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I read everywhere that good self-marketing is so important in the interview. But showing off is uncomfortable and I find it difficult to sell myself well."
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Photo: Rekha Garton / Digital Vision / Getty Images
Anna, 28 years old, writes: “After my training as a nurse, I worked in the hospital for four years. I am now about to graduate from the bachelor's degree in nursing management and would like to apply for a position with employee responsibility. I read everywhere that good self-marketing is so important in job interviews. But showing off is uncomfortable for me and it is difficult for me to sell myself well. How do I manage to present my strengths better? «
Dear Anna,
It's nice that you have decided to pursue a postgraduate course after four years of professional experience.
This shows that you have confidence in yourself and that you are motivated to develop yourself further.
That’s a good foundation.
What are you good at?
Indeed, if you are applying in the job market now, it is important that you are able to convey your skills and strengths well to a potential employer.
Because only if you do that will you offer him a solid information base for his decision.
Many people associate the term self-marketing - like you - with rather negative associations, in the sense of bragging and having to present yourself as the most beautiful, the best, the greatest.
In my opinion, this is neither necessary nor sensible.
It is important to convey a realistic picture of what you can offer an employer and what benefits you can bring.
Because in the end it’s exactly about: That you can show a solution to a problem for the employer in relation to a certain task.
Therefore, with every application you should first consider whether you consider yourself a good candidate, i.e. whether you, the decision-maker, would hire yourself for the position.
What are your strengths?
In order to be able to assess this realistically, you need a solid inventory of your own abilities and strengths.
First, think about your
specialist knowledge:
What did you learn during your apprenticeship, your job and now during your studies?
Which required technical topics can you cover?
In addition to your specialist knowledge, you should particularly examine your
work experience
.
What have you successfully mastered in terms of tasks and projects?
In which areas did you get a realistic practical insight?
What from your practical work has had a lasting impact on you and your view of things, i.e. made you more mature and experienced?
During your
studies in particular, you have acquired
methodological skills
: techniques and tools that will help you to find a targeted approach to new topics and to solve problems on your own.
This includes project management, decision-making techniques or methods of information acquisition and analysis.
In the care sector in particular, it is important to work with a large number of people from different cultures.
Have you been able to
acquire
intercultural skills
in your previous (professional) life
?
Working with people who have a completely different professional background also plays an important role in your environment.
Are you able to work constructively with controllers, IT specialists, doctors or lawyers and understand their approach?
This
interdisciplinary competence
is an important prerequisite for successfully solving complex tasks.
What are you like as a person - and who are you good with?
And then we have the field of
social skills
.
Do you succeed in building a trusting relationship with people and do you find the right tone in dealing with both a manager and a cleaner?
Are you able to express your point of view clearly or, where necessary, to make compromises?
If you now want to take on a management position, your
leadership
potential
will also be in
demand.
Have you already led other people, be they trainees or interns in your job or also your first leadership experience in youth groups or in sports?
Because there, too, you can already test how well you manage to lead other people.
Do you have empathy and can you win people over to your ideas?
Finally, you should take a look at your
personality
.
What are your strong characteristics?
Are you particularly reliable, resilient or do you have a high tolerance for frustration so that you don't let setbacks throw you off course?
Your personality and the associated values are important criteria when it comes to the accuracy of fit with a specific position.
You need concrete examples
With all of these considerations, in the end, the point is that you demonstrate your knowledge and skills with concrete examples.
These first help you to be sure that you actually have these skills and have already proven them in practice.
Therefore try to remember situations in which you have already had these positive experiences and feel yourself into them again.
This will significantly increase your confidence in yourself.
These examples support you in convincing others of your strengths in an application.
Make specific reference to the requirements of the position: Take a
close look at the requirements of the position.
It is best to speak to people who are familiar with these tasks in the run-up to the interview.
This helps you to specifically address these requirements in your argumentation in the interview and to score points with examples.
Only those who are convinced of themselves can also convince others:
On this solid basis, it will be easier for you to stand by your achievements and successes and to present them confidently and purposefully in the truest sense of the word in an interview.
Because only if you are convinced of yourself and your abilities will you be able to convince others of yourself.
Content, voice and body language have to send a message:
In addition to the substantive argumentation, the voice and body language play an important role for a convincing self-presentation.
These are largely influenced by how you feel about what you say.
Think of a situation where you tell your best friend about a great vacation experience.
Here you will automatically find the right gestures and have a liveliness in your voice that expresses enthusiasm.
And in the same way, you should have a positive attitude towards yourself and your abilities when it comes to your self-presentation.