I wasn't doing it to be mean. I really want to help you.
Part of being hired is being memorable.
Part of the interview is showing your personality.
Be someone people want to work with. Be yourself. Be memorable.
We're in graduation season so there's about to be 50 billion creative wannabes out there trying to get the 23 jobs that are available.
Having a good book isn't all it takes.
Having good connections (start networking, emailing and meeting people asap) and having a memorable personality will help even more.
After a while you all start to look and sound the same.
Trust me when I say there are about 45 other guys with beards, tattoos and chucks out there. There are about 37 girls with hair dyed a random colour, oversized dark-rimmed glasses and way too many accessories for one person. And about 634 people who are "hard working", "enthuiastic" and "ready for the real world."
Yawn.
Here's an article with some tips you should start implementing yesterday.
6 Habits of Truly Memorable People
How to stick out in the minds of your colleagues and customers--no gimmicks required.
In order to succeed, almost everyone—whether business owner or employee—must be memorable.
While you don't have to be The Most Interesting Man in the World, being known is one of the main goals of marketing, advertising, and personal branding.
Out of sight is out of mind, and out of mind is out of business.
But if your only goal is to be known for professional reasons, you're
missing out. People who are memorable for the right reasons also live a
richer, fuller, and more satisfying life. Win-win!
So forget the flashy business cards and personal value propositions and idiosyncratic clothing choices.
Here's how to be more memorable—and have a lot more fun.
1. Don't see. Do.
Can you speak intelligently about how clothing provides a window into the inner lives of Mad Men characters? Do you find yourself arguing about how the degree of depth lost in the Game of Thrones TV series as compared to the books?
Anyone can share opinions about movies or TV or even (I'll grudgingly
admit) books. That's why opinions are quickly forgotten. What you say
isn't interesting; what you do is interesting.
Spend your life doing instead of watching. Cool things will happen.
Cool things are a lot more interesting and a lot more memorable.
That's especially true when you...
2. Do something unusual.
Draw a circle and put all your "stuff" in it. Your circle will look a
lot like everyone else's: Everyone works, everyone has a family,
everyone has homes and cars and clothes....
We like to think we're unique, but roughly speaking we're all the same, and similar isn't memorable.
So occasionally do something different. Backpack to the next town
just to see how many people stop to offer you a ride. (Don't take them
up on it, though. Unless you appear to be in distress, the people who
want to give you a ride are the last people you want to ride with.) Try
to hike/scramble to the top of a nearby mountain no one climbs. (Trust
me; take water.) Compete with your daughter to see who can swim the most
laps in three hours. (If you live in my house you'll lose. Badly.)
Or work from a coffee shop one day just to see what you learn about other people... and about yourself.
Whatever you do, the less productive and sensible it is, the better.
Your goal isn't to accomplish something worthwhile; the goal is to
collect experiences.
Experiences, especially unusual experiences, make your life a lot richer and way more interesting. You can even...
3. Embark on a worthless mission.
You're incredibly focused, consistently on point, and relentlessly efficient.
You're also really, really boring.
Remember when you were young and followed stupid ideas to their illogical conclusions? Road trips, failing the cinnamon challenge, trying to eat six saltine crackers in one minute without water... you dined out on those stories for years.
Going on "missions," however pointless and inconvenient, was fun. In
fact the more pointless the more fun you had, because missions are about
the ride, not the destination.
So do something, just once, that adults no longer do. Drive eight
hours to see a band. Buy your seafood at the dock. Or do something no
one else thinks of doing. Ride along with a policeman on a Friday night
(it's the king of all eye-opening experiences.)
Pick something it doesn't make sense to do a certain way and do it
that way. You'll remember it forever—and so will other people.
4. Embrace a cause.
People care about—and remember—people who care. When you stand for something you stand apart.
But...
5. Let other people spread the word.
People who brag are not remembered for what they've done; they're remembered for the fact they brag.
Do good things and other people will find out. The less you say, the more people remember.
6. Get over yourself.
Most of the time your professional life is like a hamster wheel of
resume or C.V. padding: You avoid all possibility of failure while
maximizing the odds of success in order to ensure your achievement graph
climbs up and up and up.
Inevitably, that approach starts to extend to your personal life too.
So you run... but you won't enter a race because you don't want to
finish at the back of the pack. You sing... but you won't share a mic in
a friend's band because you're no Adele. You'll sponsor the employee softball team but you won't play because you're not very good.
Personally and professionally, you feel compelled to maintain your all-knowing, all-achieving, all conquering image.
And you're not a person. You're a resume.
Stop trying to seem perfect. Accept your faults. Make mistakes. Hang yourself out there. Try and fail.
Then be gracious when you fail.
When you do, people will definitely remember you because people who
are willing to fail are rare... and because people who display grace and
humility, especially in the face of defeat, are incredibly rare.
