Selling yourself during the interview and during your career as a whole is an important skill that you need to master. Some people dont feel comfortable bragging about their accomplishments but it really cant be considered bragging if youve done what youre describing. Besides, there is a difference between openly bragging and simply describing your accomplishments with confidence to a hiring manager. When speaking with hiring managers after one of my candidates has completed an interview with them, the hiring manager will almost always discuss the interview in terms of accomplishments that the candidate has or doesnt have. Hiring managers will often interpret your ability to sell yourself during an interview as being indicative of how you will sell yourself if you become part of their company. For example, some companies can be overly political or aggressive and require a strong person who can comfortably stand up for themselves, their group, their division, etc and your ability to defend and stand up for yourself during the interview is a good indication of how well youd do the same thing if you were hired for the position. I remember one instance where I got a call from the hiring manager from a company that had just interviewed one of my candidates, a lady who they were very keen on hiring for a senior position. Their only concern was that she came across during the interview as being a little bit laid back and they questioned whether or not she would be able to defend her groups work in front of the bigger company if she were hired. Id already done reference checks on the candidate and they had each briefly described her as being someone who would stand up for herself but the company still wasnt entirely sold. Fortunately, the company allowed me to go back to her references and specifically ask each of them again for more details regarding this particular skill and each confirmed that she would have no trouble defending herself and her group in front of the rest of the company. In my experience this is the exception rather than the rule. Once a hiring manager finds something about you that they feel is a weakness, it can be very difficult to get them to get past that feeling. The only way a hiring manager is going to know about your accomplishments is if you mention them in your resume and then elaborate on them during the interview with confidence. Remember, during the interview the hiring manager is looking to hear about your accomplishments and will consider not only your specific accomplishments but how confident and capable you are of discussing them. |
