B2 – Upper Intermediate
Knowing how to talk about your accomplishments at work is quite the skill to have. This could come handy if you wish to step up the corporate ladder or land that job you are applying for. In some instances, you will have to make the gatekeepers in your workplace to take notice of and come to appreciate your work.
Listen to the audio and read the transcript about selling yourself at work.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/office-english/240325
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “to sell yourself” mean? “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.” Use this phrase in a sentence.
- What does “to have confidence in someone” mean, “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.” Use this phrase in your own sentence.
- What does “appraisal” mean here, “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.”? Use this word in a sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- Why is important to know how to sell yourself?
- What might be other situations where this skill would be useful?
- Generally, how does talking about your achievements make you feel?
- If you are to sell yourself, how would you do it?
- Talk about an instance where you had to sell yourself at work. What could you have said differently?
8 replies on “Selling Yourself”
1. What does “to sell yourself” mean? Saying good things about you to show your skills or your strengths.
I need to know how to sell myself when I speak with my boss. It is necessary to put him in the picture about everything that I have done this week.
What does “to have confidence in someone” mean? Trust in someone and to be confident in his skills.
I have confidence in my girlfriend and I am sure that this year she will pass the education exam without problems.
What does “appraisal” mean here? Assesment. When you boss assests your work.
I love appraisals with my boss because I can speak and evaluate myself to show what things I am more interested in.
1. Why is important to know how to sell yourself? It is necessary to know what things you can do well to show your main interests and your more valuable skills.
2. What might be other situations where this skill would be useful? When you are trying to know somebody is important to sell yourself in order to other person looks at the advantages of being with you.
3. Generally, how does talking about your achievements make you feel? Generaly, I like to talk about my achievements because I can win self-confidence and I check that I have reached my targets.
4. If you are to sell yourself, how would you do it? When I sell myself I try to show most of things quickly, without being quite deep in details. I have always thought that it is better to be all-purpose than being expert in only one thing.
5. Talk about an instance where you had to sell yourself at work. What could you have said differently? Sometimes when I have tried to sell myself in the work I focused on the details and I dont get to explain every goals that I have achieved. If you give some details you could deviate the atention of the other person in not important things.
Welcome back to your writing practice. Good that you have decided to take this up again.
See how this sentence can be revised:
Well done! Until your next post.
Vocabulary Questions:
1. “To sell yourself” means to be able to talk about ourselver, about our strengths and our achievements.
2. It´s to be able to know our skills for our managers and our collegues can see them and trust our knowledge and know-how.
3. “Appraisal” in this conext means a meeting our review where your work performance is evaluated, usually by your Manager.
Example: I have an apprasial with my Manager tomorrow to discuss how I am doing at work.
Discussion Questions:
1. It´s important to know how to sell yourself because it helps you stand out and show your strengths. For example in a job interview, at work or in another situations as social stiations, to be able to present yourselve can lead to more opportunities, better contacts,…
2. I think in networking events where we can build professional connections, promotions at work or social situations in which we can make friends and we want to make a good first impression.
3. Normally, I tend to feel uncomfortable but It´s true that with time and with my work I am learning to value my archivements and well… I think this knowing myself is a positive experience for me.
4. I am an recruiter at a company where I specialize in finding the best talent to match our projects´needs so I am creative person and I use this skill in my candidate search and in employer branding campaigns. I am aslo a very empathetic person and this helps me to understand both the needs of the company and my candidates, as well as to generate a good atmosphere during interviews.
5. I don´t know… perhaps, I could have added more specific examples such as the results of my previous job.
It’s great to have you on the blog. May this writing practice help you enhance your skills even further.
See how you can improve this sentence with these minor corrections:
Keep doing this exercise. You can do it!
1.- In a work environment, it is important to know how to sell oneself, to create confidence with the rest of people around you. This way what you say will be considered by your colleagues and bosses, and they will not doubt that your opinion or answer is correct. I have seen very skilled people, but they are not capable of talking about themselves and for that reason, their bosses prefer to ask for another opinion because they do not trust them.
2.- This skill should be useful in all the life situations. Everyone should know their strengths and weaknesses. It is also important for people to know their weakness to learn how to work on them and overcome them. If everyone knew how to sell themselves correctly, society would be better since every person would work on what they are the best. I think that society is losing high qualified people just because they are too modest to recognize their achievements.
3/4.- Talking about my achievements makes me feel embarrassing and try to avoid it as much as possible. I think that the other people are going to think that I am showing off. Unfortunately, I need to talk about myself on many occasions at work mainly when we are holding meetings with the client or suppliers and an introduction of ourselves is necessary. Everyone speaks about themselves more than 5 minutes whereas my participation is no more than half a minute. I suppose that many of them will think that I do not have the required qualification to stay at the meeting.
5.- The last time I had to speak about my achievements was last week. Every two weeks my department gets together to share experiences, problems, and achievements. My colleagues started to tell their different cases which seemed to me rather common compared with the problems arisen in my project. However, when it was my turn, I could only say that my projects went on as usual.
Another fine work on your responses. Job well done!
See how you can write this sentence alternatively:
Thanks for sharing some interesting things about your experiences selling yourself.
1. say positive things about yourself. he sold himself very well in the interview, so he got this position.
2. believe in someone’s capabilities. is the best player on the team, we all have confidence in him.
3. an evaluation. The manager carried out an appraisal of her employees’ performance.
Discussion Questions:
1. To make the other people or the person you are talking to know your virtues better. It is something important in work environments
2. In work environments, performance appraisals or when you meet someone
3. It is not something that I like or that I usually do, it seems to me that it is something that has to be done in very specific moments and being very cautious, since exaggerating some things can be a problem in the long run.
4. I would mention the virtues I think I have, and the knowledge I have, but always from a humble point of view, being aware that I am not the best at anything either.
5. In a job interview, to enter my current job, in which I did not have all the required experience, but I did have the attitude and the desire to learn about the position. I probably would have acted the same way, but trying to point out even more that I didn’t have the experience, since the first months were hard in that job.
You are doing a good job with your writing practice. You can write your sentences well.
Instead of a fragment, turn this into a full sentence:
Keep working on it.