Selling Yourself

Saturday, 19 July 2008 8:08PM

Selling Yourself

SELLING YOURSELF

Finding a job is all about being able to 'Sell Yourself' and particularly your skills.

Whether you are talking to a Recruitment Consultancy or direct to an Employer, you have to be able to Sell Yourself!

When looking for a new job you can sell yourself in a number of different ways.

Stand Out from the Crowd

1) Curriculum Vitae

The most obvious way to sell yourself is using your Curriculum Vitae. This should be a concise, accurate and true account of your academic and professional track record and shout about your skills and experience.

2) Contacting Employers & Recruitment Consultancies

You sell yourself every time you pick up the phone to a potential Employer or Recruitment Consultancy. Communication skills are often a high priority on the selection criteria list, always prepare for a phone call;

i. Don’t call a potential Employer or Recruiter from the side of the road or your local bar. Choose somewhere where you can talk freely and clearly be heard without background noise or other intervention. There is nothing worse than receiving a call from someone who has to whisper so colleagues don’t hear them or has to shout to be heard over background noise!

ii. Prepare for the phone call. Be prepared to explain to someone what you are calling about and who you need to speak to or at least what the nature of your call so they can point you in the right direction. Know what you want to achieve from the call and what you are going to say. If you are unsure who to contact, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Top Tip
Have you ever come off the phone and thought what a nice and/or helpful person that was I just spoke to? Will the person you just spoke to think that about you? First impressions do count - even when it’s on the phone!

3) Applying for Vacancies

Every time you send your CV on email or complete an Application Form you are selling yourself. All communications should be carefully written, grammatically correct and without spelling mistakes.

4) The Interview

If you’ve done a good job ‘Selling Yourself’ during the initial stage of job hunting you will hopefully get a chance to meet the Employer at Interview. What better opportunity to Sell Yourself to a potential Employer than at Interview. Preparation is the key to a successful interview.

Below you will find a convenient Selling Yourself and Think Like an Employer Factsheet to enable you to read the full document and print it out as required.