Selling yourself doesn’t have to be sleazy

The idea of pitching yourself is be utterly cringe-worthy to to most people. Often, it feels like you’re bragging or boasting, and that’s an unappealing prospect. But there are loads of ways that you can do this without having to say, “I’m amazing, hire me”!! Think about pitching as showing your value, which might be incredibly useful to the person you’re talking to. “Selling yourself” doesn’t have to be sleazy. Here’s my guide to pitching yourself to hiring managers, peers, CEOs, or anyone successfully.

Be authentic!

Don’t say or do anything that feels totally out of character for you. If you are passionate about purpose-driven work, then don’t pretend that you’re driven by money. This little white lie will end up making your job (and life!) miserable, as well as eventually biting you in the ass.

Show, don’t tell

Instead of telling people that you’re really good at something, provide an example. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that someone is an amazing communicator and then had the same person waffle on meaninglessly for ten minutes! People are far less self-aware than they realise, so keep in mind that if you think you have a particular positive characteristic, then you’ll need evidence to back that up.

A good way to start with this is to write down a list of 3–4 achievements or highlights that you’re excited about sharing. You can simply say something like “at my last job, we had to migrate 10k users to a new platform, and I figured out a system to do that more efficiently using a server”. This demonstrates resourcefulness, creativity and problem solving skills much better than saying “I’m resourceful, creative and a good problem solver”.

Figure out your USP

A USP — or unique selling proposition — is what makes you different or special. This doesn’t have to be something that no-one else has, but it should be something that makes you really good at being you. Some examples might be:

• “My wide range of experience gives me insight into the entire business ecosystem”.
• “My background in sports taught me how to work well in a team”.
• “My passion for learning means that I can always find new ways to solve problems”.
• “My introverted nature allows me to focus deeply on challenges and come up with thoughtful solutions”.

Devise a quick Elevator Pitch and practice it on friends

The Elevator Pitch comes from the idea that if you were to meet someone that you wanted to introduce yourself to in an elevator, you could give a quick overview in the time it takes to finish your ride, ie. about 30 seconds. Here’s a template to work with:

“Hi! I’m ……..

My background is in …… and I’m interested in …….

I’m keen to learn/grow/help/find a role in …….

I also do ……. in my free time and am super passionate about ……”

Make sure you not only write this down, but read it out aloud to ensure that your language sounds natural and comfortable to you. And practice it with one or two trusted friends to see how they feel about it, you never know, they might have something valuable to add.

Pick your sport

In the sales world, we often say “you don’t see a golf player at Wimbledon”. This means that if you’re an amazing communicator and not such a good problem solver, don’t bother selling yourself as a problem solver. While trying to improve on weaknesses is great, you should definitely know what you’re good at and how you’re going to talk about that, as well as how to capitalise on it.

Finally, don’t apologise!

Are you an introvert? Good!! Are you loud? Fine! Are you a slow learner? Aren’t we all!!

We are often taught that there is only one way to be successful, and only a few versions of success, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Your experience, perspective and mind make you special, and you don’t have to pretend to be someone else in order to be appreciated professionally. So, instead of feeling like you have to hide something, be proud of it! You never know, that might be the thing that your colleagues and boss think is best about you.

If you liked this, you would probably love the Happy Hour Career Talk podcast! It’s a fun listen where the two hosts, Penny Blackmore and Brittni Bowering talk about work over a few happy hour drinks!

In this episode we talk about how to get a promotion and when you should hold out for your “dream job”. Listen here: