Marketing Your Skills and Experiences
As a job hunter, you must be able to communicate your experiences, skills, and goals in a way that is clear, brief, and compelling; you must be able to communicate why you would be the best choice for the specific position at hand.
This is sometimes called “personal marketing,” but many job seekers are uncomfortable with the phrase. They don’t want to “sell” themselves. You’re not really selling yourself—you’re making clear connections between the skills and experiences you’ve built in your life and the qualities an employer seeks.
Who are you, what makes you memorable, how do your talents and skills translate to your workplace of choice? Why would someone want to hire you? What makes you a valuable employee?
Research
In every potential job situation, you must be able to determine the specific experiences and skills an employer is seeking. Start by carefully reading the job description, advertisement, or Internet posting. Research the company as thoroughly as possible. Talk to people in the company if you have any connections. Learn enough about the organization to make an educated guess about their needs.
Communicate
Your next step is to communicate how the skills you’ve built in your courses, your extracurricular activities, and your work experience apply to a specific position. No matter your major, as a successful college student you have built a wealth of skills and experiences that will be valuable to an employer. Think broadly:
Some hypothetical examples:
- As an English or journalism major you developed strong writing skills, and are able to synthesize information, communicate clearly, and think creatively.
- As a biology or environmental sciences major, you are detail oriented and learned to collect and analyze samples and interpret data.
- Your work at People’s Market gave you the skills necessary to run a business, manage people and inventory, and develop a budget.
- Through your involvement in University Productions and Concerts you learned to work as part of a team, create marketing materials, and promote an event.
- Your job as a Minuteman Round-Up Phone-a-Thon operator helped you build excellent phone skills and the ability to make cold calls.
- In your job as a research assistant you learned to write and manage grants.
- Your work as a waiter made you comfortable multitasking in a fast paced environment.
- Being a resident advisor gave you experience in crisis management and in developing educational programs for college students.
Got the Skills to Pay the Bills?
As a university student you build certain skills and qualities through your classes, research, and involvement. Are these the same skills employers seek? There are some similarities, but employers usually have very different priorities. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) researched the subject and created the following chart comparing university priorities to employer priorities. Are you career ready?
Employers Priorities |
University Priorities |
Source: Shivpuri, S. & Kim, B. (2004). “Do Employers and College Students See Eye to Eye?” College Student Development and Assessment, NACE.
For more information about what companies look for in employees, go to the “Marketing Yourself” section of JobWeb, a site supported by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
