Why you should learn to Self-Promote
Why you should learn to self-promote
How many times have you been asked “What have you been up to?” and replied, “Not much, just the usual”?
Is the answer “All the time, Sam”? Read on…
The time I failed at Self-Promotion
One day me and my colleague went along to an introductory meeting to meet someone senior in the organisation. I hadn’t put a lot of thought into it beforehand because I was ‘all hands to the pump’” making the new recruitment machine I had built work as fast as it could to meet demand.
The person we met asked us both about our backgrounds. I mumbled something along the lines of “I have spent most of my career in tech recruitment, including working for a start-up and have recruited across multiple industries, worked for a global software company looking after some of their recruitment before starting here about 6 months ago.
Then my colleague started with theirs: “I have a degree in Computer Science and before getting the job here I lead recruitment for a global software vendor, then joined [insert name of massive company here] and set up all their recruitment processes from scratch at their flagship Edinburgh office, then I was headhunted to come and work here.” Boom.
F*ck” I thought, I just totally messed that up
“F*ck” I thought, I just totally messed that up. What I should have said was; “I love working in tech recruitment. Before joining here, I built a very successful tech resourcing consultancy from scratch and was “headhunted” for this role while working for a global software vendor, managing recruitment across the UK and Europe. Since starting, I have already halved “time to hire” with the new processes I designed, and I haven’t even really got going yet.”
Why didn’t I say any of that?
It was entirely down to my own irritating habit of being humble and playing down my achievements so not to appear like I’m full of myself and blowing my own trumpet.
Sound familiar? Learning the art of self-promotion will help you avoid these situations.
What is self-promotion?
Stephanie-Sword Williams, author of “F*ck being humble, defines it as this: “self-promotion is all about figuring out your own personal narrative, and the sooner you have it the easier championing yourself becomes”.
How do I do that? I hear you ask, well a good place to start would be by reading Stephanie-Sword Williams book F*ck being humble. She will teach you everything you need to know about self-promotion and give you the tools to succeed at it.
I particularly like the idea of creating a little black book of the highs and lows of your work. This gives you a fantastic list of things you have achieved that you can share with anyone you want. If there are more lows than highs it will be clear in black and white that you need to look for something new.
“Wing it to win it”
My favourite quote is “sometimes you’ve just got to wing it to win it”. It serves as a good reminder to remember; some of the most successful people we all know are winging it too.
Now, how many times have you been asked “What have you been up to?” and replied, “Not much, just the usual”?
How often have your colleagues been promoted ahead of you?
Have other people been credited for work that YOU have done?
Have you watched everyone around you setting up their own business doing exactly what you know you can do and ‘living the dream’?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, you owe it to yourself to learn the art of Self-Promotion.
Life is too short
Life is too short to let opportunities pass you by, so take the opportunity now to stop letting them. Learn to promote yourself and accelerate your success just like you have watched everyone else do.
Thanks to Stephanie’s book, I have already got a few sentences ready to say when the next person asked me what I have been up to lately, it will go something like this:
“I started 2022 skydiving to raise money for charity and mental health awareness. I’m still writing and publishing my blogs (whilst doing my day job) and I just need a final push to get the draft of my book finished. Oh and I’m training for my 10th marathon.
