I have to say, I learned quite a bit about the interview process from the HR side from the experience. I joked with one of my coworkers after the show that I learned three main things:

1.    Everyone is hard working
2.    Everyone is dedicated
3.    Everyone is punctual

I always thought that if I was ever a job interviewer, I would ask insightful questions regarding what a particular person could bring to company. Now maybe I’m just a bad interviewer, but it seemed like after the 20th person, everyone just started to look the same.

This begs the question – how do you differentiate yourself when interviewing? This is a particularly poignant question when unemployment is at the highest it’s been in years and it’s getting harder for new grads to find jobs.

I gave it some thought and came up with three things you can do to stand out:

1.    Explain how your job experience directly relates to the job your applying for.
The number one thing that made some of the applicants stand out was when he/she would directly relate past job experiences to our company. Here are some examples:

So you worked at a call center?
“Yes, and what I learned from that experience is how to communicate with people effectively over the phone – something I know is very important to public relations with the amount of media relations we have to do.”

So you were a waiter?
“Yes I was. And that experience will help me working in PR because of the amount of multi-tasking that PR professionals do. As a waiter, I often had to juggle five or six tables at a time while providing excellent service – it really taught me how to work under pressure with as few errors as possible. In PR, I know professionals often have to switch gears quickly while still maintaining a high level of productivity – and that’s something being a waiter taught me.”

2.    Be Yourself
Don’t be afraid to mess up or laugh at yourself – you’re not perfect and no one is. If you fumble a little bit or don’t have the perfect answer to a question, that’s okay, just focus on being yourself and doing your best. It wasn’t terribly difficult to pick out people who were telling me what they thought I wanted to hear vs. those that were truly being sincere.

3.    Smile
Remember that interviews are as much for you to find out if the company is a good fit for you as it is to see if you’re a good fit for the company. So relax! Smile, relax your shoulders, and take a deep breath before speaking to the interviewer – it’ll really help you come off as calm, confident and someone I can trust to get things done.

It’s amazing how much you learn just from seeing the interview from the other side. Have any of you had similar experiences or have good tips for people that are going into interviews? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.