Just a quick comment today.

We’re always watching to see how candidates attempt to separate themselves from their competition in the marketplace.

In fact, we’ve documented a few of these attempts and promoted them as good advice for those of you conducting a job search.

Over the course of the past two days, I noticed something that I’ve never encountered before from a candidate and I thought it was worth mentioning.

Dare I call it a trend?

Simply put, I’ve had two separate candidates, on two opposite ends of the country, from two completely different walks of life use Sports to get my attention in the message they left me.

For anyone in Sales and/or Recruiting I think we’d all agree that Sports is something we can relate to quite well given the intense competition day-in-and-day-out.

First, they introduced themselves, referenced the position (including the Job ID Number) that they were calling about.

Second, they did the right thing by quickly summarizing why they felt they were a great candidate for the position in question.

Third, they wrapped up their message by making a good-natured comment about their favorite major league sports team in comparison to what they assumed was mine.

Personally, I loved their approach!

One individual made a comment that “his NY Rangers” were going to beat “my Buffalo Sabres” next week and that he was going to be there to see it all go down. Since “my team” is in a battle for their Playoffs lives I found that timely and it got my blood flowing.

The other individual, after confirming that he is from Chicago, ended his call by boldly proclaiming, “And yes, the Chicago Cubs are going to make the Playoffs and win it all this year!”

Hardly!

Even so, the point of all this, once again, is to remind you that it’s not hard to make an impression. Any little thing you can do to stand out from several other candidates who are calling me to apply for the same position is in your best interest.

Take some time to come up with something witty, funny, timely and appropriate and you’ll succeed in getting the decision-maker’s attention quickly.