According to Anthony Ricci, president and chief instructor of Advanced Driving and Security, Inc., nothing’s more important in a recession than learning how to handle yourself behind the wheel.

Because crime rates go up in bad economic times, Ricci claims many companies and executives feel vulnerable to attack. Plus, as people are let go from their jobs and retirement savings go down the drain, corporate titans are worried that customers — and especially former workers — might try to do them physical harm.

During ADS’s training course, executives can learn how to master high-stakes skills in dire situations. The company also offers practice scenarios to help navigate through carjackings, high-speed pursuits and crime-ridden city streets.

Kelly Kinney, a former marketing manager for Rexarc International, is in dire need of a job. She’s only been unemployed for a few months, but a lack of jobs in the Los Angeles area has forced her to take a unique approached to getting noticed: She’s printed her resume on a t-shirt.

Kinney says the idea came to her after she was in line at the American Music Awards: “People pay attention to things they read on t-shirts,” said Kinney. She wears the experience-detailing apparel to the supermarket, mall, on job interviews — anywhere she might receive a job tip.

She claims that putting her resume on a shirt is a “pretty slick marketing ploy,” but doesn’t expect her stunt to land her the job of her dreams. “I just want to work,” said Kinney. “I don’t care about the money.”

Wang Zhendong, former chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group Co., was found guilty of fraud and executed for bilking $416 million out of investors. In China, the death penalty is used for violent crimes, but it can also be applied to nonviolent offenses that involves large sums of money or if crimes threaten the social order.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Wang had promised returns of up to 60% for more than 10,000 investors who purchased ant-breeding kits from his company. Many species of ants that are used in Chinese medicinal remedies can go for a high selling price.

Wang had purchased the kits for only $25 each, but sold them to investors for at least $1,300 per kit.

Of the estimated $416 million, only $1.28 million has been recovered by authorities.

With the sheer number of applicants sending out their info, it’s never been harder to get noticed. Here are the five worst ways potential hires fail to separate themselves from the crowd.

Every Finance applicant coming through your door might stretch their experience or beef up their former job responsibilities, but with the number of people in the unemployment line, even those embellishments aren’t enough.

Because a flood of applicants is sure to greet any open positions, Finance pros have less time than ever to size up candidates when looking at resumes. According to job search and career advice site JobBound, there are five common mistakes that are sure to land an applicant’s info in the “do not hire” pile:

1. College accomplishments are front and center — Young job seekers might not have much knowledge of the working world, but that doesn’t mean GPA and positions as sports team captains are the last resource. Professional experience — internships, summer jobs, etc. — should be highlighted above all else.
2. Full sentences — Even if a hiring manager has more than a few seconds to scan a resume, it still needs to spell out the info as quickly as possible. Effective resumes explain candidates’ info quickly and clearly.
3. Sounds like a parroted version of the position opening — Finance and HR pros might be good at writing concise job descriptions, but echoing that back isn’t what they’re looking for. Applicants should avoid “broad strokes,” and write about what they did in previous positions, not what any person in the same position did.
4. There’s an objective statement — Targeted statements like these are usually only needed if an applicant is sending a resume in cold, not when an open position has been posted.
5. No numbers — Especially when applying for financial positions, accomplishments should be measurable. Resumes that focus on scope (how many reports handled, how often) and results (how much time/money saved) are sure to garner a closer look.

What does your department look for in new hires? Are there any resume red flags that automatically take applicants out of the hiring process? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

No one knows how cutthroat the concessions stand business is better than Pasang Sherpa. The entrepreneur successfully out-bid two major hot dog companies for the right to sell food outside of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

To be fair, Sherpa will need to sell a lot of hot dogs to recoup his expenses. He paid $280,500 to operate a cart at the north-side entrance and $362,201 for the premium south-side entrance of the museum at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street. The Met sees more than 5 million visitors a year, but Sherpa has several problems in his way before he can get to business.

For starters, one of his two carts hasn’t yet been certified by the city’s Health Department. And even if he does get the cart approved quickly, the north-side entrance to the Met has been blocked by construction that started in October and is planned to continue through May. Finally, he’ll still have competition to worry about. Although Sherpa successfully won a contract for rights to the locations, a loophole in city regulations allows veteran operators to bypass the bidding process.

The economy might be struggling to stay alive, but hypnotist Selena Valentine has capitlized on public uneasiness by holding a regular “Millionaire Mindset” session every Tuesday night. After paying a $20 admission fee, people are urged to “relax their way to riches.”

Most of those wanting to be hypnotized claim they wanted something different from the meetings they normally see advertised.

“I get mostly business professionals,” says Valentine. “They come in wanting to reach their financial goals, but once they see how wonderful hypnosis is, they want help with other things, like smoking.”

With the current state of the stock market, it hasn’t been difficult for Valentine to reach her own financial goals — on average, she sees three clients per day, each paying $100 or more for an hour-long session.

In a 188-to-59 vote, Iranian Interior Minister Ali Kordan was ousted from his position in Parliament.  According to government sources, Kordan was relieved from his position once when a doctoral certificate he’d listed on his resume was revealed as a crude fake.

Kordan claims he was approached with the offer of an honorary doctorate by a Tehran representative of “London Oxford University.” But when government officials finally obtained a copy of the certificate, it was an obvious forgery, littered with misspellings.

Kordan also used the same forgery to obtain a position as a university lecturer. According to several of his students, he’d shared several tales about his time spent at Oxford. In reality, Kordan has never visited the revered university, and does not possess a college degree, let alone a doctorate.

The scandal couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Iranian government: Kordan’s vacated position is crucial in organizing the Iranian presidential elections, which are to be held in the middle of 2009.

That hasn’t stopped critics from laughing. A fake resignation letter is making its way around the country, full of misspellings and crossed-out words.

Thought business was tough, no matter what industry you’re in? Not for these corporate spenders.

Days after the Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Co. informed employees it was reconsidering how much it will match in their 401(k) plans in 2009, executives have just purchased a $45 million corporate jet — the third in the business’s fleet.

Starbucks ordered the Gulfstream 550 jet three years ago, but determined that canceling delivery of it would be too expensive. At the $45 million price tag the company locked in when it ordered the plane, it would cost $5 million to cancel the contract. The company would also lose any payments it had already made on the jet.

The Gulfstream’s maiden voyage was to Hawaii, where it spent two weeks before returning state-side. Company officials refuse to disclose who took the trip, but insisted that it was a combined business and personal trip. (Starbucks policy requires employees to reimburse personal use of the jet.)

Starbucks officials claim the jet is vital to the company’s business. Even though employees usually take commercials flights, a company spokesperson claimed: “In some instances, it makes more sense, from a time and economic standpoint, to use the corporate plane.”

Some good news about the jet: Starbucks won’t need to shell out extra for coffee-makers. The jet’s kitchen comes standard with them.

In a move to boost security nationwide, Britain’s first identification cards were released, complete with fingerprint and facial details. The biometric details on each ID card would essentially eliminate identity theft and other fraud.

Of course, it would have helped if the government also completed the electronic readers for the ID cards. A spokesperson for Britain’s Home Office admitted that no employers, police forces, colleges or hospitals have been given a machine that can read the ID cards — and that there are no future plans to issue them.

Instead, authorities will have to rely on visual checks of the cards, making them no more secure than typical photo identification. They can call a UK Border Agency hot line to verify whether or not a card is genuine, but the Home Office asserts this should only be done for a “minority of cases.”

Pension officials have infuriated the Japanese public by losing millions of government records, which could cost millions their full pension benefits upon retirement. Even though two prime ministers have already resigned due to the loss of the records, another person is taking the matter into his or her own hands.

When the former head of the Health and Welfare Ministry’s pension division and his wife were found stabbed to death in their home, police chalked it up as a regular homicide.

But days later, the wife of a former pension bureaucrat was stabbed in the chest by a man claiming he worked for a parcel delivery service. Upon opening her front door, it was clear the assailant was on the hunt for her husband — so much so that the wife called from the ambulance to warn her husband.

Authorities said the attacks share three elements:

1. the victims or intended victims were former pension officials
2. a knife was used both attacks, and
3. the attacks occurred only six blocks away from each other.

Until the suspect is apprehended, police have announced a nationwide alert for attacks against current and former officials involved in welfare and pension issues.