When we hear that if we're seeking a job or a promotion we must "sell ourselves," we inwardly rebel. That's selfish, we think. And we don't want to be selfish.
I say, the opposite is true.
"Selling ourselves" to others is the unselfish reaching out to other people, to show them how we can help them.
Because to simply *assume* that employers should be able to understand from our resumes how great we are is the true selfishness.
Let me explain.
Good sales and marketing is UNselfish, because to be effective it must center on the needs and desires of the people who want that product or service.
Bad (ineffective) marketing says, "We're a wonderful company and you should buy our product because it is so wonderful."
Good marketing (and by "good" I mean *effective*) says, "Our product is wonderful because it will help you do this, solve that problem and feel good."
See the difference? Good marketing is centered on the customer and helping the customer solve a problem or meet a need or desire. Bad marketing is centered on the company and product.
Many companies who market this way assume that it's the "job" of consumers to make the connections, to understand just why and how that wonderful product will help the consumer. Therefore, they're not only selfish, they're lazy.
They're not taking the final step to see things from the viewpoint of their potential customers.
Good marketing does as much as possible to show consumers that the product is wonderful because of how and why it can help consumers.
How does this apply to you seeking a job?
Most job seekers, whether techies or anybody else, think that their only duty is to provide a resume which shows they're qualified and to show up for the interview.
The manager in charge of hiring is supposed to read the resume, realize how wonderful the applicant is and hire them.
Most people write their resumes as bad marketing. They write how wonderful they are without explaining how they can help the company they're applying to.
They may well have wonderful degrees, wonderful certifications and wonderful experience.
Many techies have the attitude that these wonderful things should be enough.
But if they'd write something that the Human Resources manager wants to read about how they will help the company, that's taking a step most people unconsciously sneer at it.
Because it's "sales and marketing." Sales and marketing is selfish -- everybody knows that without questioning it.
So they write only about themselves and not how they can help that potential employer.
So it's the "selfish" person who takes the extra effort to use "sales and marketing" to explain how they can help the company who actually gets the job.
So everybody else can sneer at them.
And send their resumes to the next employer -- because you got the job they applied for.
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