“Selling my Background, My Experiences, and My Accomplishments”
- Selling is not just “talking about yourself”
- Selling is
- Understanding what they need and what they want (it all starts with them)
- Understanding how your background and skills can specifically apply to their organization
- Articulating your background using specific examples (stories)
Ability to convince someone that you can be an asset
- You will positively influence the workplace
- You will impact results
- You will exceed their expectations
- You will be a great organizational “fit”
- The organization will be better off with you there
- You will be a great investment in their time and resources
You cannot convince someone of your ability to impact their organization, unless you do your research on organizational goals, their mission and vision statements, and an understanding of who they serve today and who they wish to serve in the future. How does this position impact their organization and how does success in this role add to the success of the organization?
Once you understand THEM, then you must practice articulating your Past Behaviors. The only way they can try to predict your future behavior is to truly understand your past behavior.
In what ways have you positively impacted a class project, your work place, a group/organization, your internship experience, etc.?
What actions have you taken in the past to create a better result or outcome?
In a team environment, can you articulate the actions you took in that team that made that team better?
Do you have specific examples of things you have done to get results?
Your past experiences (and the way you articulate them) will convince them:
- You are the solution to their need
- Having you in their organization will benefit them
- You will not only POSITIVELY INFLUENCE the workplace, you will also POSITIVELY IMPACT results
- You are going to be well worth the investment they put into you
Some Basic Questions to prepare for:
“Tell Me About Yourself”
- Biographical information
- Two Skills
- Passion (What you want)
- EXAMPLE
- “As you can see, I am currently finishing my senior year majoring in Economics. I chose Economics because I truly love solving problems by analyzing data, and that was something I was able to do with my internship last summer, as well as making presentations on my analysis to heads of departments. The internship and my upper level classes have really challenged me to grow in my analytical ability. I am seeking a full-time position that will allow me to impact an organization’s decision-making ability by implementing quality data analysis.”
- EXAMPLE
“Why are you interested in this organization?”
- In what ways do the mission, the vision, and the operating processes and culture fit your desire for future employment?
- What makes you excited about this organization?
“What are you looking for in a career?”
- Are you looking for a competitive salary, good management, training, great benefits, growth opportunities? (you focused)
- Are you looking for a place where you can make a difference, where your work can contribute to the growth of their organization, an environment where you can do work of significance? (them focused)
“What strengths do you bring to this position?”
- Do the skills you have, and the knowledge you possess, fit well to the needs of the position?
- Did you research the company?
- Do you have access to the job description?
- Did you reach out to network with someone working at the company? (potentially an alumnus)
- Did you practice articulating your strengths and backing them up with specific examples of you using those strengths to obtain results, initiate quality changes, etc.?
Be prepared for Behavior Based Questions.
The best way for an employer to predict your future behavior is to understand your past behavior.
Behavior Based Interviewing
Telling your Stories, organized using STAR
- Situation (what was the going on)
- Task (what did you, or your group, have to do)
- Action (what were the specific behaviors you did)
- Result (how was the situation changed, improved, etc.)
While you must talk about the situation and task, to help give your story context, the real emphasis for your future employer is in your behavior and the results you achieved.
You can pull stories from classroom projects, volunteer experiences, sports, community leadership, extracurricular groups, internships, and jobs you may have had.
Stories should include (you should challenge yourself to have 8-9 good stories, including some of these topics):
- Times you have taken initiative to improve results
- Times you made significant decisions
- Times you solved problems
- Times you drove a positive result as a part of a team
- Times you were faced with significant obstacles
- Times you set and achieved goals
- Times you convinced or persuaded a group or an individual
- Times you were faced with a significant customer service issue
- Times you improved the workflow or systems
- Times you lead a team
- Times you reached out and helped a struggling co-worker or student
- Times you went above and beyond what was expected of you
- Times when you were faced with difficult deadlines
- Times when you had more things to do than time to do them
- Times you used your written communication skills to improve a situation
- Times you increased your individual (or team) results
- Times when things were not going well or going as planned
Your stories should focus on the impact you made with the situation you faced.
It is not always easy to “talk about yourself”, and that is understandable, but an employer who has never met you must understand how you behaved in the challenges you faced. Don’t “downplay” your behaviors (or actions). Of course you don’t want to exaggerate them either, but when you are preparing your stories, think deeply about how you acted in these situations, and how those actions lead to the results that you attained.
Make sure you have questions for your prospective employer:
- Example:
- How would you define the culture of your organization?
- Can you tell me about your experience with (fill in the name of the employer).
- When you think about the best people that had this role, what made them special?
- What impact does (this job) have on the success of this department/company?
- How is success measured in this position?
- Can you share more about the team I’d be working with?
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT –
Make sure you set an appointment with Career Services to participate in a MOCK INTERVIEW. You don’t want to go into your job search without practicing “selling yourself”.
