Life and Career Skills

You are confident about your skills, and you know that you are better than many, but somehow when you apply for a job interview you loose the opportunity to some one else. Why does that happen? Have you ever thought about it? Do you blame it on your luck? The fact is that you are not alone if you feel this way, there are many technically skilled people who are not able to get full benefits of their potential, they end up working for a lower salary or are not able to get higher on the promotion ladder if they have a job. The reason is very simple you are not good at marketing yourself.

There are no words to put enough emphasis on personal marketing skills. As the world is getting smaller and smaller you have to compete at global level. There are so many bright people out there with whom you have to compete and carve a niche in your field. If you are a free lancer, a business owner or a job seeker, 50% of your work is to plan your personal marketing strategy.

The good news is you can do it. If you have confidence in your skills then all you need is perseverance, dedication and practice, to improve your self marketing skills. Here are some tips that might help you.

Build Confidence:

Find a reason to do, what you want to do. Dream about the best possible outcome. Think positively about it. Make sure that your dreams or your goals have realistic approach. Make short term goals, and work hard on them. You will see that you will boost your confidence level as soon as you start achieving them.

Do a self assessment:

You must know where your territory ends. Find out about your shortfalls and your strengths. To find out about your shortfalls ask your good friends to give an honest opinion about yourself. Try out your old boss or current employer and get feed back about yourself. It is also said that “ Your enemy will always be the true judge of your character”, so you might just want to try that too. Make a list of your good side and your bad side.

Do your home work:

You must do research, find out what kind of employee is the company is looking for. Find out the goals and ethics of the company. If you are a business owner find out everything you can about your target market and also everything about your competitors. Your self-marketing strategy must be based on your research. Do not forget that your strategy changes with your target. So always do your homework well every time.

Plan strategy:

To put it in plain and simple words you got 30 seconds to prove your worth. Now that you have done your assessment and got the confidence to do it, it's time to get down to the businesses. Give the monkey what it wants, if it wants an apple give it an apple, do not give it anything else. Be specific and to the point about what your target wants, your first aim is to satisfy your employers basic requirements. The second emphasis should be on the research you have done about your target. You have to show them that how you are better from others and that you can provide some important value added services. You should always remember that your employer will also think of “cost benefit ratio” related to you before hiring you. Choose your language correctly. Speak sentences in such a way that you are left with some room to improvise. Your speech should be very interesting, but also make sure you do not go overboard and prove yourself arrogant or overconfident.

It is very obvious that any company would want to hire a person who is confident, knows exactly what they want and carries himself well. If your self marketing skills are good, nothing can stop you from succeeding.