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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.

Article Here: http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/6-habits-of-truly-memorable-people.html?nav=pop

It’s been reported that more than half of the nation’s recently minted college graduates are either jobless or underemployed. That’s the highest percentage in over a decade. Some grads, though, have landed their dream jobs with great companies. What sets these applicants apart from the pack?
My company, Millennial Branding, partnered with Experience, Inc., to find out. Our study on the student employment gap asked 225 employers what they look for when hiring for entry-level positions.

Among the findings, while internships are important, they’re not everything—and having an internship is certainly no guarantee that you’ll get a job offer. The majority of companies surveyed want students to have one or two internships, yet most internships don’t turn into full-time positions. Furthermore, only about half of the companies said they’d hired at least one intern in the past six months.

(MORE: 7 Ways to Get the Most Out of an Internship)

In order to get a job out of college these days, new grads should be overachievers with internships and other real-life business experience, and they should expect to have to go above and beyond the typical job search. Based on our findings, here are some ways to build your resume and position yourself to create the best odds of getting a job offer:

1. Develop your “soft skills.” Sure, technical skills and experience are great. But in the study, we found that when hiring for entry-level positions, almost all employers view communication and teamwork skills, as well as having a positive attitude, as being important or very important. These “soft skills” demonstrate how well an applicant will fit into the corporate culture, and give an indication of how long a new hire will stay at the company—and whether or not the individual is management material down the line. “Employers understand that everything else can be taught, so they look for the most promising raw material to work with,” says Jennifer Floren, the Founder and CEO of Experience, Inc. The best way to develop your soft skills is to become more self-aware, and to get feedback on how you come across from the people you trust who work in your desired field. Also, actively put yourself in situations where you’re communicating with others in-person. Interacting online isn’t enough.

2. Search using every resource possible. A lot of students and young professionals think that social networking via Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like is the best route to finding a job. Yet our research reveals that only 16% of employers recruit on social networks all or most of the time. Nearly half (48%), meanwhile, utilize job boards, and 44% use employee referrals. My advice is to use all of the above in your job search—social networks, job boards, career fairs, your personal and professional network, and every other option under the sun. What works for you might not work for someone else, and vice versa. Ask family and friends for referrals too, and don’t feel embarrassed about it.

(MORE: The Beginning of the End of the Unpaid Internship)

3. Focus on the jobs you’re most passionate about. If you’re not eager to work with a company, it’ll show in the interview—and according to our study, 26% of employers have been turned off by an entry-level applicant’s bad attitude during interviews. If you want to be more positive during interviews, the best approach is to only apply to jobs you’re really excited about. Use this approach and you will exude a positive, if possibly nervous, energy during interviews, showing you care. And if this is something you care about, you’ll be more prepared for the interview, and you’ll follow up faster with hiring managers, all of which will boost your chances. If, on the other hand, you’re just applying to a job because it’ll pay the bills, you probably won’t get it. Someone else will want it more than you do, and it’ll probably show.

4. Prepare yourself before interviews. This is standard advice for job applicants, but too often new grads don’t bother to prepare—and 42% of employers say they are turned off by how unprepared students are in interviews. At the very least, do some research on the company at its website. It’s wise to take things a step further, though, and review the hiring manager’s profile on LinkedIn. They will be reviewing your online presence, and it’s expected that you will do the same for them. By learning about their work history, you will be able to better connect with them during the interview. You should also search the company’s name at Google News to get up to speed with recent announcements and industry trends. Doing your homework will show you care, and the employer will be impressed.

5. Have an entrepreneurial mindset. I spoke to two executives the other day and I asked, “Who would you rather hire: a recent graduate that started a business or one that had five internships?” They both chose the entrepreneurial graduate because anyone who starts a business is likely to be a creative, gutsy self-starter who thinks outside the box. Overall in our study, almost one-third of employers say they are looking for entrepreneurship experience when hiring recent graduates. You don’t necessarily have to start a business as an undergrad, though. What’s key is that you get your ideas out there and make things happen instead of waiting to be told to do something. One approach is to start a blog around a topic you enjoy, and make sure it’s updated at least weekly. This will get you into the mindset of having to explain your ideas and gather your thoughts. Ideally, you’ll get feedback from people who comment, which will strengthen your ideas. Companies have to focus on innovation to survive and thrive these days, so entrepreneurially minded graduates are important to them.

(MORE: Graduation Day: 5 Steps to a Great Career)

6. Get your eggs out of any one basket. The workplace is constantly changing, as are the needs of corporations. That’s why it’s important now, more than ever before, to spread yourself out and get as many internships and experiences under your belt as humanly possible. I had an internship in high school and seven more in college. Try to get a range of different experiences as well. Diversifying will increase your chances of success in at least one line of work. In the stock market, if you only invest in one stock and it doesn’t do well, then you’re broke. Similarly, it’s unwise to only have one internship or only pursue one narrow career field.

Schawbel is the managing partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research-and-management-consulting firm. He speaks on the topic of personal branding, social media and Gen Y workforce management for companies such as Google, Time Warner, Symantec, CitiGroup and IBM. Subscribe to his updates at Facebook.com/DanSchawbel.

Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/05/15/somebodys-gotta-get-hired-right-6-tips-to-help-new-grads-land-job-offers/

What is an Open House?

It is open house time again! This time of year we always get so busy with open houses! The holidays are over and companies are looking to hire, hire, hire! Now you may be wondering…what is an open house? HireLive’s open houses are a national service we produce for companies looking to fill multiple positions immediately. A lot of companies choose to conduct interviews and make hires this way to consolidate the hiring process and fill their job openings much quicker, which is a huge benefit for job seekers. Companies will schedule a block of time on one day to meet with numerous qualified candidates in an effort to fill their open positions as quickly as possible. This is a great opportunity for you to get an interview with hiring managers, which you otherwise might not have been able to get and to be considered for a variety of positions within a company. Your resume can only say so much about you, but candidates who are looking for a change in industry or type of position really benefit from these face to face meetings and are able to really sell themselves to the hiring managers. Some of our most popular clients such as Nike, Avis Budget Group, Verizon Wireless, Staples and more have all used our Open Houses and filled an array of entry level to senior level positions with candidates from HireLive.

If you are looking for a job, attending an open house can be one of the best ways to utilize your time. You are getting direct access with these hiring managers who are looking to hire! Even if they may not be hiring for a position that necessarily appeals to you, I would still suggest attending, as it never hurts to circulate your resume, and who knows they may have other positions available that weren’t being advertised for!

Over the next month we will be working with these great companies with our Open Houses and Interview Days!

Management Resource Solutions – Thousand Oaks, Ca

Nike – Chatham, IL

Coverall Health-Based Cleaning Services – Boston, MA   Gaithersburg, MD   Virginia Beach, VA   Pittsburg, PA    Houston, TX    Richmond, VA

tw Telecom – Indianapolis, IN

Cintas – San Jose, CA

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group – New York, NY

To be considered for positions with any of these companies please visit HireLive’s Job Database!