It's often that we hear a sentence, "You have to sell yourself!" This statement gives me a feeling of being pushy every time I hear it. It does not matter to me whether it's coming from my parents, my colleagues, the interviewer or the boss! "Why do I need to be pushy?" When I ask this question, most of the time I come across the answers which are logical but not justifiable in the manner I want them to be. Some of the answers I get are, "Because there is no other way!" or "Everybody is doing the same out there." or "Nobody will ever give you a job if you don't sell yourself in the interview!" or "Nobody is going to marry you if you are going to be yourself!" and so on.....[but] I am afraid that I don't understand these notions. Let me put this in simple words below.
There are several marketing strategies no matter what one is trying to sell. They say it's difficult to sell oneself....
Posted by Saurabh Chawla on Thursday, November 26, 2015
Did the child knew about selling himself while giving interview for the admission? I am afraid the answer to this would be a 'No' with capital N!
Do you think that its justified? If you reconsider these things, you will come to know that if you do the same, its for the short run. You give your best, justify yourself in a job interview, get selected, and you leave that job in a short run for a reason which can be any reason, and then you repeat the same in your next interviews. The cycle goes on endlessly.
Another scenario is when you have to get married. Your parents arrange a meeting with a girl. Your bio data has already been 'approved' by her. Her bio data has been 'approved' by you. Both the families meet up at the set time and BOOM! The result may or may not come out to be positive. If it comes positive, its good! But if not, then the process repeats itself till the result is positive. It seems like standing in a pool of products in the market, screaming for being bought! Is this what it is meant to be? Are you a product? Am I a damn product? I hope not!
There are other products which do nothing, silently stand, don't scream or shout even for once.......[but] still they are bought by the masses, loved by all! It doesn't matter where they stay, in the front or at the end. Why is it so? The life of these products is far more than their counterparts. Agreed?
Why are they doing it then? The answer is simple. Their can be possibly two reasons. One, they don't know about who they are. Yes, this is the case most of the time. It happens because we don't invest time in knowing who we really are. Now, if I myself doesn't know who I am, then how I expect that someone i am going to meet will be able to know me?
Second possible reason, they know exactly who they are but pretend to be someone else, mostly the one whom society wants them to look like. In this process they lose their identity completely, live a life which is not an asset but a liability, die at the end with the regret of not living a true life but instead living a lie.
During an interview recently, I was asked about something that I was most confident about. I gave best answers to what he asked. After some time, I was pissed off. The reason? He told me that I should sell myself whenever I come for an interview. To this my answer was, "First of all, I am not a product or marketer who has come here to sell myself. You had an opening, I had the skills. You are going to hire me for solving my problems. You invited me for the interview, I didn't come here on my own. What is the need of selling myself then? I am here because you think that I can solve your problems. I came here to sell my skills to solve your problems, to offer my services but not to sell myself. Thank you!" After saying this, I was out of their office the very next moment.
Life is short, I don't want to live it by acting like a new, recycled, refurbished, re-engineered, re-modeled product throughout the life. What I am is what I am. I want people to accept me as myself and not someone who they wish to see! Yes I am not here to sell myself but rather my skill set! It will be along term investment rather than a short term one!
Are you still selling yourself? Do share your feedback in the comments section below!
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