The art of professionally selling yourself
A key skill for building a successful career is the ability to market oneself. Although we have been taught for a long time that modesty is better than vanity, it doesn’t mean that you should be humble and minimize your accomplishments. This delicate balancing act of promoting yourself without coming across as conceited is known as the professional humble brag.
“Selling yourself” is an essential skill that will serve you well throughout your career, not only in the interview process. You have officially begun the process the second you begin to compile your resume or curriculum vitae. For this reason, it is critical to your professional success to build a stellar CV.
On top of that, once you’re in the position, you have to prove to your superiors that you’re worth keeping around every day.
Being able to professionally humblebrag when the time is right is critical. To succeed in this highly competitive environment, you must sell yourself. The manner in which you present yourself during your interview, as well as after you have been onboarded if you do end up getting the job, has the potential to determine the course of your professional life. Although it is highly unlikely that every company will be able to get the greatest talent, every organization will still look for the most qualified candidates.
First things first: there is a difference between gloating and selling yourself (or professional humble-bragging).
The difference between gloating and selling oneself
Although it is not unusual for individuals to confuse the two, there is a great deal of subtlety involved.
Look at the two instances down below and give them a quick once-over before moving on.
- At my previous employer, I was unquestionably the top writer. Other agencies would constantly contact me in an effort to recruit me. I would decline them since the company where I worked kept giving me raises since they didn’t want me to go.
- In a span of three years, I managed the whole content development process, from brainstorming to publishing, and coordinated seventeen extensive marketing campaigns. Just this year, thanks to the content I produced, our site’s traffic increased by half.
Although both of these things are boasting about your job, only the second one is a humble brag in a professional setting. Why is that? The first thing to notice is that #1 is a highly subjective claim. Without mentioning any specific accomplishment, other than bragging about how many firms wanted you and how much money you kept getting for remaining, you are describing how valuable you are to a company.
Things like this are considered appropriate for when other people need to speak on your behalf. Having your mother tell you that you’re lovely is different than telling yourself that you’re beautiful on a daily basis. Also, your prospective employer will not find any value in #1 since it lacks substance. There is no evidence to support the claim that the job you did was invaluable.
Look closely at #2; there are some good numbers in there. There is a quantitative, or more accurately measurable, component to your performance in this position that the figures provide. You demonstrated not just your productivity but also the results of your hard work over a certain period of time.
Everything from marketing to sales to the amount of money you saved the organization in a certain situation to the income you brought in to the improvement of any internal procedures that were lacking fits under this category.
Here’s a helpful hint: the STAR technique can help you organize your replies during interviews. This will save you from going on and on and will help you arrange all the important points for the interviewer to understand.
Instead of stating that you are ideal for the position, explain why you would be a great addition to the team. This is a great opportunity to incorporate your soft abilities into your “professional humble brag,” as it is not sufficient to simply restate your hard skills.
Now that we’ve covered the key distinctions, let’s get into the specifics of what you should emphasize and how to market yourself.
If you want to know how to professionally humbly brag, here are the five most important things you need.
#1 Imagine yourself to be a product
Although it may be degrading to think of oneself as a product rather than a real, breathing human being, doing so might help you separate your emotions from the facts you’re attempting to provide. Imagine you want to share your excitement over a valuable gift you got with a circle of friends. You would promote the item to the fullest extent possible, praising its useful features and describing how great it is to use. Get a bird’s-eye view of yourself.
Tell me about yourself, flaws and all. So, what’s your deal? What are the advantages of having you on board? You should be comfortable acting like a salesperson since you’ll have to play the role of both the seller and the product. Being able to confidently answer inquiries regarding the “product” requires an in-depth familiarity with one’s own identity.
#2 Create a unified story
You will not receive the job if your resume is disorganized, has irrelevant statistics, and lacks follow-up. Actually, it will probably throw off the interviewers more than it would help them focus on what you have to say. They’ll be confused, attempting to make sense of your first point as you continue to wax poetic about your second.
I was the team leader in our manufacturing department, for instance. At XYZ Studios, I worked my way up the ranks after two years as a senior video editor. I was a freelance video editor for five years until ABC Studios asked me to join their team full-time. Here, I honed a variety of abilities…
The ordering of events is all over the place in this speech. Your promotion after two years in a lower position is certainly noteworthy, but it is misleading to draw a direct line between your promotion and your earlier hiring practices at a separate organization.
Answering even the most challenging interview questions with precision is possible with the support of the STAR technique.
One way to keep your personal sentiments apart from the objective facts you wish to give is to view yourself as a product when you are constructing your replies. Never again should you allow someone to treat you like a commodity! Acknowledge your value.
#3 It’s not always about you
A lot of ground will be lost if you try to sell yourself during an interview instead of concentrating on the demands of the organization. Gather as much information as you can about the firm before you show up for the interview. Find out what they want to achieve, both now and in the future. Before you apply for a job, research the company’s culture and read the posting carefully.
Make a list of the keywords they use and use that list as the basis for your professional humble brag. The fact that the phrase “detail-oriented” appears prominently in the job description or in the About Us section, for instance, is evidence that they place a high emphasis on this facet. When describing your achievements, be sure to highlight your attention to detail. Give an example of how your attention to detail helped you succeed in your work.
#4 Let the numbers do the talking
We’ll say it again: statistics are frequently the first and most significant factor for a business. These are the cold, hard facts, frequently backed up by arguments that are more subjective. Your CV will stand out more if you highlight time-related and numerically oriented achievements. Even during the interview, you should include those percentages, bring in the exact amount of traffic that a given item generated, and bring out the big numbers!
On the other hand, you won’t go anywhere if you spend the next twenty minutes talking like a math professor. That’s the recipe for a snooze fest. The goal is to keep their interest, not lull them to sleep. If the interviewer doesn’t ask you to elaborate on additional areas, just list four or five of your most significant professional accomplishments and stick to them.
#5 Remain level-headed
It is tempting to go a little bit overboard when you are bragging about all the amazing things you have done in your profession. Listening carefully and allowing the interviewer the time to ask questions and probe your achievements is as crucial as outlining them.
Making sure you’re courteous and open to the other person in the conversation is a part of walking that fine line between a professional boast and outright bragging. It is important to maintain this image.
Concluding points
There are a lot of ways to brag about your achievements without ruining your image to a potential employer, which is a fine line to walk when demonstrating confidence in your skills.
Finally, while getting ready for an interview, it could help to write down your achievements and then read them aloud while acting out the role. This is something you might accomplish solo or in a small group with loved ones. Here is a chance to figure out where you may be going wrong with your words. You can then fix it ahead of time if it sounds off!
While it’s bad to exaggerate your abilities, it’s much worse to understate them. You shouldn’t be bashful about showing how proud you are of your accomplishments; after all, they are the result of your hard work and devotion to your job.
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