Athabasca University | AU Student/Staff Login | Invited Guest Login
#jobat for luckiest employee or wondering why I find it hard to sell myself?
http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/2009/06/jobat-for-luckiest-employee-or.html
Calling for your help, because there is this weird feeling that I cannot seem to put my finger on. I think that as educators we can promote others, we can promote our learning, our projects... but we loose the ability to sell ourselves.
This week I got selected as one of the ten luckiest employees in Flanders, which is motivating in itself, but something happened during the interview, and that has happened to me when I apply for a job.
So my question to you is: how do you sell yourself (as a person who is into eLearning/learning) and is it easy for you to do so?
Let me tell you why this question came to mind or first let me situate the setting...
The 10 luckiest employees were chosen based on a written, more general statement and the writing part is somehow easier to produce, because it focused on the institute that I work for and I can sell that, because I like it.
After this selection a personal interview followed. All ten of us laureates of this competition (the real finalist will be chosen next week and is chosen based on an interview they took from all of us) needed to do an interview with a jury of 5 people. They asked questions, I answered and after the interview I suddenly found myself wondering about what I said and especially what I did not say?
Although I promote new educational technologies with great stamina and I am used to promoting projects, new innovations... I just do not seem to be able to sell myself with the same vigor?
This made me think... I did mention my employer during the interview, I did talk about a lot of things, but I somehow managed not to talk about the things that make me get out of bed and jump into eLearning and into work? How strange is this?
I did NOT mention the fact that I use new media with great pleasure, that I can travel, that I can discuss my research with peers in many ways, that I love the international aspect... all of these factors make the difference, so why did I just focus on the working environment in general and very little on myself?
Why could not I sell myself in the same way, based on the facts that really do it for me? Apparently, being in education and working mainly to motivate learners has made me focus on benefits for others. Give me a group and I dare to say I can get the energy flowing, but everytime I need to sell myself purely for myself, I forget things, and mostly the facts...
The same happens when I go for a new job, if I am not 'headhunted' (= asked by someone who knows my work), I have great difficulty telling people why I would be a good addition to their team (and let me assure you, I really suck at it. My friends have a great time when I tell them what happened during those interviews - sigh), what I do is go for how great they are...
So is anybody out there having the same experience? Could this be part of being an educator that is mainly focused on improving others?
Comments
Your experience is most definitely part of an educator who is mainly focused on improving and empowering others.I think that what has happened is that you have much experience learning how to detach the personal from the professional to such an extent that you have a disconnect going on; you no longer switch over to the personal so easily. I am often the same way. We present a professional persona so well, and use intuition so effectively in the professional sphere, the trade-off is that we cannot be entirely authentic, and cannot tap into our own self-image. Much has been invested in the external that little energy is left delving deeply into self-work. Authenticity in teaching is a very difficult, uncomfortable thing to do. We spend years (in my case, just 15+ years) developing the right tone, the right amount of professional detachment, the right skills, attitudes, even the correct language. Others (learners and colleagues) reinforce the way we perceive ourselves to a great extent, and the language used everyday also reinforces what we think. We might confuse the persona, the professional mask, with who we really are.I think that the drive to serve others sometimes underlies a suppressed personal need to be recognized, and appreciated, by others. Perhaps there is a small underlying self-talking going on, in which I excel as my end of a kind of bargain: if I serve others, others will give me the recognition and accolades I crave.The drive to serve others can also be a personal commitment to give back, out of gratitude, a series of hard-earned gifts of knowledge and skills, so that these gifts offered to others is based on reciprocity and cooperation. If the self-promotion is motivated out of gratitude, humility and reciprocity, I don't feel reluctant to express my strengths and gifts. If the self-promotion is done for a pay-off, however, then the giving is a mental drain, a compromise, a forced show of false compassion.I feel very reluctant to promote myself if that is my motivation.Habermas referred to impressionistic learning, providing learners skills and knowledge about how to impress, influence and persuade others. I think the time has come for educators to begin considering ways for developing this skill set in self and others. For me, I think that your extraordinary work documenting conference proceedings and ideas in your blog has had an academic focus, and you have excelled as a blogger in formal, academic networks of practice. Now perhaps there is an emerging interest in developing the personal side, in which you spend more time blogging on issues far more personal. You may tend towards posts about advocacy, social action, and engaging in more self-reflection for personal change. Glenn