5 Ways to Sell Yourself by Spinning Accomplishments

When it comes to what we’ve accomplished, we tend do think we’ve never done enough. We want more. But we don’t always need more. Sometimes, we just need to spin what we’ve already done to show people that it was great.

Here are 5 categories of accomplishments that you can spin nicely to help sell yourself.

#1 – International accomplishments.

International experience is huge, and it doesn’t have to be a hotshot job in a trendy country. Anything that took you to a foreign land to do some kind of work or learn something related to your job is impressive. Why? Because sending people abroad is expensive, so when companies do it, they’re selecting you because you’re a cut above the others.

#2 – Special project accomplishments.

Were you ever chosen to do a project that wasn’t part of your day-to-day job? If you were, you were put on a special project. Not everyone it put on them—only those people who can handle more than the routine. Special projects are huge because they prove that the company trusted you to take on more than your regular responsibilities.

#3 – Initiative-driven accomplishments.

Initiative is a big one. It’s one thing for your boss to tell you to do something. It’s quite another for you to ask your boss if you can take on something new. Most people are too scared to initiate. Those who do have something really impressive to show off. Initiative shows people that you have guts.

#4 – Obstacle-destroying accomplishments.

Nothing ever goes according to plan. There are always obstacles along the way and most of the time, we overcome those obstacles. Unfortunately, we rarely talk about those victories. We like to just tell people about the successful project as if it was successful from start to finish. But we should volunteer stories about how the project had ups and downs but we made it happen anyway because we were persistent.

#5 – Curveball accomplishments.

Ever get something thrown at you? Maybe you were assigned a job that you didn’t want. Maybe your boss gave you a project you didn’t want to do. We tend to pretend like we were game for everything when we sell ourselves. But sometimes it’s good to tell the truth. Go ahead and tell people that you weren’t happy about that org change, but hey, you’re a trooper so you carried on anyway. Maybe you didn’t want to do that project, but you had a job to do and you did it. Showing people that you can take curveballs and keep playing is huge because it proves that you’re a professional.