“Don’t boast, it’s not the right thing to do.”
These are the words I often heard from my late mother during my childhood whenever she thought I was feeling myself just a little too much. The irony of her instruction was the fact that she, objectively, had a lot that she could boast about without anyone giving her the side-eye. My mother was the first woman to serve as the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. She was also the first woman chosen to run as a Vice Presidential candidate in Ghana’s political history.
Despite being a woman of many firsts, she was incredibly humble both by nature and by nurture of the collectivist and humility-led Ghanaian cultural context she grew up in. You would never catch her bragging and she taught me accordingly. To this day I feel awkward in the face of praise and uncomfortable when discussing my own achievements.
Does this feel/sound familiar to you?
If you grew up in a household anything like mine and/or are a product of a culture in which the group is placed above the individual, you were taught in many ways not to engage in anything remotely close to self-promotion. You learned that discussion of your accomplishments should come almost solely by proxy, rather than from yourself. In many African, Asian, LatinX, & diaspora cultures, humility is considered a key social virtue. Deference to those who are older and/or occupy positions of relative authority is the norm, as is according respect, sometimes through lowering yourself and/or elevating them. This generally works well when navigating social situations, but how does this impact the job search?
Being steeped in humility-led cultural practices can make it incredibly difficult to engage effectively in the best practices needed to land a job in general. Let’s not forget the compounding influences of gender and personality. These three factors can significantly impact how you tell your story in your resume and how you present yourself during interviews.
For individuals in the American context who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Color), regardless of national origin, we are also taught that we are not allowed to discuss our achievements as freely as those in the cultural majority. As a result of our cultural upbringing and contradictory explicit and implicit rules of the society we live in, doing the work of ‘selling yourself’ during a job search can feel “artificial” as a prospective client framed it during a recent consultation call.
The implications of this can manifest as omitting or underselling your achievements in your resume. It also appears in being overly modest during interviews and reflexively deflecting praise in the workplace, even when you can and should take full credit. Humility is an admirable quality. Unfortunately, it can hinder your efforts when trying to land a job.
How to Reframe Talking About Your Achievements
Broadly speaking, if you come from a high-context culture, communication tends to be more indirect and implicit. In low-context cultures, such as in the US & parts of Europe, communications is more direct and explicit. To be clear, there is nothing better or worse about either cultural context style, but it’s important to be aware of these differences so that you can proactively work to adapt to the context you’re in and authentically navigate the job search process. Here are a few ways to shift your mindset for the benefit of your search:
Remember, you are playing by the RULES OF THE GAME
Landing a job is 100% about effectively selling yourself. No product has a marketing campaign saying that it’s got “average efficacy” or does a “decent job” resolving pain points, so why should you? In a job search, you are SUPPOSED TO discuss your accomplishments because they provide evidence of what you can offer to a prospective employer.
It’s OK to talk about your achievements because they are the only means by which an employer can objectively assess your value and fit for their needs.
Your achievements are the product of YOUR HARD WORK
When a fire gets put out, is it the firefighter or the fire hose that gets the credit? If you created a new policy or process, if you boosted sales, increased efficiency, or improved communication in the course of fulfilling your responsibilities, you deserve full credit for these outcomes. Whether you were asked to take on a project or took initiative to solve a problem, your involvement produced results -- which is what you’re paid to do. You are paid to achieve.
It’s OK to note & take credit for achievements that are the direct result of your efforts.
Your achievements are FACTS
While it’s understandable to not wish to appear boastful, remember that boasting is defined by two key things: context + truth. When writing a resume or responding to an interview question, the context dictates that you demonstrate evidence of achievements. Secondly, if you saved your company $3M by identifying wasteful spending, that’s simply a fact. You didn’t fabricate or inflate this achievement -- you are just reporting what happened, without sensationalizing it.
Achievements are just facts that happen to make you look good -- and that’s OK. 🤓 😎
Achievements realized in a team are still VALID
In business, it’s not always possible, let alone true, to take sole credit for an achievement. I’ve previously written about how there’s no ‘we’ in resume, and how to discuss results gained in a group context. It’s never been about obscuring or diminishing the group for your own benefit. You can talk about achievements in a group context by following these steps:
Focus on what you had direct control over
Situate your contribution in the larger context
Share credit & mention collaboration as needed
Define your (leadership) role
It’s OK to talk about group achievements -- just don’t diminish your role in them.
*Your achievements HELP(ED) OTHERS*
In addition to instructing me never to boast, my mother also instilled in me a deep sense of the value and importance of serving others. This provides perhaps one of the most powerful reframes for discussing achievements for those of us taught to value the group over self. There are very few if any achievements in business that don’t benefit others, be they customers, clients, coworkers, superiors, or the company at large. Whenever you achieve anything at work, those who depend on your intellect, effort, & output receive the benefit.
It’s OK to talk about your achievements because they demonstrate how you help others.
No matter the cultural context you were nurtured in or how you were raised, landing a job requires sharing compelling stories of your accomplishments.
Your entire candidacy and career platform are aimed at answering one question, “why should we hire you?”
Give yourself permission to respond by sharing your amazing stories of how you have helped others, just like your prospective employer.
They need you, or they wouldn’t be asking for your help! 😉
Need help gaining comfort talking about your achievements? I’d love to support you!
Book Now for a free consultation.
NIIATO@AVENIRCAREERS.COM | CALL/TEXT 917-740-3048