How To Sell Yourself In An Interview Without Overselling Yourself

So you have an interview coming up and you really want the job. It’s the perfect next step in your career and it’ll give you a salary increase. 

But you also know the competition is tough so you’re trying to figure out how to sell yourself and wow your potential employer. Maybe you should just exaggerate a little bit. 

Bad move.

Think of an interviewer as a potential customer of a product you’re selling. You need to show off all the perks of the product and influence them to want to buy it. But you also want them to be satisfied after buying the product because no one wants the embarrassment of complaints and requests for a refund. 

Selling yourself in an interview is the same. Be confident and talk about all your talents and capabilities, but don’t exaggerate to the point where you can’t back up your claims. There are many other reasons why you should never oversell yourself in an interview, but here’s how to wow an employer without exaggerating (or blatantly lying).

STUDY EVERYTHING ABOUT THE COMPANY

There’s nothing more wowing to an employer than a candidate who knows their stuff. Most employers will be asking you what you know about the company so it’s good to be prepared.

STUDY THEIR BRAND

Visit their website, to get an understanding of where the company is right now and their goals for the future. 

STUDY THE JOB DESCRIPTION

And not just the required skills either. Most people just look at that part but the ‘responsibility’ list can offer a deeper insight into what the role entails and what things you would need to be skilled or experienced in. 

STUDY THE INDUSTRY THEY’RE IN

By getting an understanding of the industry, you’ll be able to talk about what interests you, whilst giving you an idea of the market and the sorts of people they’d be working with. And if the company is in an industry you already have experience in, explain what you like about the industry and what you know.

BE CONFIDENT AND TALK POSITIVELY ABOUT YOURSELF

It’s possible to speak about yourself positively and confidently without exaggerating or sounding arrogant. This can be awkward of course because it’s not natural to talk about yourself to someone in a positive and persuading manner, but if you want an employer to be sure about you, you need to be sure about yourself. 

If you want to sell yourself, your attitude has just as much, maybe even more to do with what you say. If you were selling a product and you sounded unsure of its ability, would a customer feel comfortable investing their money into it? Probably not. Make an employer feel confident in hiring you by showcasing your confidence.

BE HUMBLE AND SHOW YOU’RE WILLING TO LEARN

Remember the last point about being confident without being arrogant? Being humble will show this to an employer massively.

Once you’ve talked about all your successes, your skills, and experience, always follow up with talking about how you plan to continue growing. This is especially important when going for a role where there are a lot of progression opportunities because you need to show that you’re a work in progress and want to continue learning from others to achieve your career goals.

There’s nothing worse than an unteachable employee, and if you constantly brag, an employer will see that you’ll be hard to manage and you won’t make a conscious effort to learn from others and collaborate. And not to mention, you can earn yourself some brownie points if you talk about how you’d love to learn from your potential employer because you can see they have lots of expertise. 

BE HONEST ABOUT YOUR GOALS

Do you see yourself getting to a senior level at some point? Maybe specialising in a certain area? Make that known to your interviewer. But don’t just make it known, explain how you can see that their company will be a perfect place for you to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to progress. 

An employer could be blown away by your experience, but if you want them to see you as a committed and dedicated candidate, you need to show that you desire to stay with the company and progress with them.

Of course, most people don’t stay in one job their entire working lives, but you don’t want to come across as someone who is only intending to stay for a short period.

- Written by Arun Sutton

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