Marketing Yourself For Career Success
You may be doing an excellent job in your current role; however, have you ever considered how marketing yourself could set you up for career success? Learning how to market yourself is a great skill to learn and will help you advance your career.
Our CEO and Founder, Jessica Chen, recently hosted a Soulcast Media | LIVE event on LinkedIn where she interviewed Head of Marketing at Hirect, Stephanie Lovell.
They shared tips and personal stories about marketing yourself for career success. This Soulcast Media | LIVE event is brought to you by our amazing sponsors at Hirect
Hirect focuses on top tech startup hiring. Using our own proprietary algorithm, we match job seekers and recruiters instantly. Hirect is the one stop shop for matching with candidates, instant chatting, and video interviewing. No more emailing back and forth and waiting for responses.
1. Personal Elevator Pitch
Marketing your skills, capabilities, and qualifications is part of a personal elevator pitch. You have to market yourself in an enticing, exciting way for the recruiters, and the jobs you are applying for. During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Stephanie and Jessica shared that having a personal elevator pitch is one way to help you market yourself.
Consider the following as you create your own personal elevator pitch.
- Personal Marketing Materials – Your personal pitch is what you will use to formulate your resume, cover letter, and any materials you are using to get a new job. You will want to hone your pitch, so it is exciting and stands out. For example, if you only had 30 seconds to 1 minute to tell someone about you, what would you include? This will help you determine how you will formulate all of your personal marketing materials.
- Length – You don’t want your elevator pitch to be too long. You want it to be a tease. In other words, you want people to be intrigued and want to learn more about you. Thirty seconds to one minute is a typical length for elevator pitches. For example, you can say you are a marketing strategist in your pitch, but you don’t need to go into all the details about what you do as a marketing strategist. Leave room for the other person to ask questions.
- The Time To Brag – Because your pitch is so short, it is time for you to brag; you don’t want to be too humble about it. During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Stephanie emphasized that being insecure won’t get you places. For example, saying something like, “I kind of did this, and I kind of helped with that,” isn’t confident. Instead, use strong, confident language like, “I’m an expert in this, I know how to do XYZ.” Make sure you are confident, but not arrogant.
- Question – Ending your elevator pitch in a question is a really great way to engage others. This also gives the other person a chance to talk. Conversations go both ways. For example, if you are in finance, you could end your pitch with something like, “Do you invest in Bitcoin?” When you pose a question, you keep the other person interested in you and the conversation.
Honing your personal elevator pitch will help you become comfortable marketing yourself.
2. Be Your Own Advocate
To market yourself, you have to be your own advocate. In other words, you have to put in the work, look for opportunities, and present yourself in the best way possible. This is because no one cares more about your career than you do.
During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Jessica, and Stephanie talked about three ways to be your own advocate during an interview.
- Be Prepared – Preparing for your interview is critical for career success. If you aren’t prepared, you won’t come across as confident and can easily get flustered during your interview. There are several ways you can prepare for your upcoming interview. Get all of your materials ready ahead of time. Each interview is different; you may need an extra copy of your resume, or perhaps a link to your reels. Whatever you need, make sure you have it ready to go. Another way to prepare is to practice interview questions ahead of time. Get comfortable with your answers. Do your research on the company. Find out as much as you can ahead of time. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will be.
- Know Your Value – Before any interview, you need to know your value. This means doing your market research ahead of time to understand what your fair value is. During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Stephanie emphasized the importance of knowing what your salary range is. She and Jessica said it is a great idea to say what you want in a salary. Don’t be afraid of the salary talk. If you’ve done your market research, you can be confident sharing your salary expectations based on your known value.
- Your Focus – When you walk into an interview, you need to know what will be the #1 focus for you. In other words, what is the most important thing you want to communicate or get out of this interview? For example, let’s say you are very interested in this job opening. You know you are qualified and like the company. However, your focus is flexibility. When you go into the interview, you will want to make sure all of your questions, and answers focus on flexibility. If the company isn’t flexible, it may not be the job for you. Knowing what is most important to you, will help you advocate for yourself.
Being your own advocate is part of marketing yourself for career success. Knowing your value and what is most important to you, will help you navigate your career path.
3. Marketing Confidence
Having an excellent personal elevator pitch, and being your own advocate require you to have confidence in yourself. If you cannot communicate with confidence, your message and marketing will fall flat. During the Soulcast Media | LIVE, Jessica, and Stephanie discussed how to be confident while marketing yourself.
Consider the following:
- Use Dominant Language – Dominant language is confident language. For example, when you use dominant language, you are assertive, clear, to the point, and effective. This means taking away filler words, or any words that come across as insecure.
- Don’t Undersell – Part of being marketing yourself confidently, is not underselling yourself. You may feel like underselling is being humble, but the truth is, you often only get one opportunity to talk about all of your accomplishments. If you don’t use the opportunity, you miss your chance to show how great you are. The other person may think you haven’t done much or aren’t sure about your skills. Don’t undersell yourself; show confidence in yourself and your abilities.
- Body Language – If you want to show confidence, consider your body language. For example, sitting or standing up straight with your shoulders back will make you seem more confident. Maintaining eye contact with the person with whom you are speaking is another way to use confident body language.
Marketing yourself with confidence is key to career success. Using dominant language, being aware of your body language, and showcasing your skills will help you on your career path.
In the end, knowing how to market yourself is key to career success. The more you can confidently communicate why you are such an asset, the more opportunities you will find.
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