When it comes to the competitive job market, being able to seel yourself in terms of what you bring to the table is important. As many job seekers go the unique route, there are ways you can effectively sell yourself without selling out. Brazen Careerist offers five:
Don’t sell features; sell benefits.This is the golden rule in sales, and it’s the same concept when it comes to interviewing. Yes, you can tell the employer about your impressive GPA, Ivy League education and vast experience in the field.
But expand on that. Expand on how your education and experience will benefit the employer if they hire you. What can you do that would make the company better? What can you do to make the company more money?
Be the solution. Companies have job openings because they have a hole in their business. Your job (if you are hired) is to fill that hole.
For example, if the job opening is for a network administrator, tell them why you are the perfect solution to their network woes. Or, if during the interview they tell you they’ve been experiencing DDOS attacks on their servers, you can cite past experience working with hacked servers or even tell them you’ve been on the other end of DDOS attacks. Remember, sell benefits.
Use specific examples from your past to illustrate how you will solve inherent problems in their database infrastructure and network security.
A job listing will usually indicate what the job responsibilities are and what you will be tasked with. Use this as an opportunity to brainstorm solutions to some of the problems they list on the job announcement.