Without intending, you might be making some big mistakes when looking for a job. Here’s a heads-up that can keep you out of serious trouble:

Don’t bash your former company, boss, or co-workers, no matter how unfairly you feel you were treated. If you have a bona fide complaint, take it to the EEOC and let them sort it out. If you don’t have a case , but you’re angry and want everyone to know it, you’re an accident waiting to happen. Get professional help; talk with a career counselor or health care professional where you can safely share your agitation and your grief with someone you can trust to listen and understand what you are saying without judging you for having said it.

Don’t tweet, text, blog or email about it. Don’t share that anger with your networking contacts (and when you’re looking for a job, everyone you connect with is a networking contact) or  employment agencies, on the phone, in person, on interviews, or in casual conversation whether social or professional.

Here’s why: those people you’re venting to, no matter how kind and caring, will not, repeat, will not recommend you for a job because of their concern that your anger will reflect badly on them (“Why’d you ask me to interview that hothead? All he did was complain the whole time he was here.”)

Don’t waste your time and energy on the past. Instead, apply what you’ve learned so you can be more successful going forward.

Here’s the deal. When you interview, the representative sitting across from you is making a subjective and objective determination if you are a good fit for the job and the company. The interviewer’s conclusion is based on the sum of how you act, what you ask, how you answer, what you say, how you say it, and how aware you are of what the task and the business culture requires of you.

If the outcome, despite a flub here or awkwardness there, is positive you’ll get to the next step. If it isn’t, you won’t.

Positive, proactive behavior opens doors. Negative, reactive behavior closes doors.  I’m not suggesting you sugarcoat the ways life has punched you in the gut. Life has a way of doing that to many people, and those who overcome adversity do it by focusing forward, not back. If you speak badly of former employers, if you provide confidential information about the personal lives of former colleagues, or insider information regarding the business dealings of former employers, the interviewer will expect that you will repeat that pattern of behavior with them.

If the interviewer wants to know why you are looking for a position with them, talk about opportunity. If the interviewer wants to know why you left your last job, talk about opportunity. If interviewers want to check your references, provide them the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of professional references who can attest to your strong work product and appropriate workplace demeanor.

‘Put your best foot forward’ is more than a saying. It’s good advice.