Brag Your Way to Job Interview Success

https://biginterview.com/blog/2015/02/how-to-sell-yourself-in-an-interview.html

A job interview is unlike any other form of interaction. The interviewer wants you to communicate what makes you stand out from other candidates. His job is to pick the best candidate.

it’s about understanding what your key strengths are and being able to communicate them in a concise and compelling way.

the interview is also an exercise in positioning yourself for the position. You want to convey what sets you apart from the competition and how you could benefit the organization if hired.

Analysis

Understand what they are looking for and emphasize how you specifically fit those needs.

Sit down and list your top selling points. What do you want your interviewer to remember about you? Aim for at least five main points —these can be areas of expertise, key accomplishments, education or training, soft skills, personality qualities, and/or other strengths.

Step 3: Practice Until It Feels Natural

Here are some questions that provide useful openings for pitching your selling points:

1) Tell me about yourself — Most interviews open with this question or a variation (Walk me through your resume/background, etc.). This is an opportunity for you to start strong and steer the interview discussion to your strengths. Our article on answering the dreaded “Tell me about yourself” interview question will help you craft a great answer that incorporates your selling points.

2) Your strengths — Any question about your strengths is an invitation to share your selling points. Variations on “the strengths question” include:

• Why would you be a good fit?
• Why should we hire you?

3) Your role descriptions — Any decent interviewer will ask you about your most recent positions. Instead of just rattling off your duties, weave in examples that show off your key qualifications.

4) Your behavioral stories — Most interviews will include some behavioral questions (any questions that start with “Tell me about a time…” or otherwise prompt you for specific examples from your past). I work with all of my clients to prepare at least 3-5 strong stories that showcase their strengths and achievements

1) Stick with the facts. Instead of stating an opinion about yourself (awkward sometimes), present some nice objective facts that demonstrate your point.

Instead of: I’m a very strong writer.

Try: I’ve been published by Publication X and Z and was very excited to be selected for Writing Prize ABC during my senior year.

2) Quote somebody else. Sometimes it can feel less “braggy” to quote somebody else’s positive opinion of you. Truthfully, this approach can lend additional credibility even if you’re perfectly okay with tooting your own horn.

Instead of: I’m a very effective project manager.

Try: My manager told me that I am the best project manager at the company and the CEO specifically requested me to lead our highest-profile client engagement this quarter.

3) Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Give yourself permission to brag. Try writing your selling point bullets as if you were a brazen self-promoter. You can always dial it back later if the results feel obnoxious. However, I have seen many clients benefit from pushing themselves a little.

4) Get feedback from a trusted (and objective) advisor. Try it out loud with a friend or coach and get some honest feedback. You’ll likely find that you’re too close to the topic to evaluate without some outside perspective.

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-to-talk-about-yourself-without-sounding-like-a-jerk-2014-3

• Being too humble can cost you. Not talking about your accomplishments can hit you in the pocketbook. “It’s those who visibly take credit for accomplishments who are rewarded with promotions and gem assignments,” writes Klaus. As our economy has resulted in less job stability, self-promotion has become more important. Even if you aren’t an entrepreneur, says Klaus, you need to think like one and start talking up your most valuable product: you.

http://www.careercast.com/career-news/brag-your-way-job-interview-success
"So, tell me about yourself."
"What are your greatest strengths?"
"Why should I hire you?"

One of the most important things NOT to say in a job interview is a form of the verb "to be" followed by some high-flown adjectives: "I am creative, bottom-line oriented, innovative, practical, kind, trustworthy, brave, clean, reverent and wholesome." This is unsupported self-praise – it's not true just because you say it is, and the interviewer knows it. Equally important, most of us feel squeamish uttering generalized self-praise, even if it's true. We're afraid it sounds arrogant, or lacks self-awareness.

Cut to the Chase

Remember that employers aren't interested in who you are, but what you can do. They're not buying abstract virtues; they crave stories about you in action, action that addresses their company's needs and wants.

The next principle is that you need to learn how to brag in the past tense. To put a finer point on it, employers want to know what you have already done. The fact that you've already accomplished something is evidence that you can do it again – for the next employer. Therefore, potential employers tend to be most impressed when you list your skills in past-tense action verbs. Consider these two sentences:

• "I am a very good project manager."
• "I have always performed best in situations that required strong project management abilities."

See the difference? Use those past-tense verbs! Wrote this. Directed that. Recruited and trained them. Conceived, planned, Implemented and trouble-shot that innovative initiative.

It further helps to use verbs that create a visual picture of you in action, as well as simply conveying meaning: "struck a balance among competing interests" instead of "mediated controversy," or "forged a powerful management team" rather than "hired skilled managers." If your personal vocabulary is short on action verbs, find a list online. And remember to have variety – don't fall into "Planned A, Planned B, Planned C," but instead find alternate forms of expression to keep things interesting.

In addition to all these "Do's," here is one very important "Don't": Don't use overly-fancy words.

Practical Tactics

Once you've learned how to brag in the past tense, try a few specific techniques on for size. One comfortable way to sing your own praises is to let other people do it for you. This could be called the "other people tell me" approach, and it sounds like this:

Well, my staff tells me they like working for me more than any of their prior supervisors because, they say, I'm fair, listen to their point of view, and provide clear performance values and feedback.

The source of such praise can be informal, such as "My mommy tells me I'm adorable," or it can be official: "I was named Salesman of the Year in 2005, 2007 and 2008." The awkwardness of self-serving praise is avoided by this technique because you're not the author of the favorable judgment about you. You're simply passing on what other people have said – or would say if asked.

Preferential Treatment

Another low-stress approach to talking about your strengths is to state them in terms of preferences. Consider these two statements:

• "I am an excellent trainer."
• "Of all the different things that are part of my job, I enjoy training the most."

Same content, utterly different impact. The first is a boast and will be discounted as such, while the second implies that you're motivated and enthusiastic – and people usually don't like things they do badly. Let your enthusiasm do the bragging for you.

Practice a few variations on this theme:

• "The kind of challenge I like best is..."
• "I really go for situations that require me to..."
• "There's nothing that gives me more satisfaction than..."

This technique has been battle-tested in interviews, and is unquestionably the easiest and most effective way to brag. Another version of this "I love to do it" approach is the "I'm really proud of it" approach. Statements of pride in past accomplishments can be powerful, because they suggest a strong drive to repeat the satisfaction:

When the crisis hit, I was able to assemble a new project team and revise the whole design in six weeks with no down time. I was proud of my people, and I'm proud of the outcome.

My strengths? Well, my performance evaluations have always rated me highly on strategic planning ability, and my boss has told me he trusts my ability to turn goals into practical objectives and action plans. I really like situations where get to translate theory into tangible outcomes. When it comes to implementing marketing campaigns, I'm comfortable collaborating with both the product development people and the sales force. In fact, I'm proudest of my track record in this area.

The Proper Sequence

When asked about their strengths, people often dump all their diverse features in the same bucket, listing them in random order. However, in an interview you're selling three distinctly kinds of value: your skills, your abilities, and your personal attributes. These are not the same, and should be discussed using separate terms. I suggest using the phrase "skills" to denote areas of subject-matter knowledge and technical expertise. You brag about them by saying, "I know..." (as in I know the new TARP regulations) or "I'm an expert at..." Note that young people can know technical skills just as well as older job-seekers: "I was just certified as..."

Abilities are different. They reflect things you've already done, and therefore presumably can do again. You talk about them not in terms of expertise, but in terms of experience (or the equivalent terms "judgment," "maturity" or "savvy"). While expertise usually refers to something specific ("I can write javascript"), the point of experience is that it translates from setting to setting, situation to situation. That's why career consultants often refer to experience as "transferable abilities." When bragging, it's important to distinguish skills from abilities. This will make you sound focused and articulate.

When talking about the third component that you're selling – personal attributes – it's usually best to separate these into two categories:

• Motivational drivers – interests, specialties, favorite tasks, etc.
• Comfort zones – the types of companies, settings, colleagues and tasks that inspire your best work

It's often hard to talk about your personal traits directly. However, discussing your past accomplishments and qualities required for each of them can be a great solution.

In general, sell yourself in this order: first skills, then abilities, then personal qualities. Your technical skills show that you're qualified for the job; you then talk about the broader, transferable abilities you've mastered through experience: leadership, planning, trouble-shooting, business judgment, etc. This category is particularly important to articulate clearly if you you're changing careers. Here's where you say, in effect, "if the employment settings are similar, then what I achieved in my previous career will apply to this one, too."

Last, but not least, bring out the personal traits and qualities that do the following:

• Distinguish you from other similarly-qualified job seekers
• Reinforce the "can do" impression created by your previous description of your skills and abilities

While this information is no less important, if you talk about soft, personal stuff first, you risk losing the interviewer's attention before you can wheel out your heavy artillery.

http://www.job-interview-site.com/how-to-sell-yourself-in-an-interview.html