You’re gonna need a bigger story.
What we mean is this: don’t be afraid of the humblebrag when you meet with hiring managers. You need to stand out from the crowd and to do so you’re going to have to talk about your achievements in a way that gets a recruiter’s/interviewer’s attention.
A humblebrag is a subtle way of touting your achievements without coming across as arrogant.
Here are some tips to ace your humblebrag game.
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Hiring managers today just don’t want the facts, they want a story.
It needs to be one that resonates with the business’ values and goals. Embracing the humblebrag will help you build a compelling narrative that takes your skills and accomplishments and showcases how they will help a company reach its goals and overcome its challenges.
For example, rather than merely saying “I raised my sales numbers by an average of 20 percent year-over-year,” stay instead something like: “Working with my sales manager, we created a strategy that resulted in an average 20 percent sales increase each year for three years while also serving our clients better; we received several compliments on how we handled the sales process from beginning to end.”
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Highlight your skills through context.
Don’t just state what you accomplished; explain how you could do so.
For example, rather than boasting about your skills say something along the line of “I took my extensive understanding of accounts payable to streamline our AP processes, being able to verify invoices against purchase orders much more quickly before issuing payment to our vendors.”
Examples of great humblebrags
- Rather than saying ‘I’m great at solving problems,” say “My boss often tells me that I’m great at creative-problem solving” and then give an example.
- Instead of “I’m the top performer in my role in my department,” try “I’m consistently ranked in the top 5 (or 10) performers in my role” and then give an example.
Humblebragging’s pitfalls
There’s a delicate line between great self-promotion and coming across as arrogant. Here are two pitfalls to watch for:
- Bragging without humility. Bragging too easily can come across as self-centered. Make sure to express your accomplishments by describing how others describing and/or while also acknowledging your team members’ contributions to your success.
- Make sure you mention your success in a way that shows how it helped your company, rather than merely your own gain. Make sure to tie your achievements to your employer’s/department’s goals.
Always keep the bigger picture in mind
Embracing the humblebrag lets you showcase your accomplishments while also demonstrating that you’re aware of the company’s or department’s goals and challenges. Sharing your achievements within an ethos of teamwork and business objectives shows recruiters and hiring managers that you’re not a mere self-promoter but a true asset to the company, an asset that’s ready to make a meaningful and positive contribution to the employer’s goals.
Tell us about YOUR accomplishments
Take a look at the current openings and apply to any that appeal to you and for which you have the skills.
Don’t see anything in your location right now? Send us your resume/apply anyway: we often fill positions long before we post them with candidates already in our database. That could be YOU!