[MUSIC] In this module, we're going to go deeper into the question, tell me about yourself. It's the most common question asked in an interview. Yet many job applicants don't know how to answer it. Anita Attridge, worked in human resources at Merck and Xerox. She'd often start off with this question. But many applicants couldn't give her a good answer. She says she'd get everything from, well where do you want me to start? To the applicant's whole life story. Connie spend 25 years on Wall Street. She ran staffing organizations for Fortune 500 companies like Merill Lynch, Pfizer, and City Group. In her words [LAUGH] people screw this question up all the time. They think they should walk you through their entire resume. By this time, I hope you know better than that. You should know from John's response to this question, that you're aiming for a tightly focused introduction of about 250 to 300 words that clearly ties your experience to the requirements of the position. If not, you might go back and review module three in this course. In this module, you'll learn more about the psychology behind this question. That will help you better prepare for this question. You'll learn how to frame this question as your two minute pitch. The way you position yourself and the cornerstone of your job search. You'll also learn how to trim your pitch down to a 30-second version and a 10-second version. These are the so-called elevator pitches that you can use in networking events and when you meet potential business connections. But for many of you, the engineers out there, the accountants, the analysts, the managers, probably everybody who's not in sales or marketing. The idea of pitching yourself, of selling yourself may be difficult to accept. You may think that marketing yourself is a dirty business and somehow your work should speak for itself. You shouldn't have to promote yourself. That's why we're going to begin this module with a lesson in attitude adjustment. To be successful in the English language job market ,you need to learn it's not only acceptable to promote yourself but it's required, it's your professional responsibility. Back in course number one you learned that modesty is not a virtue when it comes to interviewing in the English language job market. Be that as it may, from the time we're little we're taught that bragging about ourselves is not good and that's an important lesson. Consideration for and appreciation of others has to be learned. You may come from a culture where modesty is a virtue and that's part of who you are. Still you need to learn how to appropriately express your value to an organization. If you're currently employed, it's your professional responsibility to make decision makers aware of the value you bring to the organization. And as a job seeker, it's your professional responsibility to make interviewers, hiring decision makers, aware of the value you can bring to their organization. You communicate that through your stories, through your attitude, through your body language, and through your pitch. It is as much your professional responsibility to promote yourself. As it is for you to perform to your highest capabilities on the job. To professionally promote yourself. If you're not comfortable with term promoting, you might think about it as informing others of your value. Talking up your knowledge, talents and accomplishments may make you uncomfortable. But not making decision makers aware of your talents means you're expecting them to discover your talents for themselves. Well, there's a problem with that. They probably won't, which means your talents will go unrecognized, undiscovered, and perhaps, unused. Being too modest is not good for your career. It's not good for your pocketbook and it's not good for the hiring organization. It's a breach of your professional responsibilities. In the West, there is a famous parable about hiding a lamp under a basket. We speak of someone hiding their light under a basket when they keep quiet about their talents or accomplishments. The metaphor should be obvious to you, a lamp does not serve its purpose if it is hidden under a basket. A lamp is placed on a stand where its light can shine. And I'm here to tell you that it's your professional responsibility to bring the light that you have into the world where it can shine. You may feel that your work can speak for itself, that it should speak for itself. You may have a difficult time speaking to its value. This can be a mistake. I strongly encourage you to embrace the accomplishments mindset that you learned about in the first course. If you need to go back and review that material, then do so. There's an old joke that explains what I'm getting at. To an engineer one and one will always equal two but to a sales person, one in one will equal whatever it needs to be in order to seal the deal. Now if this joke offends you, or you don't see the humor in it, then stop and think for a moment. In today's lean, mean, highly efficient social media savvy workplace environment, promoting yourself is not just okay, it's mandatory for survival when done properly. That doesn't mean being untruthful, but it does mean positioning yourself for success, which is what you're going to learn about In the next lesson. [MUSIC]