You work hard in college, forgo the temptations of beer funnels and Panama City Beach, and sure enough, you graduate at the top of the class. With highest honors. And what does that get you, in today’s age of e-mailed resum

s and cover letters?

A reserved space in the spam folder.

The culprit? The phrase “magna cum laude,” for starters. (Use “with highest honors” instead.) Spam filters don’t speak Latin.

Other problem terms include “‘free,’ ‘expand,’ ‘trial,’ ‘mortgage,’ or exclamation points or colored backgrounds.”

Unless of course you’re applying for a job as a pornographer, or a free trial mortgage company that’s expanding rapidly. In that case, ignore all this advice.

(How DO pornographers filter THEIR e-mail for spam, anyway?)

Don’t Let Spam Filters Snatch Your Resume [Wall Street Journal]

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