you have to stand out

If you make it to the interview stage in your job hunt (congratulations!), one of your biggest challenges is going to be standing out from the other candidates (in a good way, of course). Because the horrible truth is, if the interviewer can't remember much about you, you're going to get a "thanks but no thanks."

So how do you stand out?

That's a hard question to answer, but here are some general principles:

• Be personable. (Smile!)
• Be confidant. (A firm handshake, eye contact, no mumbling.)
• Talk about yourself. (Seriously. I have interviewed people who barely talk.)
• Show genuine interest. (Again, eye contact.)
• Ask questions. (You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you; this is your chance to determine if this is in fact the job you want. Oh, and it shows that you're interested.)

Any other tips?

do you put twitter on your resumé?

On a standard resumé, you list your phone number, mailing address and email address, but you might want to consider also including your blog, website and Twitter handle too. Depending on what job you're applying to – say web editor – it's becoming more important to  demonstrate your knowledge of social media and other web tools.

Use with caution, though. If you regularly tweet about things you wouldn't want an employer to know about you, don't include it. If your blog is about cute kittens, it might not be relevant. But if it strengthens your case for being an in-the-know editor, it might be a good idea.

What do you think?