In a job market that is infamous for being cut-throat, learning how to simply drop a line about your skills and qualifications while networking is important. If people don’t know what you can do for their company, they won’t hire you. Tooting your own horn is an important networking skill, and it also feels good to do it. However, there are a very large percentage of people out there who really, truly struggle with talking about their accomplishments, skills, and professional interests with other people. Did you ever wonder why this would be the case?

We Were Raised to Avoid Talking About Ourselves

One of the most common reasons we don’t like to toot our own horn while networking is because we are often told that it is rude, or boorish, when we are young kids. Think about it. How many times have your teachers or parents told you that it’s rude to brag? Although bragging itself is a rude gesture in polite society, many people take that old lesson a step further and say that talking about yourself is rude as well. This isn’t necessarily the case, and for people who really stick to the lessons that they’ve learned, it can be reason enough to avoid talking yourself up to the people that matter.

We’re Shy

Tooting one’s own horn can come with a couple of risks. There are always going to be people (albeit, only a few) that will downplay everything we say, or criticise our self-promotion. Being put down, especially if it happens in front of others, feels terrible, and if you are trying to get the approval of a particular individual that you were just speaking to before it happened, it can be pretty devastating on one’s ego. Everyone worries that they will get shot down verbally just because they decided to talk about their qualifications or skills with the wrong person. For some, those worries are more than enough reason to avoid talking about oneself at all.

We Don’t Know How to Bring It Up

The most difficult part when it comes to talking about yourself in a networking situation is knowing how and when to bring up your qualifications. This is because there is no real clean-cut, black and white answer to how you should go about talking about yourself. Should you just walk up to a person, introduce yourself, and start talking about what you can do for them? Should you wait until a special opportunity presents itself? For many people, figuring out when to toot your own horn can be very challenging, and at times, even intimidating. This is especially true of people who have social anxiety, or who fall on the autism spectrum.

We Were Never Told to Do It During Career Day at School

Sometimes the reason why people don’t talk about themselves with recruiters is actually quite silly. Some people struggle with self-promotion simply because they never really realised that it was part of job hunting. Though it may be obvious to a more experienced job hunter, there are still people out there who, for one reason or another, never put two and two together when it came to the importance of letting people know about their skills. The good news is that it’s easily corrected. If you were once one of these people, simply correct your mistake by reaching out to people and talking about your services. If you have a friend who lacks the common sense to toot their own horn, it’s time to give them a heads up before it’s too late!

The unfortunate truth is that if you’re unable to toot your own horn effectively it will reflect in poor resumes, job applications and at interviews. Luckily Resume Rescue has got some help handy for you. Read our article on identifying transferrable skills, as this will help you identify some great personal skills you have that you can use when tooting your own horn.

Also, get your hands on a copy of Resume Rescue eBook – A step by step guide to help you apply for your dream job without losing your mind – which can be downloaded directly from our site; this ebook covers areas about how to use your achievements to add integrity to when you are promoting yourself.

Now get out there and start making some dream job music!