The PMBOK does not explicitly include process for selling yourself. Not on job interviews, not on the job, and not while managing projects. There is no “Job Hunt Management Plan.” There are no Components, Examples, or Updates as there are for Risk Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Acquiring, Developing, and Managing the Team, or other process groups or knowledge areas. Yet we project managers, and our team members, colleagues and management must sell ourselves; both to get the job and while on the job. So knowing how to sell yourself effectively is critically important.

This is especially true when you need to tell the sponsor and other stakeholders – who may be your clients or managers – your bosses – what they need to know but do not want to hear.

Suppose you are doing an annual risk assessment. You find an obsolete piece of equipment. It is not supported. In addition to its function, it is a security vulnerability, or a set of security vulnerabilities.

So you say, “Boss, in the risk analysis we found that item x needs to be replaced. It's obsolete, unsupported, we can't get replacement parts, and because it's obsolete it is associated with several security vulnerabilities.

His or her response should be, “Ok. How quickly can we replace it and how much will it cost?

Anything else is unreasonable. If the response is, “You're not telling me what I want to hear,” you might want to put your resume together and start looking for a different place to work.

A Project or an Operation?We can argue whether selling yourself is an operation that has to be done continuously, or a project; one that only has to be done when projects or consulting engagements are nearing completion. It seems to me that selling yourself is both. It is a key personal development operation when on the job and a crucial part of the project to find a job.

Whether we look at it as a project or an operation, Les Fenyves, in "How to Sell Yourself in an Interview, a Guide for the Non-Salesperson", provides valuable insights in doing it; in managing the project or executing the operation. Fenyves book, copyright (c) 2018, is available on Amazon. In only 80 pages, the book is about 10% of the 787-page PMBOK. While it takes time to digest and apply the advice, it can be read in an hour. The keys are planning and active listening. And there is actionable intelligence in the Introduction:

Know your product thoroughly, and you are the product.Prepare yourself … polish your interviewing skills … And plan.Control the interview ….An interview is not simply an oral exam where you passively answer questions that test your knowledge.Close before you leave; ask for a commitment, or at a minimum, for feedback.

Selling yourselfFenyes starts with “A Short Course on Selling.” This includes “Closing,” “Knowing Your Product”, “Controlling the Interview,” and “Putting it all Together.”

Part 2 is additional advice on interviewing from “Interview Questions You Can Ask,” and “Frequently Asked Tricky Questions,” to “Advanced Closing Techniques,” and “Overcoming Language Barriers.”

“Closing,” Fenyves says, starts when the interview begins. You need to understand the interviewers' agendas. The interviewers are looking to hire or present someone who will solve a problem or meet a need. Your agenda is to determine whether you want the job and can do it. And, if the answer to those two questions is “Yes,” then if the money they are willing to pay is acceptable. If so, your agenda becomes, “Get the offer.” Or, as a salesperson would say, “Close the deal.”

Fenyves differentiates between “Soft Close Questions,” which ask for an opinion, and “Hard Close Questions,” which ask for the decision.

Soft Close:

“Do you think I'd be a good addition to the team?”“Are my skills and experience a good match for this position?” and“How do I fit your needs?”

Hard Close:

“Will you recommend me?”“Would you like to move on to the next step in the process?” and“Can I expect an offer from you?”

Fenyes also discusses “Handling Frequently Asked Tricky Questions.”

“What are your weaknesses?”“Give me an example of when you failed.”“Where do you want to be in three (or five, or ten) years?”“Tell me about yourself.”

The first three are designed to find reasons to NOT hire the applicant. The last is redundant and unnecessary: the whole interview is “Tell me about yourself,” in the context of, “Can you do this job well, and do you want to?”

As for the others:

What are your weaknesses?”

Asking “What are your weaknesses?” is like the applicant asking the interviewer, “What makes this company a terrible place to work?”

You can't say,

“I'm not independently wealthy and I have bills to pay,” or,“I am independently wealthy but bored at home and don't like to travel.”

These may be true, but are not helpful.

According to “Blog.KickResume.com,” “10 Good Weaknesses for a Job Interview,” say things like,

“I take criticism too personally,”“I struggle to ask for help,” and“I have imperfect presentation skills.”

These mean you're unmanageable, not a team player, and can't speak in front of groups. Why should they hire you when they can find someone who doesn't take criticism too personally, doesn't struggle to ask for help, or has great presentation skills?

KickResume also suggests,

“I'm impatient with slow processes.”

This means you're undisciplined.

You can't give the whole truth and expect the job. But if an honest answer is the wrong answer what should you say?

“I have no weaknesses relative to this position.”

No one is perfect. You are not claiming to be perfect. You are simply stating that you are capable of doing the job, and willing to do it.

Continue with,

“I believe I bring the following strengths to the job,” and add three or four strengths.

Close with

“So I don't perceive any weaknesses on my part relative to the position. Wouldn't you agree with that assessment?”

If asked:

“Give me an example of when you failed.”

“Failed” is highly prejudicial. It implies that you are a flawed candidate, one better off not hiring. This is another opportunity to highlight your flaws, to give the interviewer reasons not to hire you.

Deflect the question by talking about valuable lessons you learned, such as with a project or company that was not successful.

“I told the CEO that we needed to invest in a business continuity infrastructure. When the hurricane hit we were not as prepared as I would have liked.”

If asked:

“Where do you want to be in three (or five, or ten) years?”

This doesn't seem so bad. But it is tricky because you have no idea what the interviewer is looking for in an answer. You don't know where you will be in three or five years. You don't know where the company will be in three or five years – and neither does the interviewer.

You don't want to say that you have no goals or, even worse, give contradictory goals. You want to sound ambitious, but not overly ambitious. You also don't want to say that you want to be the CEO, unless they are interviewing for CEO. The best strategy is to give an answer that sounds good but is vague and full of generalizations.

So say:

“Three years is a long time in technology. I don't know precisely what I will want to be doing. However, I want to work for a company that I believe in, and one that is successful.” Or,“I want to be in a position where I will continue to grow both personally and professionally.”

These answers don't rule you out but sound substantive. If asked:

“Tell me about yourself.”

As noted, the whole interview is “Tell me about yourself – and why you would be successful in this role. You could answer,

“Given that I have a lot of experience, there is a lot to tell. If you could pinpoint what on my resume was of interest to you, I can focus on that.”

MoneyFenyves says, “Don't tell them how much you want, let them make you an offer.” This is good advice. You don't want to leave money on the table. And you don't want to price yourself out of an opportunity you would like. However, you have to know what the market will bear for your skills, knowledge, and expertise.

You can ask what their range is for the position. Then, if it's reasonable, go for the top of the range.

If they reply that they don't have a range, reply that you want $x per hour, where $x, is close to the high end of what you know you should be making.

The job market is toughApplicants send out hundreds of resumes. Recruiters and people looking to hire receive hundreds of resumes per opening.

Applicants get screened by one or two layers of people who may not understand the job, and who may not understand your accent, just as you may have difficulty with theirs. They don't know you. However, they have an idea of you from your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and other social media, but they don't know you. And you want to curate your online image.

Whether you're in person, on a video call, or an audio call, smile and speak slowly and confidently. Your confidence and optimism will be communicated.

Good luck.

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Lawrence J. Furman, MBA, PMP, is currently exploring leadership and innovation in “Adventures in Project Management,” which he plans to publish in 2025. He did not use ChatGPT, Bard, or any other LLM in the development of this essay.