Getting ready for a job interview? Here's the one thing to ponder: What do you want people to remember when you leave the room?

Yes, you will have many interactions with an employer from the first time you communicate to the day you're face to face. But in the end, what matters most is what stands out most in the interviewer's mind long after you've packed up your PDA and portfolio.

To illustrate my point, let's look at two public figures who have been interviewed lately — one for a job, the other for his viewpoint. Judge Sonia Sotomayor and President Obama.

Sotomayor endured 583 questions over four days of confirmation hearings — the equivalent of the interview process for a Supreme Court judge nominee. Many people characterized the hearings as playing the game of not answering the question.

But who can blame her? As Harvard Law School professor Laurence H. Tribe told The New York Times about the hearings, it's become a ritual for nominees "to say as much as you can without revealing anything."

She may not have tipped her hand on the most pressing issues likely to come before her as a Supreme Court judge. But she did respond to all 583 questions with good humor and discipline. And that's what people remember. It also says a lot about how she will handle the job.

On July 22, Obama held a news conference where he was asked what the incident of professor Louis Gates Jr. said to him and about race relations in America.

Most media reports have focused on one part of one sentence: "that the Cambridge police acted stupidly."

But if you listen to his entire response, he said much more. He was sensitive to potential pitfalls, starting off with "I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here. I don't know all the facts."

He is deliberate and statesmanlike and at the end, relates the incident to something that matters to all — working toward keeping us safer and eliminating potential bias. But by then, all anyone heard were the words, "acted stupidly." And still, that's what everyone remembers.

Unless the interviewer has fallen asleep (it happens), every little thing you say will be heard and may be used against you. Clever interviewees know this. Judge Sotomayor was likely coached to understand this. President Obama knows this and probably now looks back and wishes he had not used those words, "acted stupidly" because of this.

By knowing that everything you say in a job interview will be heard with a critical ear and greatly influences how you'll be remembered, it helps to be circumspect and to stay clear of language that could get you in trouble. To do that — which I promise will make you more skilled than your competition — grapple with two questions before you go public:

1. What do I want them to walk away remembering about me?

Specifically, what do I want them to know and feel about me?

2. How will I stay focused on information that's "on message"?

Ask yourself: What do I share to convey my message? How do I present myself in a way that helps people see who I am without setting off alarms?

When answering a question, weigh the words you're about to speak: Will they raise eyebrows? Will they take the focus off my message?