If you’re going to land a job upon graduation, you’re going to need a strong resume that distinguishes you from the pack of applicants. Your resume has to illustrate specific skills and accomplishments in clearly articulated prose, formatted into an attractive presentation.

Here are three common blunders to avoid:

Overly Focused on Duties
Prospective employers don’t want to know what you did every day; they’re looking for what you accomplished during your tenure on the job. Instead of saying that you formatted documents or participated in company meetings, note how you created a new system for documentation that saved your employer time and money, or how you became the go-to person at company meetings for your ability to foster collaboration. Cite specifics.

Typos, Misspellings, and Grammatical Misdemeanors
Chances are that the HR professional will toss out your resume if typos, misspellings, or common grammatical errors turn up in the document. Consider these as a poke in the eye. Multiple misspellings and awkward constructions can land you in the comedy pile for sharing in the bar at recruiter conventions. Ask someone you trust to proofread your resume before you submit it anywhere.

Omitting Keywords
There’s hardly enough time for a recruiter to read all the resumes that drop into the morning mail. The sad truth is that your resume will be funneled through a digital keyword scanner. Be sure to read job descriptions with care, collecting key words that cite pertinent job skills and experience required for the position. Work them into your resume.

Good luck!

Do Your Homework
Use one or more online salary websites to research typical compensation in your field for your specific job title. Be sure to search market value ranges in your city, as they vary considerably by cost-of-living and industry profiles. What other types of compensation are offered by employers in your field (stock shares, relocation, health-care, parking, daycare, vacation pay, tuition reimbursement).

Assess the Position
Do you have the job locked up? Are you discussing salaries specifically now? Is this a job that matches your current skills or offers an opportunity to grow? Most importantly, are the job requirements specified in the description at the time of your interview(s) clearly defined and pegged competitively to industry-standard wages?

Hold or Fold?
The “flinch” is a common response in negotiating, but is a delicate play. Always let the employer go first with an offer. Before flinching, show a positive, enthusiastic response to the offer, indicating you really want the job. You’re saying “yes” with qualifications, and it’s okay to ask for a short interval to think it over. Contact associates in the field or a mentor and bounce the offer around.

The Counter
If you really want the job, are willing to take the offer–but hope for more–then make a counter. See if you can include a bonus for performance, an increase after a six-month review, some relocation money, or a hiring bonus. But be sure to back up your negotiations with clearly stated points about what you bring to the table and why you deserve more than the initial amount.

Whether training students in intelligence gathering and security procedures, or offering coursework in IT security, computer forensics, and criminal investigation, online colleges serve up a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs designed to ready graduates for the ever-expanding law enforcement workplace.

Here are several key federal law enforcement agencies that are now organized under the Department of Homeland Security-and the jobs that lend backbone to the latest security measures:

Customs and Border Protection
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) is directly responsible for performing physical checks of vehicles, travelers, and their cargo. They are especially interested in recruiting Spanish-speaking applicants. Jobs are advertised for border patrol, air and marine surveillance, agriculture specialists, intelligence research specialists, and import specialists.

Federal Air Marshals
The Federal Air Marshal Service (FMS) provides the front line in protecting the civil aviation industry. It currently is recruiting applicants for work as armed security officers, in canine explosive detection teams, as federal air marshals, and federal flight deck officers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is separate from the CPB. Jobs are organized around duties including Detention and Removal Operations (for illegal aliens), Federal Protective Service (investigating threats at 8,800 federal agencies), and The Offices of Intelligence and Investigations (cybercrime, smuggling, fraud, weapons and narcotics).

U.S. Secret Service
Organized under the Department of the Treasury and now in direct concert with the Department of Homeland Security, uniformed and special agents of the U.S. Secret Service protect the members of the Executive Branch, visiting dignitaries, and other public officials. They also investigate fraud, counterfeiting, forgery, and credit card crimes. The agency is currently offering bonuses to successful applicants who meet foreign language requirements.

Take comfort: there are ways to either delay, offset, or eliminate your loan debt by signing up for one of several opportunities in the teaching, public service, or healthcare sectors.

Here are examples of ways to gain student-loan forgiveness:

Teach
Outstanding Perkins and Stafford loans can be retired permanently if you sign up to teach at elementary or secondary schools that serve critically-low-income communities. Or, if you commit to teach secondary school math and science — or and elementary/secondary school special ed — for five consecutive years in low-income communities, you can receive upwards of $17,500 in loan forgiveness.

Learn more about it at The Teacher’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program.

Volunteer
Sign up to serve in Vista or Peace Corps as a volunteer. The Peace Corps will take off 15 percent of Perkins loans for a year of service, 20 percent off each of the second and third year, and up to 70 percent of your entire loan if you serve for four years. VISTA and AmeriCorps will apply $4,725 against your loan for a year of service.

Learn about Vista and AmeriCorps.

Serve
Join the Army National Guard. If you sign up while attending college, the Armed Forces Student Loan Forgiveness Program offers as much as $10,000 in loan repayment assistance. For those with health-care/medical degrees, you can earn bonuses toward loans by serving as military health-care professionals. For information, contact The National Guard.