One of the most challenging parts of the job search process is breaking through the clutter and getting noticed by employers. This is especially true when it comes to the interview.  While being selected for an interview may mean that you are one of the top candidates that the company would like to investigate further, you are now going up against other top candidates like yourself.  How do you differentiate yourself from the crowd?

Here are five tips from both me and four fellow career experts to help you more effectively stand out, or “brand” out, in your interviews:

1.    Be sure to have your personal brand and pitch ready to communicate to your interviewer(s). Having a one-to-three-word personal brand and supporting pitch not only makes you look more professional, but also makes you more memorable when answering questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” and/or “Why should we pick you?”  It provides you the opportunity to more concisely present your unique and differentiating value and more importantly to be remembered for it.  Your interviewers aren’t going to remember everything you say in your interview, but they are much more likely to remember a strongly-communicated personal brand and how well everything else you said reinforced and supported it. - Chris Perry, CareerRocketeer.com

2.    Did you know that getting a job today is based on 70% presentation and only 30% skills and abilities? In order to help applicants stand out from the hundreds they are competing against for that ONE POSITION, I always coach my clients to bring a “First Impressions Binder” to the interview. This binder showcases your resume, awards, letters of recommendation, bio, any articles or white papers you have written, and the research that you did on the prospective company.  The binder with “view thru” cover allows you to slip a custom cover into the binder with the company’s logo, your name, date, and person with whom you are interviewing. It shows that you can focus on detail, you have supporting documentation and you did the research before showing up for the interview. - Angie Maizlish, WordsImpress.com

3.    You must instill trust by making a personal connection. Interviewees need to connect with their interviewers in order to instill trust.  There are three behaviors that can help interviewees instill trust almost instantly:  (1) make eye contact and try to smile with your eyes, (2) be sincere and, if appropriate, offer compliment that you really mean about the company, why you want to work there, etc., and (3) be a person with whom a conversation is easy (i.e., even though you are possibly nervous, try to avoid looking overly anxious in your body language and speech).  Remember that an interview is still a conversation, an interactive communication between two people and, as humans, trust is critical. - Paula Caligiuri, PaulaCaligiuri.com

4.    My first interview tip is to use stories. Every human being, including hiring managers, loves a good story.  People who tell good stories are memorable and compelling.  So if the interviewer asks, “What is your greatest strength (or weakness)?” or “Why did you get into this line of work?”, answer in the form of a short, one-minute-or-less, story.  In fact, aim for three sentences.  Sentence #1 is the set-up, usually a problem of some kind (“my company was losing money on inventory”).  Sentence #2 is the action or what you did to solve the problem (“I designed a new system to track incoming and outgoing shipments”).  Sentence #3 is the happy ending with you as hero (“after a year our inventory costs went down 50%”).  Your story can be longer than three sentences, but strive for short!   Practice your stories until you can tell them quickly and clearly. - Karen Burns, KarenBurnsWorkingGirl.com

5.    When interviewing with multiple people from the same company separately, do not ask the same questions of each person. They will talk and it will look very unimaginative that you asked the same question as well looking like you can’t think on your feet or make a connection with each individual interviewer. Make each interviewer feel special by asking specific questions to their position or what topic they are talking to you about. Also, come prepared with questions! Sounds basic but so many people don’t do it! At the end of an interview if they ask you if you have any questions, that’s still an interview question. Look smart, ask insightful questions. It will make you look like you are really processing what the interviewer has said and are internalizing this information to determine whether it’s a good fit for you and them. - Jennifer Spencer, Spencer-Group.com

Special thanks to these experts for their contributions!

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

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Here are five tips from four fellow career experts and me that I compiled to share with you on how to more effectively stand out in your interviews:

1) Brand Yourself: Be sure to have your personal brand and supporting pitch ready to communicate to your interviewer(s). Having a one-to-three-word personal brand and follow-up pitch not only makes you look more professional, but also makes you more memorable when answering questions like, “Tell me about yourself,” and/or “Why should we pick you?” It provides you the opportunity to more concisely present your unique and differentiating value and more importantly to be remembered for it. Your interviewers aren’t going to remember everything you say in your interview, but they are much more likely to remember a strongly communicated personal brand and how well everything else you said reinforced and supported it. - Chris Perry, CareerRocketeer.com

2) Come Prepared: Did you know that getting a job today is based on 70% presentation and only 30% skills and abilities? In order to help applicants stand out from the hundreds they are competing against for that ONE POSITION, I always coach my clients to a “First Impressions Binder” to the interview. This binder showcases your resume, awards, letters of recommendation, bio, any articles or white papers you have written and the research that you did on the prospective company. The binder with “view thru” cover allows you to slip a custom cover into the binder with the company’s logo, your name, date, and person with which you are interviewing. It shows that you can focus on detail, you have supporting documentation and you did the research before showing up for the interview. - Angie Maizlish, WordsImpress.com

3) Make a Personal Connection: Interviewees need to connect with their interviewers in order to instill trust. There are three behaviors that can help interviewees instill trust almost instantly: (1) make eye contact and try to smile with your eyes, (2) be sincere and, if appropriate, offer a compliment you really mean about the company, why you want to work there, etc., and (3) be a person with whom a conversation is easy (i.e., even though you are possibly nervous, try to avoid looking overly anxious in your body language and speech). Remember that an interview is still a conversation, an interactive communication between two people. Trust is critical. - Paula Caligiuri, PaulaCaligiuri.com

4) Tell a Good Story: My tip is to use stories. Every human being, including hiring managers, loves a good story. People who tell good stories are memorable and compelling. So if the interviewer asks, “What is your greatest strength (or weakness)?” or “Why did you get into this line of work?”, answer in the form of a short, one-minute-or-less, story. In fact, aim for three sentences. Sentence #1 is the set-up, usually a problem of some kind (“my company was losing money on inventory”). Sentence #2 is the action or what you did to solve the problem (“I designed a new system to track incoming and outgoing shipments”). Sentence #3 is the happy ending with you as hero (“after a year our inventory costs went down 50%”). Your story can be longer than three sentences, but strive for short! Practice your stories until you can tell them quickly and clearly. - Karen Burns, KarenBurnsWorkingGirl.com

5) Be Creative: When interviewing with multiple people from the same company separately, do not ask the same questions of each person. They will talk and it will look very unimaginative that you asked the same question as well looking like you can’t think on your feet or make a connection with each individual interviewer. Make each interviewer feel special by asking specific questions to their position or what topic they are talking to you about. Also, come prepared with questions! Sounds basic but so many people don’t do it! At the end of an interview if they ask you if you have any questions, that’s still an interview question. Look smart by asking insightful questions. It will make you look like you are really processing what the interviewer has said and are internalizing this information to determine whether it’s a good fit for you and them. - Jennifer Spencer, Spencer-Group.com

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Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

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As I have become increasingly interested and involved in the world of personal branding, both for myself and for the purpose of helping others in their career search and development, I have read hundreds of articles and encountered many different opinions on the concept.

After boiling them all down, there appear to be three basic positions on personal branding:

1. The first strongly advocates online personal branding, placing a much stronger focus on image and reputation building through social media, blogging and other online networking tools.
2. The second strongly supports overall personal branding which entails identifying and communicating your true unique and differentiating value and supporting your brand through your actions and achievements both offline and online.
3. The third is generally against the entire concept, considering it to be more of a narcissistic fad to over-promote oneself in a tough job market and economy.

While I support overall personal branding and take the second position on personal branding listed above, I most certainly respect those whose positions on the matter differ.  However, I am surprised by the number of articles against a concept and process that is aimed to help people better understand their natural strengths and leverage them to take advantage of new opportunities in their career.

Why would anyone ridicule personal branding or argue against it?

There are definitely selfish over-promoters out there “tooting their own horns” and forcing their personal brands in others’ faces, but they wouldn’t generate so much negative press for personal branding overall, just for themselves, right?  So, what else could it be?

We all have a personal brand (a.k.a. our own unique and differentiating value) and by identifying it and forming a personal branding strategy, we can more effectively communicate it in everything we do–both when we are looking for a job and when we have already obtained one.

Is it that they don’t fully understand personal branding?

This is definitely possible and was brought up and supported as a plausible explanation in Meg Guiseppi’s article, Some People Hate Personal Branding Because They Just Don’t Get It.

But, how don’t they get it?

Then the answer came to me.  They don’t get it and in turn, don’t like it, because it hasn’t been defined correctly.  In other words, personal branding hasn’t been branded right.

Based on the specific arguments against personal branding, it becomes increasingly clearer that it is in fact the people and experts taking the first position listed above who have defined personal branding as principally what you do online to create and promote your desired image and who are, for a lack of better words, “tainting” personal branding for the rest of us.  By pushing this solely online-focused concept of personal branding under the same name, more and more people are being turned against it when they are actually against the concept of creating an image or personal brand online through blogs and social media without backing it up with an authentic in-person personal brand offline.

Personal branding will always be invaluable for career seekers and developers across all industries and functional areas.  While it is a “self-centered” process, it should be only so as to help an individual identify the unique and differentiating value that he or she can then offer and contribute to an organization.

To discover your personal brand, start with Pete’s post Everything You Need to Start Building Your Personal Brand Right Now. Then make things concrete by filling out Meg’s Personal Branding Worksheet. Only now are you ready to take start making people aware of your brand with RJ’s post, How to Brand Yourself.

My advice, while still respecting all opinions and voices on the web, is to filter out the handful of over-promoters and experts who don’t know what personal branding really is. Personal branding is so much more than what you put on your social network pages or write on your blog. It’s who you are inside and out, online and offline. Your personal brand, in essence, encompasses your overall lifestyle.

Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.

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