3 Ways To Talk About Your Professional Successes

Talking about yourself should be the easiest thing for you to do. Who knows you better than you? However, responding to this question during a job interview can be stressful and uncomfortable. Here are some ideas on how to craft an impactful and memorable response.

1. Be sure you know who you are. Assess yourself and create a consistent message regarding your background and experience. Then, tweak your message for each individual situation.
2. Know who you are targeting. Get to know something about the company, the interviewer, the position. During the interview, speak to how you fit based on your past experience.
3. Tell your story. Talk about your experience and how you gained that experience and knowledge. Tell the interviewer something that people like about you. Avoid bragging by using these tips:
   • Think about yourself in the third person, as someone else you have observed. What would you say about that person?
   • Give evidence to support your statements. "I have excellent attention to detail. I always review purchasing decisions one final time before execution. In one situation, I found a price break if we purchased a larger quantity of widgets. The result was 15% more widgets at the same cost."
   • Use CARE (context, action, results, effect) when giving examples of how you made a difference in a previous position. What was the situation? What did you do? What were the results based on your actions? What was the effect (the good that came from it)?

Find out more about talking about yourself professionally in our archived webinar "How to be Comfortable (and Effective) Talking About Yourself Professionally," presented by Tanya White-Earnest, Director of Trident's Center for Career Planning and Workforce Strategies.

Trident's Center for Career Planning and Workforce Strategies hosts Webinar Wednesdays on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at 11:30am pacific time. Click on the link for more information.