The Dumbest Online Job Hunt Blunders

"It's amazing that candidates don't think about the employer or recruiting firm having access to the data," Cox said.

Another one that gets recruiters chuckling: Candidates who post their resume on a job board and mark it "confidential" (presumably because they don't want their boss to know they're shopping around) but forget to remove their name and current company data.

Then there's the pesky matter of overly personal e-mail handles.

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"Don't use something like 'sexygrrl23@hotmail.com' or 'boozehound00@gmail.com' when you're sending out resumes or corresponding with possible employers," advised Beth Morgan, founder of ConnectNC, Inc., a Web design and hosting firm in Southern Pines, N.C. "It tells me you're not very smart."

"You Are the Weakest Link!"

A survey conducted in April by staffing firm Robert Half International found that 62 percent of senior executives from the nation's 1,000 largest companies believe that professional networking sites like LinkedIn will play a significant role in their recruiting during the next three years.

Curious about how execs are already using LinkedIn, I called Josh Warborg, district president of the Pacific Northwest division of Robert Half International.

"One, it's a way to generate referrals from other people," he said. "Two, you can post jobs directly so that all members on the site can see them. And three, managers can scour the sites and find hidden talent."

Even so, there are numerous ways to shoot yourself in the foot on LinkedIn -- for example, pestering utter strangers to give you a job, write you a recommendation, or add you to their network (better to ask a mutual contact to "introduce" you instead).

Then there's falsifying your profile, which, as social media expert Tim Poindexter will attest, is a surefire way to turn off hiring managers.

Poindexter, a community manager at Disaboom.com, a Denver-based Web community for those with disabilities, recently had to retract a job offer from an entry-level candidate who proved to be a LinkedIn liar. Shortly after extending the offer, Poindexter Googled the new hire and found that his assistant-to-be's LinkedIn profile had been updated to include a nonexistent position at Disaboom -- as Poindexter's supervisor.