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Standing Out In The Crowd

Matthew Weiss

While time and effort must often be expended to stand out in a crowd, it sometimes takes just one simple, creative idea to get yourself noticed.

My friend Mike Doheny, recently applied for a marketing job at Yahoo!   He really wanted the job and came up with an ingenious idea to make himself memorable while at the same time being true to Yahoo!’s values of passion, creativity and playfulness.

The uniqueness of his idea is beyond question.  Of the thousands of candidates who apply for jobs at Yahoo!, he was told that he was the first to do what he did.

Likewise, the remarkable nature of his idea is indisputable.  While visiting the Sunnyvale, California campus, Mike was warmly greeted like an old friend, and each Yahoo! employee eagerly interviewed him.

So what did Mike do?  He showed his passion, creativity and fun-loving nature by printing his resume on Yahoo! purple paper.  The simple, inexpensive act of choosing purple-colored paper was all it took to get his application extra special attention and make himself memorable.

As you pursue your goals, consider what you can turn “purple” to make yourself remarkable. 

PS  I probably don’t need to add the following (but I will) … of course, Mike got the job.

PPS Please don’t construe this post as suggesting that Mike got the job solely because of his purple resume.  To the contrary, he most certainly qualified based on his experience, education and talent.  The point is that his use of purple paper got the attention of his interviewers, and made him stand out.

To learn more about standing out, read the best-selling book “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable” by marketing guru Seth Godin (coincidentally a former Yahoo! employee and coincidentally, like Mike, a fan of purple).

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