How to Sell Youself in an Interview

When you have an hour to weave your career stories to sell yourself in an interview, there is time for a subtle blend of persuasion and exploration. 

You can’t sell yourself effectively if you do not know precisely what the job involves. You need to tease out the potential fit while taking the employer through your career hits. 

The hiring manager will hope that you feel confident enough in your application to get into unapologetic sales mode. After all, if you don’t believe in yourself, why should they?

Expect them to challenge you, question your suitability and explore the fit from their point of view. An interview is never a one-way conversation. You must adjust how you sell yourself in an interview as you sense what is important. How you share your career stories will dictate the impression that you leave. 

Two candidates with roughly the same achievements can actually come across entirely differently. If you take on board the following suggestions, you can be sure that your career sales pitch will hit home in all the right ways.

9 interview tips to sell yourself

…. Don’t feel awkward talking positively about your successes.

…. Practice a confident and relaxed tone and cadence of speech.

…. Act like you already belong (don’t wear brand new clothes).

…. Know the specifics of the value that you offer an employer.

…. Emphasise the mutual fit and focus on the employer’s needs.

…. Quantify your career examples with numbers and context.

…. Be clear and concise in your answers – don’t wander off topic.

…. Develop rapport and understanding with the interviewer.

…. Share your emotional investment in the role and the company.

If you can justify your confidence in your application with quantifiable achievements in a relevant context, then you have every right to sell your story with a passion. Arrogance is when you claim that you cannot back up (don’t do this). Any experienced hiring manager can tear apart the arrogant façade with a few pinpoint questions.

If the match is less than obvious, there is equally nothing wrong with showing that your belief in your potential is justified. Change is part of any worthwhile career, so having confidence in your transferrable skills and your ability to learn new things can often be just as powerful as saying, “well, I’ve done that before.”

If you meet an employer’s open (and hidden) needs, the interview will flow, and you will get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside. If you feel that you have to sell your experience too hard, maybe the opportunity is not for you.

Decent interviewers (and you hope that they would be) will recognise a compelling sales pitch after the first few minutes. Don’t relax – sell your career story right up to the closing call-to-action. Other candidates will be selling hard as well.

May the best career sales pitch win.

***

This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists.

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).