Putting yourself out there
Is it uncomfortable? Yes. Should you do it? Yes.
Praising Yourself:
A thing that I have recently realised is there is nothing wrong with praising yourself.
Of course, I mean there is a limit to how much you say or what you say, but if you do not praise or “sell” yourself to someone you just met, how are they meant to know what you are worth or what they can offer you?
I’m speaking in terms of you meeting someone who potentially may offer you a role in their company, or in their organisation. If you do not tell them what you have to offer to them and their organisation, then who will? When you send that initial email asking for a certain role and for them to consider you for that role, you think just that email alone is sufficient? NO. Email them with why you want that role, why you will be the ideal candidate, list all your positive aspects, what you take pride in, how you can improve their organisation.. list this all in the email.
The uncomfortable feeling of boasting about yourself:
Trust me, I know how it feels when writing such an email. I know how uncomfortable and smirky it feels listing all the reasons they should consider you. However, you just need to do it.
think about it this way.
Say you are applying to a small start-up company for a non-paid role that you know is available.
Let’s say you email in the below format:
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Habib and I am a 5th year medical student currently in Cyprus. I came across your online platform and was wondering whether you had any positions available for me to be a part of the team?
Please do let me know,
Regards.
and let’s assume they get similar emails like these from 10 other people because they are all looking for the same opportunity as you and are worried about seeming too confident or too smirky and that stops them from listing their strengths.
However, they also receive one email from someone that looks like this:
Dear Sir/Madam,
My name is Habib and I am a 5th year medical student currently in Cyprus. I have been following your online platform for a few weeks now and I was eager to work you. After having taken a look at your platform, I can see that you are missing a social media team. I would like to be a part of your online platform team and I could definitely take the role of social media lead. I currently run an Instagram account with 600+ followers, I write weekly newsletters to 50+ subscribers and I also run a youtube channel with 240+ subscribers. I have a lot of experience in social media and I am good at designing posters.
If this is something that interests you and you think would add value to your platform, then please do get in touch with me and we can discuss things further.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Regards.
Answer the following question honestly,
Who do you think they are more likely to hire? or offer the role to? (assuming that person obviously met their requirements).
What the second email does is that it puts you on the table for them, and they just have to choose you for further questioning or for an interview. The first one means they have to email you back asking for what you have to offer and why they should hire you, adding just a layer of avoidable and unnecessary conversation.
Extra things you can do:
Another thing you could do to catch their attention. Say the role is for advertising advisor. In the email, after listing all your positives about yourself, you could also list potential ideas that you have already thought of for that role. Say they are a company that offer essay proofreading to students. You could suggest advertising by reaching out to students and offering free first essay proofreading and then paid thereafter.. or you could suggest getting in touch with universities directly and offering them this tool for their students.. this could be something the company has already thought of, or hasn’t yet. What you are doing is making them think “damn, this person is already brainstorming before even getting the role” or you might even provide them with such a brilliant idea that they have never thought of before.
How I started working with StudyHub and BiteMedicine:
I managed to secure a position in the Studyhub team by just simply giving them feedback through email and the founder of the platform got in touch and we got on a zoom call and now we work together.
I randomly emailed BiteMedicine and told them about how Cyprus doesn’t have any rep from BiteMedicine and that I could be their rep and I listed all my social media numbers as well as how I could spread the word for them etc.. and one of the founders got in touch and now I work with BiteMedicine.
So yeah, I hope you take something away from this newsletter today. As uncomfortable as it can be, put yourself out there and you will be discovered. (People have been doing it for decades for jobs, sending out CVs and handing CVs out on the streets. You simply increase the chances of you meeting someone that can offer something to you).
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Last Weeks Video:
Suggested Resources For Medical Students:
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🚶🏻♂️ About me:
My name is Habib and I am a 5th-year Medical student currently in Cyprus. I grew up in Tanzania (Hakuna Matata is from the local language of my country and the second tallest mountain (Kilimanjaro) is found there).
I’m just a regular Medical student who enjoys what he does and I like to express my creative side through my youtube channel which you can check out too if you’d like :D
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