Selling yourself: Office English episode 10

How good are you at talking about your  achievements?

I find it really painful to say um “oh yeah, I'm really good at this  or I did a really good job at that” um,  

I even find it embarrassing and painful to be told  that even if uh somebody thinks that I have done a good job.

I definitely think it's important  to be able to sell yourself at work,  

not only for your managers and your bosses and  even your colleagues to have confidence in you  

and your work and what you're able to produce,  but also to give yourself that confidence.

In today's episode of Office English, we're  talking about how to sell yourself at work.

Hello and welcome to Office English from  BBC Learning English. I'm Pippa,   

and I'm Phil. In this podcast we discuss the language you need  to help you succeed at work.

What do we mean when we say that you should sell yourself, Phil? And why do we need to do it?

Okay well, we don't literally mean we should sell ourselves, but when we sell  someone or something metaphorically, we're saying  

positive things to make that person or things  sound good. So, to sell yourself, you say positive  

things about yourself and you know this is useful  at work, because sometimes in order to progress  

in our careers, we need important people to  notice and appreciate the work that we're doing.

Right, so you might need to sell yourself in a job  interview, for example, or if you're meeting with  

your boss to talk about your career, or even if  you're talking to a potential customer or client  

at work, because you might want to impress them  and you might want to sell yourself and sell the company, as it were.

Now, some people hate saying  good things about themselves so we'll start with  

how to talk about your strengths and then we'll  discuss the kinds of questions you might be asked  

in an interview or by your manager that give  you an opportunity to sell yourself.  

Okay, let's begin with how to talk about your strengths. What phrases can we use, Phil?

How about this one:  ‘I think I particularly excel at...’ and then you  identify something that you think you're good at.

Yes, I like that, 'I particularly excel'  is nice because it's um you know talking  

about something that you're particularly good at.  It implies that you're good at everything really.  

Another one here, "I'm really proud of my record  on..." and then you'd say something that you, again, that you think you're very good at.

Yes, so you're drawing attention to something that's gone well, 

 and you're talking about your record, so you're  starting to, kind of, have proof for something.  

Especially if you were talking to your boss, you  could say “I'm really proud of my record on this thing” and

and hopefully they would know what you were talking about.

And then actually we can get a bit more specific, you can say things like: “I put a lot of work into, something, which I think has been really successful”.

Yeah, so again we're  using things like ‘really’ and ‘a lot of work’ so  

we're talking up everything that we are doing and  this is particularly useful if you've been asked  

to improve something, um you can show that you've  taken feedback on board and that's a really good way to sell yourself.

Okay, so we have some  ways to start talking about the positives,  

but in a job interview, an employer might be looking for more evidence of the things that you're good at. What's the best approach here, Pippa?

Yes, so it's good to give evidence,  

it's good to talk about statistics and numbers.  So you might say something like: “through my  

actions we saw a 10% increase in productivity, so  you've given a number to how much you've changed  

something. What do you think about about that Phil?

Yeah I think numbers and things like this are really good, details are really important because you know anyone can go in and say"  

“I'm brilliant, give me a job”, but here you're giving  specific reasons, you're saying this happened,  

it happened by this much, uh and that was a result of my actions. You're you're giving evidence as to why you would be good at a job.

And another thing that people do often in interviews is   

they like to give kind of a story, or an anecdote, um and so  you could say: “when I started in my current role,  

this happened, but through my hard work now this  is the case”, um so you’re kind of showing how  

you have changed something over time through  more of a story.

Yes and it gives the hiring manager an idea of what kind of difference  you could make to their organisation. 

And these phrases and examples would work um the same in a  conversation with your manager, like an appraisal,  

which is where you talk about the work that  you've done and talk about your goals for the future. 

So, we've got lots of ways to talk about  our strengths, but when's the best time to do it?  

When we're in a job interview or an appraisal  sometimes it's not clear what the best answers are Phil.

Yeah, lots of interview questions in  English are quite vague, so for example

“tell us about yourself”, I mean that could be lots  of things, but when you're in a job interview,  

what it means is: ‘tell me the things about  yourself that make you good for this job’.  

Yeah, so if you ask me to tell us about yourself or tell  me about yourself, I might say “oh well I really  

like cats and that you know I live here and I do  this” that's not going to explain why I would be  

good for your company, why I would work well in  the role, um so you need to try and think ahead  

of time about some things about yourself that  are interesting and relevant uh to a job.

Yes, and so other questions that you might be asked  could be things like: “how did you feel about a  

particular situation?’ or maybe it's they've  asked you about a mistake and they're asking you

"how did you feel about that?" or "how did you  react to it?" and it's not really asking about your  

feelings, it's asking what you've learned from that  situation. How you developed.

Yes, so what people want to know when they're asking these kinds of questions is, how you might react in the future. 

So, if uh you came across the same problem in the  job uh today you know how might you be different?

What have you learned? And often people ask about  mistakes and that can be quite stressful, because  

you don't really want to say “oh I did this thing wrong”, um but yes, it's an opportunity to  talk about how you've learned something.

Another classic question is: “why did you apply to this job?”

I mean, obviously you could say “I need a  job, I need to get paid”, but what actually they're  

asking for here is for you to be able to link what  you're good at and your skills with why you're  

attracted to that company or that post and what  you like about it, so it's another opportunity  

for you to show how your skills match the position  and the company that you're applying for.

Yes so, this is quite a good opportunity to uh flatter  the company, so to say lots of good things about  

the company, but also to link in the good things  that you've said about yourself and why you think  

that they make you a really good fit for that  company. Um so yeah it's a really good chance to  

sell yourself as all these questions are, if you  look at them in the right way.

In fact, a lot of these questions, you're basically telling a story  about yourself, but a story that shows why you're really good for this job. 

Yeah and it's kind of the same, um even when you're already in a job,  

you're talking with your manager, you're reviewing  your work, um it's really about being able to tell  

the right kind of story about things that you've  done and and what you want to achieve in the future.

Recognising when you have a chance to sell  yourself at an interview is a really important skill, and remember, 

even native speakers of English find it difficult to talk about their own strengths. Let's hear again from our BBC learning English colleagues. 

I find it really painful to say um “oh yeah I’m really good at this, or I did a really good job at that”.

um, I even find it embarrassing and painful to be told that, even if uh somebody thinks I have done a good job. 

I had one instance where I was asked to introduce myself  and talk about my work experience in a meeting and  

so I did that, and my boss said that actually I  was being very modest about my achievements in a  

particular area, and I, as a response, made it seem  very negative. I said “oh no no it's this it's  

this oh this is really bad this is really bad”  when there was no need for that.

Okay, so Georgie talked about being modest - what does she mean by being modest, Phil?

Being modest is about not wanting to boast about your achievements um, you know if you've got a friend who's always saying  

how brilliant they are, it might get boring  after a little while. So with other people,  

it sometimes can be nicer to be modest, but that's  not really great for a job interview.

Yeah, so it's a balance between being modest and being able  to boast or talk about your achievements, to sell  

yourself. Um it could be different in different  companies and different cultures as we always say,  

but in a job interview probably you don't want  to be too modest you want to be able to sell yourself.

Well, that's the end of this episode of Office English

and the end of the series.  

We'll be back soon with more more programmes  to help you with your business English,  

but for now we'd love to hear from you:  have you enjoyed this series? Are there  

any situations at work where you would like  help with your English?

Perhaps you would like more tips on applying for and getting a  job in English? Or maybe, you'd like to hear  

from some successful entrepreneurs. Email us  your suggestions and questions to  

learning dot English at bbc dot co dot uk and we will do our best  to cover your problem in a future episode.

And remember there's loads more ways to improve  your English with BBC Learning English. You can  

check out another of our podcasts; 6 Minute  English, or head to our website for courses  

and activities - bbclearningenglish.com.

Thanks for listening to Office English. Bye for now. Bye.