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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Here at Brand-Yourself.com, we spend a LOT of time on the Web. One impossible trend to overlook: young people are the ones consistently pushing out new, quality content challenging the status quo. We decided to put together a list of the most influential, thought-provoking young bloggers.

Call them whatever you like – Gen Y bloggers, millennials – it doesn’t matter. As social technology continues to turn traditional business on its head, you can bet you will be seeing these names again; possibly on your paychecks.

1. Ryan Stephens: Ryan Stephens Marketing

Ryan is young but knows his stuff. He words as a media analyst for sports media challenge while running his own business, Ryan Stephens Marketing, on the side. More than anything else, Ryan makes a point to make each article original, thought provoking and open to conversation. Where many social media blogs seem to merely regurgitate the big names and blogs, Ryan brings a fresh, new voice to the arena. My personal favorite: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level.

2. Dan Schawbel: Personal Branding Blog

If you’ve heard of personal branding, you’ve heard of Dan Schawbel. Schawbel works like a dog to help people develop their personal brand and promote them online. Outside of his award winning blog, he has written a bestselling book, published the only personal branding magazine and toured the east delivering personal branding workshops. If you haven’t been there, check it out, if only to catch up with his weekly interviews with truly innovative people.

3. David Spinks: David Spinks

David Spinks is relatively new to the blogosphere but his willingness to share and converse is quickly making him popular. In fact, I first discovered his blog on a discussion board on linked in. He is a community manager at scribnia and has an undeniable understanding of social media and building relationships. Particularly, his weekly “Mentor Monday” contributions are prime examples of social networking done right.

4. Bradley Will: Bradley Will

Add Bradley to your reader if you are a young entrepreneur. In fact, add him even if you’ve felt the slightest hint of the entrepreneurial spirit. His narratives through his own entrepreneurial exploits are illuminating and extremely personal and relatable. He currently works as a social media evangelist for nextvoice247. He is also releasing a series of training videos at socialmedia altitude. To get started, read: 21 things I have learned so far this year.

5.  Rebecca Thorman: Modite

Rebecca is intelligent, thoughtful and an excellent writer. She constantly pumps out interesting content regarding Gen Y, the workplace, personal branding and career advancement. She works at alice.com, a promising start up, doing marketing, PR and social media. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing her and she revealed valuable insights regarding the job search and working for small businesses. My personal favorite on her blog: How to Decide if You Have a Good Job.

6.  Matt Wilson and Jared O’ Tool: Under 30 CEO

Our good friends over at Under30CEO are writing and inspiring Gen-Yer’s to pursue their passion. Their goal “is to make you uncomfortable enough to do something with your life.” A great read to find your new passion and learn something interesting, which is hard to come about these days.  Matt will also be contributing to our eBook so stay tuned for that as well.

7.  Matt Cheuvront: Life Without Pants

Sorry to disappoint you – but he does wear pants. It’s actually an “epic metaphor for the way life should be lived, unrestricted and without regret.” Matt’s blog is a collection of personal experiences tied and social media tips that’s quite intriguing due to his uncanny writing style to make you feel like he’s actually talking to you.

8.  Chris Perry: CareerRocketeer

Career Rocketeer is one of the fastest growing career search, career development and personal branding blogs on the web today, welcoming ambitious career entrepreneurs of all ages and professions who are always driven to “launch” their careers to higher heights. Chris is a current MBA student who also started MBAhighway which is a comprehensive niche job board and career resource website exclusively for MBA students.

9. Ryan Paugh, Ryan Healy (and Penelope Trunk): BrazenCareerist

For anyone interested in social media and how it related to the Gen-Y demographic, Penelope, Ryan and Ryan’s Brazen Careerist venture is the place to be. Together they have formed a tight knit community of some of the brightest minds in Gen-Y. They produce a lot of their own content but do syndicate from other sites to give you an all around feel for what is going on in social media.

10. Jun Loayza: Jun Loayza

Jun gives some of the most down to earth and practical advice about the “startup life” that we’ve come across. He is honest, tranparent, and he never fails to deliver concrete and useful tips. Jun is the President of SocialMediaMarketing.com and the co-Founder of Viralogy.com. As he puts it, “entrepreneurship is not a job; it’s a lifestyle.” That’s why we love him. 

Thank you to everyone on the list and everyone else who has made this possible.

This list was compiled by Trace Cohen, Patrick Ambron (@brandyourself) and Pete Kistler (@pete_kistler).

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