How to apply for a job and ace the interview

I've never been on the hiring side, but something I always try to do is be unique. When asked design questions, use something less conventional. Tell them you know it's less conventional, and make a simple justification for it. A simple question I've gotten was designing a deck of cards in C++. Instead of assigning a suit value of 1,2,3, or 4 I chose to use 1,2,4, and 8. While the point of the exercise was to demonstrate OOP, I wanted to spice things up and show I was also comfortable working at the bit-level, using shifts and masks. It probably didn't amount to much in and of itself, but I felt it made me more unique and that much more memorable.

The best way to get a job is to make yourself a person of great value, so that companies would want to employ you, instead of you wanting them. If you want it too much, you probably won't get it (because chances are, if you want it too much, you're not good enough).

Really insightful and helpful.