Selling yourself

How good are you at talking about your achievements? Voicenote clips I find it really painful to say, 'Oh, yeah. I'm really good at this' or 'I did a really good job at that.' I even find it embarrassing and painful to be told that, even if somebody thinks that I have done a good job. I definitely think it's important to be able to sell yourself at work, not only for your managers and your bosses and even your colleagues to have confidence in you and your work and what you're able to produce, but also to give yourself that confidence.

In today's episode of Office English, we're talking about how to sell yourself at work.

Hello and welcome to Office English from BBC Learning English. I'm Pippa.

And I'm Phil. In this podcast we discuss the language you need to help you succeed at work.

What do we mean, when we say that you should sell yourself, Phil? And why do we need to do it?

Ok well, we don't literally mean we should sell ourselves. But when we sell someone or something metaphorically, we're saying positive things to make that person or thing sound good. So to sell yourself you say positive things about yourself. And this is useful at work because sometimes in order to progress in our careers, we need important people to notice and appreciate the work that we're doing.

Right, so you might need to sell yourself in a job interview for example, or if you're meeting with your boss to talk about your career, or even if you're talking to a potential customer or client at work because you might want to impress them and you might want to sell yourself and sell the company, as it were.

Now, some people hate saying good things about themselves, so we'll start with how to talk about your strengths and then we'll discuss the kinds of questions you might be asked in an interview or by your manager that give you an opportunity to sell yourself.

OK, let's begin with how to talk about your strengths. What phrases can we use, Phil?

How about this one? I think I particularly excel at... and then you identify something that you think you're good at.

Yes, I like that. I particularly excel is nice because it's, you know, talking about something that you're particularly good at, it implies that you're good at everything, really.

Another one here. I'm really proud of my record on... and then you'd say something that you, again, that you think you're very good at.

Yeah so you're drawing attention to something that's gone well. And you're talking about your record so you're starting to kind of have proof for something. Especially if you were talking to your boss, you could say I'm really proud of my record on... this thing and hopefully they would know what you were talking about.

And then actually we can get a bit more specific. You can say things like I put a lot of work into... something, which I think has been really successful.

Yeah so again, we're using things like, really and a lot of work so we're talking up everything that we are doing. And this is particularly useful if you've been asked to improve something, you can show that you've taken feedback on board and that's a really good way to sell yourself.

OK, so we have some ways to start talking about the positives, but in a job interview an employer might be looking for more evidence of the things that you're good at. What's the best approach here, Pippa?

Yes, so it's good to give evidence, it's good to talk about statistics and numbers. So you might say something like through my actions we saw a ten percent increase in productivity. So you've given a number to how much you've changed something. What d'you think about that, Phil?

Yeah, I think numbers and things like this are really good. Details are really important because anyone can go in and say 'I'm brilliant. Give me a job!' But here you're giving specific reasons, you're saying 'this happened, it happened by this much and that was a result of my actions'. You're... you're giving evidence as to why you would be good at a job.

And another thing that people do often in interviews is they like to give kind of a story or an anecdote. And so you could say when I started in my current role... this happened, but through my hard work, now... this is the case. So you're kind of showing how you have changed something over time through more of a story.

Yes and it gives the hiring manager an idea of what kind of difference you could make to their organisation.

And these phrases and examples would work the same in a conversation with your manager like an appraisal, which is where you talk about the work that you've done and talk about your goals for the future. So we've got lots of ways to talk about our strengths. But when's the best time to do it? When we're in a job interview or an appraisal, sometimes it's not clear what the best answers are, Phil.

Yeah, lots of interview questions in English are quite vague. So, for example tell us about yourself. I mean that could be lots of things, but when you're in a job interview, what it means is tell me the things about yourself that make you good for this job.

Yeah, so if you ask me to tell us about yourself or tell me about yourself. I might say, 'Ah, well, I really like cats and, you know, I live here and I do this'. That's not going to explain why I would be good for your company, why I would work well in the role. So you need to try and think ahead of time about some things about yourself that are interesting and relevant to a job.

Yes and so other questions that you might be asked could be things like how did you feel about... a particular situation. Or maybe it's they've asked you about a mistake and they're asking you how did you feel about that? or how did you react to it? And it's not really asking about your feelings, it's asking what you've learnt from that situation, how you developed.

Yeah. So what people want to know when they're asking these kinds of questions is how you might react in the future. So if you came across the same problem in the job today, you know, how might you be different, what have you learned. And often people ask about mistakes and that can be quite stressful because you don't really want to say 'I did this thing wrong', but yes, it is an opportunity to talk about how you've learned something.

Another classic question is why did you apply to this job? I mean, obviously, you could say 'I need a job, I need to get paid'. But what actually they're asking for here is for you to be able to link what you're good at and your skills with why you're attracted to that company or that post and what you like about it. So it's another opportunity for you to show how your skills match the position and the company that you're applying for.

Yeah, so this is quite a good opportunity to flatter the company, so to say lots of good things about the company, but also to link in the good things that you've said about yourself and why you think they make you a really good fit for that company. So yeah, it's a really good chance to sell yourself, as all these questions are, if you look at them in the right way.

In fact, a lot of these questions, you're basically telling a story about yourself, but a story that shows why you're really good for this job.

Yeah and it's kind of the same even when you're already in a job, you're talking with your manager, you're reviewing your work. It's really about being able to tell the right kind of story about things that you've done and what you want to achieve in the future.

Recognising when you have a chance to sell yourself at an interview is a really important skill. And remember, even native speakers of English find it difficult to talk about their own strengths. Let's hear again from our BBC Learning English colleagues. Voicenote clips I find it really painful to say 'Oh, yeah, I'm really good at this' or 'I did a really good job that.' I even find it embarrassing and painful to be told that, even if somebody thinks that I have done a good job. I had one instance where I was asked to introduce myself and talk about my work experience in a meeting and so I did that and my boss said that actually, I was being very modest about my achievements in a particular area and I, as a response, made it seem very negative. I said, 'Oh, no, no. It's this. It's this. Oh, this is really bad. This is really bad' when there was no need for that.

OK so, Georgie talked about being modest. What does she mean by being modest, Phil?

Being modest is about not wanting to boast about your achievements. You know, if you've got a friend who's always saying how brilliant they are, it might get boring after a little while. So, with other people it sometimes can be nicer to be modest, but that's not really great for a job interview.

Yeah so it's a balance between being modest and being able to boast or talk about your achievements to sell yourself. It could be different in different companies and different cultures, as we always say, but in a job interview probably you don't want to be too modest, you want to be able to sell yourself!

Well, that's the end of this episode of Office English.

And the end of the series.

We'll be back soon with more programmes to help you with your business English. But for now, we'd love to hear from you. Have you enjoyed this series? Are there any situations at work where you would like help with your English?

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