When talking to prospective employers I like to brand myself as willing to try or learn anything. Like most college students who haven’t started a career in their chosen field yet, I am just trying to gain experience any way I can. So when I met with employers I list what I do have experience in and always emphasize that I want to learn new things. I never want to back myself in a corner and limit my opportunities because of inexperience. Before I started college I found it hard to find entry level jobs that actually wanted to spend the time to train someone with little experience.
If I was to present myself in a novel I would list some of the things I picked up doing in my past jobs that were not originally a part of my job. For instance I was a client success manager last summer for an investment firm in Portland. My job primarily dealt with answering customer emails or phone calls and ensuring their accounts were up to date and in order. After doing that for a month I was assigned a task one day to download video editing software and to learn how to use it. I am not tech savvy but I learned how to use the software from watching some videos and edited a video of one of the investment advisors delivering information for a client. For an ad I would create and edit a video utilizing what I learned to get the point across. I think that a video emphasizing a skill that I had to learn in a job position that you wouldn’t necessarily think would require that skill would be a good way to showcase my brand. I never want to oversell my skills and not be able to perform to the level expected. I would rather advertise that I am willing to try anything even if it’s something that I have never done before.
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