In a job interview, it seems hard to talk about how great you are without seeming like a braggart. How do you promote yourself without coming across as conceited or pompous?

Just state the facts...

Make sure you have a prepared "elevator speech" outlining your best and most applicable accomplishments for the job you are discussing. Do not embellish your achievements. State what you have done and where you made a difference, then back it up with metrics or hard facts.

Examples:

"Supervised 3 employees who support our 20,000 website customers"

"Created the team's Disaster Recovery manual to be adopted on a national level by 83 branch locations"

"Repaired all 33 widgets for the company in less than 30 minutes, which exceeded our group SLA of 45 minutes maximum down time"

I highly recommend a book by Robin Ryan called "60 Seconds and You're Hired". It walks you through creating the powerful statements that you need to "wow" an interviewer.

Your goal in any job interview is to convince the hiring manager that you are the best person for the position out of all the candidates they have to interview. And nearly all job interviewers ask 1 of 3 questions to find out more about you, that are great opportunities to brag:

• "Tell me about yourself."
• "What are your greatest strengths?"
• "Why should I hire you?"

So, bragging is very appropriate in any job interview. Even the elevator speech Sheryl refers to is a prepared form of bragging ... a brief, concise "commercial" about yourself ready to use should you unexpectedly find yourself in a 1x1 situation with a senior executive (such as in an elevator). For a job interview, the key is to make sure each skill, ability or past success you brag about relates to the position and specific job duties. Just remember that you want to present yourself as confident and qualified, not arrogant.

Hi Emma,

This is a really good question! Sometimes the interviewer will help you, by the questions they ask, such as "tell me five words your friends would use to describe you." But mostly, you are on your own. I recommend trying something like this, modified to fit your situation, of course! (this is probably a little too long, but, you get the picture! you are trying to have other people say you are great, rather than saying it about yourself!)

"I think it is awesome the way each co-worker brings something different to the team. I always knew I could rely on James when there were downed power lines, because he used to be an electrician. And for problems with 18-wheelers, I'd call on Robert, because he used to be a truck driver. Working together, there was nothing we could not handle! As for me, I had earned the nickname of 'the airport lawyer.' This was because whenever we had a particularly difficult arrest situation, the officers relied on me to help them write solid reports establishing probable cause. I was also the go-to person for Excel spreadsheet questions. At my current job, my supervisor cannot stop saying how happy he is that once he assigned Tina and me to work in the computer lab, customer complaints instantly dropped to zero."

Hello Emma,

This is an amazing question to ask ! You do want to brag about all of the wonderful things that you have accomplished and what you would bring to the company that you are applying for. You want to have confidence in yourself because if you don't no one else will. Be sure to stay calm, Have your facts together, and Let them know how great you are but also be sure to sell the fact that your are a team player as well.