91: How to “Sell Yourself” and Highlight Your Strengths in Applications

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Hi, everyone. I have an episode today on how to sell yourself and highlight your strengths in applications. The idea was brought up to me by a colleague, who I had a chance to kind of connect with recently. She was telling me that the students that she works with, some of them have reached out and asked- because they're applying to grad programs- how do they sell themselves in their grad school applications and their essays? How do they do that? They feel really uncomfortable. They've never had to do that before.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And it's actually something that is also relevant to me right now, because I kept thinking about how I have often struggled to sell myself. Even the phrase sell yourself, to me, is not a phrase that I'm a fan of. Why? I think that we make a lot of associations with certain terms and phrases. That's why I didn't want to just say, sell yourself. I wanted to also emphasize this idea of highlighting your strengths in any kind of application. I'm not just referring to grad school apps. But it could be- you're applying to a summer program. You're applying for an internship. You're applying for a job.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

In many scenarios, there's going to be opportunities where you're asked to describe yourself, to describe your background, your strengths, your skills, your experiences. And in doing so, you're trying to convince someone else to let you in- to admit you and accept you into something, to give you the job, to give you the internship, to get into grad school. But when I think of the phrase sell yourself, I tend to associate it as almost like the phrase selling out, as a very hyper capitalistic phrase, hyper individualistic phrase, as a very western kind of mode of doing things. It's constantly like self promotion.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Based on my experience, and my background, my cultural upbringing, the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, being individualistic was not a good thing. And then raised as a feminine girl and having gender roles imposed on me, standing out was not a good thing. Being loud, taking up space, highlighting myself was not a good thing. With those things in mind, I think that it's been a long time of building up this idea that it's not a good thing to sell ourselves. It's not a good thing to promote ourselves. I'm slowly right now making the transition to doing this whole solopreneurship full time, and trying to coach more people, and develop new programs and courses.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Little by little, because I'm still in transition. I have not moved abroad yet. I'm hoping to do more once I am a little more stable. But in the meantime, I'm in this transitional mode, and I am contemplating these concepts for myself as well. What does it mean to sell yourself, to promote yourself, to highlight your strengths in a hyper capitalistic society, having been born and raised in the United States? What does this mean for my listeners, for my students, for my clients, for the people that I interact with, who are applying to grad school or applying to other opportunities and are struggling to put themselves out there?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Well, I want to say that you are not alone. It is a struggle. But it's also something that you are going to have to learn. You're going to have to strengthen the skill of highlighting your strengths and skills. And how do you do that? I think that- let's take the grad school application process as an example. If I were applying to grad school right now, what advice would I take? What are the some of the steps that I would take if I was opening up a document, trying to write my essays, and struggling to think about what my strengths are?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Because sometimes we don't- it's not a thing that you can easily identify. Sometimes it's hard to see yourself from an outsider's perspective. Because of that, one of the first things I would recommend is to ask around. Ask your peers, your friends, your colleagues, your faculty mentors especially, your letter writers. Ask them what they perceive your strengths to be. You might feel uncomfortable asking this question, because you might be thinking in the back of your head- actually, I'm not good at anything. Which is not true. It's a lie. We all have strengths. We all have challenges, things that we can work on, areas of growth, areas of opportunity. However you want to phrase it, we all have things we need to work on. But we also all have things that we are not that bad at, that some might say even are good at. So ask around to find out- what do other people think are your strengths? Odds are, they probably are your strengths.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing that is really, really helpful- it was helpful for me navigating grad school apps, navigating fellowship apps, navigating job apps- is whenever possible, finding samples. Asking around- and this can be also uncomfortable to ask others if they would feel comfortable sharing their sample application essay with you, their sample internship essay with you, their sample job application essay with you. Why? Because sometimes, we struggle to find ways to articulate our strengths. So maybe you have realized- actually, my strength is I'm very good at getting scholarships. Or I'm very good at doing research. Or I'm very good at working with this software. I'm really good at quantitative, blah, blah, blah.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You identify your skills. But then you open up that document again, you try to write your essays, and again, you're stuck. Having samples also helps, because in reviewing- not just one, reviewing multiple samples. You can tangibly, see how people describe themselves, their background, their experiences, the skills that they've gained. And you can almost create a formula out of it. And realize, oh, I really like how they went from this paragraph to this paragraph, from this idea to that. Or I like how they started with this type of anecdote. Or I noticed that when they write about this experience, they mentioned the outcomes. They mentioned- if they completed a summer program, what they did at the end of the program. What was the outcome of that program, or how many people did they teach, or how many publications that they have.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Actually being able to turn it into a sample of something that you could then kind of turn into your own. Again, you're not copying what they're writing. I don't believe in plagiarism or anything like that. You're getting samples and models so that you can come up with your own essay, with your own language to describe yourself and your strengths. So those are the two kind of big things that I want to emphasize right now. If you're struggling with acknowledging your strengths or even figuring out what they are, start with others start with reaching out to others to figure out what they think they are. Then after that, take a look at some samples.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

After that, make a list of some of your accomplishments. Do some free writing. Think about- what are the things that you have been actively working on? What are the things that you do regularly and frequently and are good at? The things that you're doing regular and frequently are probably the things that you're good at. And then from there, use that as a starting point. Once you have some ideas from friends, colleagues, mentors, femtors, once you have a couple of sample applications, documents, whatever it is that you're working on, then get started on your own.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Then remember that when you are selling yourself, or pitching yourself, or highlighting your strengths, when you have a first draft, it's not going to be great. Don't conflate your self worth and your strengths with how polished and clean the first draft is. Odds are your first draft is going to be messy, and it's okay for it to be messy. Make sure to incorporate time, or give yourself enough time so that you go through multiple drafts of whatever the thing is. If it's your grad school statement of purpose, or if it's your cover letter for a job application, or it's a personal statement for a summer program- I'm not sure.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But I just want to remind you- this is not the first or the last time that someone is going to ask you to highlight yourself, to put yourself out there. And it is hard. For some of us, it's harder than others. For some of us- again, maybe because of your cultural background, maybe because of your personality. Maybe you identify as being kind of a little shy or more introverted. Maybe there's some fear there too, because there's a part of you that's afraid to highlight your strengths afraid of what will happen if someone does say yes to you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But you just gotta get started. Reach out, ask for help. Look at some samples. And then set your timer. If you're struggling to write, free write. If you're struggling to write, set a timer for 10 minutes, open up a document, type everything that you're thinking. After that, after you get all your thoughts out on paper, maybe have a prompt. Take a look at the prompt, and start answering the question. Again, messily. Answer all the questions for yourself related to the prompt. Then after you've answered all the questions, start to gather ideas and organize them. By organizing these ideas, you can put them into paragraphs. And then by putting them into paragraphs, you can start to pull together a more coherent essay.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

It's all just kind of taking small steps. In some ways, also deep personalizing it. It's like- how can you see yourself and describe yourself from an outsider's point of view? The more we personalize it, the harder it is to describe ourselves- or at least that's been the case for me. I'm taking a look at some notes that I wanted to mention when it comes to selling yourself. Again, I don't like that phrase- selling. I still feel like it sounds like you're selling out. But we all need to find a way to put ourselves out there to do the things that we want to do, to pursue our personal and professional goals. I don't want you to think that by you focusing on your strengths and sharing them with others that that's necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can be a means to an end to get you to that next step in your goals.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Also, when it comes to kind of depersonalizing it, there is a component of your application that does involve sharing a little bit about yourself. Especially for grad school apps, there is a personal statement that's often required. Or the statement of purpose- if that's the only thing that's asked for, they still want to know a little bit more about yourself and your background. I want to remind you that it is okay to share about yourself, and about your identity- or multiple identities, intersectional identities. Some people choose to - they're very careful with what they choose to disclose about themselves. Because again, what you share about yourself and your identity can also be very vulnerable.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But I would rather you share a little bit more about yourself- whatever you're comfortable sharing. Know that whoever admits you, says yes to you, opens up an opportunity for you, does it with this idea in mind of what your background is, and is hopefully accepting of that. You will hopefully receive support being your full self, not just the part of you- a limited part of you that you shared about yourself. When you think about yourself, when you think about your identity, identities, think about- what makes you stand out and what can you contribute?

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

One of the questions that comes up a lot is- how are you contributing to the diversity of the campus? If it's for grad schools, or for jobs, academic jobs, that's a question that comes up a lot. For the students that I've worked with, they often have multiple ways of addressing that, because they're contributing through their identity, and experiences, and their lens of seeing the world, which can help the way that they then mentor and teach other people. But then also, a lot of times their research too is related to studying the same kind of populations that will enhance the diversity of the topics studied on their campus.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Sometimes we take for granted what our identities are. We don't realize how few people like us are actually applying into those programs. And when I say like us, I mean first gen students of color. There's a reason why there's so few of them- because you're first gen. You're the first in your family to go to college. Students of color- academic institutions continue to have an issue of numbers. As you move up the ranks, there are fewer people of color. That is the way that academic spaces have been built. It continues to be a thing. A lot of people of color are pushed out.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So if your goal is to move on to grad school, perhaps even get an academic job, I want you to know that your identity is going to stand out. And it is something that you shouldn't take for granted. It is something that you should probably highlight in your applications, because it will make you stand out- and hopefully in a good way. Hopefully, you will be embraced and supported, like I said. If you are not, then maybe that's not the place that you want to go to. Because I would hate to have someone get into graduate school, go to a graduate program, and then not feel like they belong, not feel supported, and then get pushed out. I don't think people should be wasting their times pursuing a grad program where it's gonna be toxic, and ultimately, they're not going to be provided with the resources and support necessary to finish their program.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Anyway, long story short. When it comes to selling yourself, it can be awkward. It can be uncomfortable for first gen students of color. But if you can try to de personalize it, and create it- make it a process where you can work on it with small steps. Starting with asking others about your strengths. Moving on to getting a hold of some sample essays, to then free writing. And then from free writing, creating a zero draft or a first draft. A zero draft is just my way of referring to a very, very messy draft. Then from that zero draft, a messy draft, to a first draft. Something that's coherent- still not polished, but coherent, readable in paragraph form.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Then from the first draft, try to have multiple drafts. I don't have a set number of the number of drafts that you have to go through for it to be polished enough for it to be done. But at some point, you want to send it to a trusted adviser, a trusted femtor, mentor, faculty member, whoever the person is, to take a look at it and give you the green light. With folks that I've worked with, I've been that person. I've been the green light person. I've said, okay, you've worked on this enough and this is it. It's ready to go. I love doing that, by the way.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Sometimes, either students don't work on it enough. They have one draft and after that first draft, they want to send it out and it still needs work. Or on the other end of things, they're working on it too much. They're on a fifth, sixth, seventh draft, who knows what number draft at this point. It says final, final, final, final because every time they think it's done, they're trying to make more changes. So I like to be the person to give the green light to something, to say yes, you highlighted your strengths. Yes, you highlighted your experiences. Yes, you highlighted your identity. Yes, you highlighted your fit. It's ready to go. There's no red flags. There's no gaps, no missing info. It's as good as it's gonna get. Just send it out. Stop looking at it to find anything wrong with it. It's ready to go, send it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Turn it into small manageable steps. Identify someone who can be that second pair of eyes and who can greenlight that document for you. And then submit it. Hopefully, at some point you will feel comfortable enough to know when you can submit things on your own. But for now, it's okay to ask someone else for help. And if you continue to have to do that in the future, that's what editors are for. It's what a lot of people do professionally too. There's no shame in that either.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

I hope you found this helpful. I know I went a little bit on a rant here, because I didn't have too many notes. But it was a topic that was brought up to me and I wanted to mention my thoughts on how I perceived selling yourself, highlighting your strengths, and what my approach would be for that. I'll talk to you all later.