.”

My wife: “Me too, but he wasn’t as good on camera. That’s what they want.”

Whether you agree with that assessment or not, or whether you even care, there’s a lesson in this for your career. Your “best” isn’t always what it takes to get hired or get the great promotion.

The process matters. Whatever it is, you have to succeed at it, or your “best” won’t get the opportunity to triumph. If you have spelling errors on your resume or mistook the picture of the boss’s wife for one of John Madden, your show gets cancelled.

Sometimes your best isn’t the best. There are times when you may have great skills but the person you’re competing with has better skills. This can change. Michael Jordan, perhaps the best basketball player ever, was, indeed, cut from his high school team once.

Sometimes you have great skills but they aren’t the skills that are most important to the person making the decision. See the conversation between me and my wife about the designers. Or note that Michael Jordan was drafted behind Akeem Olajuwon because the team drafting him needed a center.

And sometimes, the people making the choice make the wrong one. In that same draft, Sam Bowie, who wound up having a long but undistinguished NBA career was drafted ahead of Jordan, as well as future Hall of Fame players John Stockton and Charles Barkley.

You may not always be the best. You may be the best, but not make the cut. You may be the best at one thing when they’re looking for something else.

That’s tough. That’s life. It’s one of those situations where it’s not your fault, it’s just your turn. Your career won’t be derailed if you miss one good job or one promotion you thought you deserved. Unless you let it.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about the best places to launch a career, negotiating a severance package, job hunting online, the worst thing not to do when you start your dream job, and how to make employers want you.

From Business Week: Best Places to Launch a Career
“Graduates lucky enough to land a job may find the prospect of responsibility and rapid advancement surprisingly strong. But don’t count on bigger salaries.”

Wally’s Comment: If you’re starting your career, or even if you’re not, this annual package from Business Week is worth a look. Set aside an hour or so to browse through it for ideas.

From the Washington Post: How to Negotiate a Severance Package
“As the national unemployment rate nears 10 percent, many Americans are doing something they had never imagined they would do: negotiate a severance package.”

Wally’s Comment: A good severance package can be a boon to your job search. But employers are putting less into the packages and negotiating harder. Use this article to help even the odds a bit.

From Michelle Goodman at ABC News: Job Hunting Online: Escaping the Nine Circles of Application Hell
“Next to dwindling unemployment benefits and recruiters who don’t return phone calls, the biggest gripes I hear from job seekers are about the online job application process.”

Wally’s Comment: Face it, many of the employers you will apply to will simply be rude. And, face it, many of their online application systems were clearly not designed by anyone who expected to ever use it. There’s advice here about how to overcome some of the problems and live with the rest.

From Cube Rules: The ultimate fatal mistake when starting your dream job
“When we start our jobs, it’s easy to simply coast along with whatever the manager is giving you to do. But coasting doesn’t make for success in a new job, especially our dream job. Too often, people start new jobs and then are gone from them within eighteen months. Sure, sometimes we misjudge the fit between the company and ourselves. Sometimes, we’re just wrong for the job and we should move on. But too often, we make the ultimate fatal mistake when we start are dream job: we fail to understand how to achieve our business goals.”

Wally’s Comment: OK, you got that dream job. Do the happy dance. Then get to work, both on the job itself and on your personal goals. Time’s a’wastin’.

From the Wall Street Journal: How to make Employers Want You
“Most people in the job market today would consider themselves lucky to get a single offer. Receiving multiple offers sounds like a dream, but for some, this scenario is very real. They are the candidates everyone wants”

Wally’s Comment: I confess that the title for this piece sounded more to me like the National Enquirer than the Wall Street Journal. But it’s another one of Alexandra Levit’s great columns, stuffed with good advice.

A couple of weeks ago I read a post by the excellent Indian HR blogger, Gautam Ghosh titled: “Slasher Careers.” Here’s an excerpt.

“I am talking of this phrase which is coming into vogue because lots of people, specially freelancers are carrying on multiple careers as ‘HR Manager/Photographer.’ The slasher in ’slasher careers’ refers to the ‘/’ symbol between the two careers. And it’s a progression of the portfolio careers that Charles Handy has spoken about.”

I remembered Marci Alboher’s book from a 2007, titled One Person, Multiple Careers. T’was Marci who put the slash in the career lexicon. She defined “slashes” as “people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously.”

This sounded all very romantic and new until I talked to a young woman who had just lost her job. She wanted some help sorting out what she might choose to do next. Here’s a little background.

She’d been fired from a law firm that was downsizing. She was working there as a paralegal, even though she had passed the bar exam in California and practiced law there for a while. She went to paralegal when she discovered that she simply didn’t like being an attorney.

She’s also done some other things. She’s got facilities management and HR experience folded into her life. So is she a “slasher?” Not if she’s smart.

She’s not interested in stringing several part-time jobs together, so she’ll vote “no” on “slasher.” But she does have a work portfolio, like Charles Handy described in his book, The Age of Unreason.

Handy defines a “portfolio” as a collection of different items with a theme to it. The theme changes, depending on what you choose to mix and emphasize.

Artists and writers have known about this for years. A young artist client of mine has created several different kinds of artwork. But when she’s soliciting more work, she puts together a portfolio based on who she will be presenting to and what they want.

That’s what my attorney/paralegal/facilities manager/HR person friend has to do. And it’s what you have to do.

If you’re looking for a job or a freelance assignment, you have to put together a portfolio that appeals to the person hiring or screening. That may mean different portfolios for different situations.

That’s how life is lived these days. You have one life where all the pieces come together. And you put together various portfolios that share carefully-chosen pieces that will catch the attention of people who can hire you.

Every week I check dozens of “career” blogs and other online publications, looking for things that will help you find a job, get promoted, develop your skills, and keep everything in perspective and balance. Here’s the pick of the lot for this week. I’m pointing you to items about learning what you’re good at, bold job search tactics, how to avoid making enemies, Twitter tips, and a counter-argument to some Seth Godin advice.

From GL Hoffman at US News & World Report: When You Don’t Know What You’re Good At
“‘But I don’t know what I am really good at yet.’ If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that, I’d have a big pile of nickels. I have a couple of ideas to share with you, if this is how you think–or it’s what your own son or daughter says.”

Wally’s Comment: Dad points out, quite sensibly, that hardly anyone knows what they’re really good at when they’re twenty.

From the Wall Street Journal: Brave or Brazen? Bold Tactics Don’t Always Get the Job
“Recruiters say more job seekers are taking unusual steps to be noticed—almost always without success. Instead, the recruiters say candidates often hurt their chances by appearing brazen, overly persistent or rude.”

Wally’s Comment: Some job search pundits advise what I call “Extreme Job Search Tactics.” Sometimes they work. Often they don’t. Consider this post a warning label.

From Michael Wade at US News and World Report: 9 Rules to Avoid Making Enemies at Work
“Ed, Ellen, and Carl either do not realize the extent to which their behavior creates hard feelings or they do not care. Their techniques have become second nature. They blurt out their suspicions and judgments without pause. As a result, they have accumulated an unusually large array of enemies. The trio could benefit from following these nine ground rules.”

Wally’s Comment: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a post on this before. We seem to assume that everyone knows how to avoid making enemies. The logical corollary is that the only people who make enemies are doing it on purpose. I’ve coached enough people over the year to know that’s not true.

From Anita Bruzzese: Twitter Tips for Job Seekers
“I think most job seekers have gotten the word that they need to integrate social media into their search efforts, but I’m getting a bit alarmed at what some of them are Twittering.”

Wally’s Comment: This is not simply a paean to “Twitter the Wonder Tool.” Anita Bruzzese has solid advice and simple tips. If you’re hunting for a job, don’t pass this post up.

From Blue Sky Resumes: Sometimes, Seth Godin is Wrong
“It pains me to write that sentence. I love Seth Godin. I’ve read all his books and I once spent a fascinating day at one of his seminars. I have learned tons of things about marketing my business from Seth Godin. But every time he writes about finding a job, I just cringe. Because, as a died-in-the-wool entrepreneur who hasn’t looked for a job in decades, Seth just doesn’t understand job seekers or the job search process. I say this with love – truly I do – but when it comes to job search advice, Seth Godin is clueless. The latest evidence? His guest post over on What Would Dad Say? where he tells everyone to just stop looking for a job and start their own business.”

Wally’s Comment: Seth? Wrong? The man is human, so it’s bound to happen from time to time. Most often it happens when his advice is too broad or incomplete. Louise Fletcher thinks some of his job search advice is simply not right for everyone. Read the post and decide for yourself.

Randstad’s World of Work Report for 2009 is titled: “Managers of Tomorrow.” It’s based on responses of over 2000 workers. Some of the findings have got HR folks all over sitting up, taking notice, and asking questions.

52 percent of those surveyed felt there were not enough qualified managers in their organizations.

45 percent felt there would be a shortage of qualified managers in the future.

That’s scary enough, but here’s the one that’s really shaking things up in HR Land.

51 percent don’t want to be a manager.

That’s surprising to a lot of businesspeople who have assumed that everyone was interested in climbing the corporate ladder. But it’s not news to the people at Momentor, who’ve been pointing out that “managerial” is only one of four career choices.

From my perspective it’s a bad news/good news situation. The bad news is that we may not have the number of managers we’ve been used to at our companies. The good news is that this situation may be the catalyst for some positive change.

Companies just might start offering some alternate paths to increased pay and prestige. That would give people who do great work, but don’t want to manage the possibility of a real career.

The other good possibility is that companies may wind up selecting people with the right aptitudes for management and then training and supporting them sensibly. That simply doesn’t happen often enough right now.

It’s why too many of the people entering the workforce today don’t even want to consider management. They told Randstad that there’s too much stress in the job.

But there wouldn’t be if we promoted those with a shot at succeeding and then trained and supported them in their work. Then we’d wind up with more managers who are comfortable with their work and do it well and who would have less stress.

Is it you? We can teach you a lot of the skills. What we can’t teach is aptitude. Here’s a quick self-test you can use to assess whether you might make a good boss.

Do you enjoy having a say in the direction your team is going? That comes with the leadership job, but not everyone is comfortable being out front.

Do you enjoy helping other people succeed? That’s the core of a boss’s job. You have to be able to set aside your own ego and help the team and the team members do better.

Are you willing to talk to other people about their performance or behavior? It’s the part of the boss’s job that many people find stressful. If you’re willing, there are techniques that will help you do it more easily and effectively.

Are you willing to make decisions and take the consequences? That’s another thing that bosses do.

If you’ve got the aptitude to be a boss, give it a try. The rewards are good and it looks like there will be less competition than there used to be.