Weisel: Take advantage of quirks when interviewing

Applying for jobs is easy. Proving you deserve the job is challenging. Once your resumé and…Applying for jobs is easy. Proving you deserve the job is challenging. Once your resumé and references leave your hands, you have no control over whether or not you get called back for an interview. While there are things you can do to increase your chances, such as a follow-up email or phone call, you have no real control.

However, once you are called for an interview, control comes back. It is up to you to make yourself stand out from every other applicant. There are many important aspects of interviewing that can help you get the job, but I’d argue that being memorable, no matter what it’s for, is the most important thing to consider when preparing for an interview.

Though you may know every fact about the company, or have the most intern experience or have the highest GPA and most extracurriculars, chances are good that there are other applicants with similar qualifications as yours. Especially when you’re in college, or recently graduated, you have not had many opportunities to build your resumé to set yourself apart, simply because you haven’t had the time to take advantage of them.

At the end of the day, the person interviewing you has probably seen at least a handful of applicants before or after you, and so many details about so many people can be confusing and overwhelming for an interviewer. If you make yourself memorable, they will look past the facts listed on your resumé and think instead about the specific qualities you could bring to their workplace.

There are a handful of ways you can make yourself memorable. Here are a few tips I have used in the past that have been proven to make me memorable to my employer.

Wear a pop of color

Whether it’s a bright tie with your dark suit for men or a snazzy pair of red shoes for women, it’s relatively simple to dress up your interview outfit with a pop of color. I wore yellow shoes to an interview once, and while my mom argued that it was unprofessional, I ended up being hired and finding out that my supervisor remembered my bright shoes. A color standing out against your otherwise toned-down outfit will help your interviewer remember what you look like and, therefore, he will be able to put a face to your resumé. Colors such as red and yellow are particularly vibrant, which you can complement with your personality.

Enhance something already memorable about you

I am very short — a few inches below five feet. When I go to interviews, instead of wearing the highest shoes I can find so I appear average, I always wear flats. I know that my unusual height is noticeable for everyone I meet, and it’s not any different for an interviewer. I’m already small, so I might as well stay small and hope the interviewer will remember me because of it. Sounds crazy, but according to my past employers, it works. So find something about yourself that makes you immediately memorable — maybe your hairstyle or your funky glasses or whatever it is that physically sets you apart from others — and play it up.

Be straight-up

Unrelated to appearance, if I learned anything from bad interviews, it’s that interviewers know when you’re lying. Maybe not lying, but feeding them total bull. We’re always instructed to sell ourselves in an interview, to spin our resumés into something tailor-made for the company that we’re interviewing with. But this often makes you sound like you’re not being genuine, which is a foundational point of attraction in any personal conversation, interview or otherwise. Instead, be straight-up with your interviewer. If they ask you where you see yourself in five years and you don’t know, tell them you have no idea. Still make it clear that you are motivated for the job that they are hiring you for and are searching for opportunities to help you figure out what you want to do, as they will value your honesty over the possibility of appearing dishonest.

We would all love to be remembered for our qualifications or awesome work experience, but memory is connected to much more than that in an interview. With a pile of resumés in front of them, interviewers are looking to remember you for something else, be it a bright shade, short height or honest demeanor. After all, they can’t hire someone they don’t remember.

Email Elizabeth at eaw62@pitt.edu.