Talking about yourself comes easy to some and harder to others. I can talk about myself for a long time- at least I can talk about my interests for a long time. I can shoot the breeze about the NHL, Disneyland and many other things, but one thing I hate to talk about is myself in interviews. I don’t want to come off as cocky and I don’t even want to name drop. It isn’t classy. You can do two big damages by doing so; 1) you overvalue yourself and your abilities. 2) you end up telling your possible client/employer that you think are more important that the work they want you to do.
The key is to do yourself justice, but stay humble. If you don’t know how to be an After Effects genius, don’t lie about it. I’ve found that if I am confident in my ability to do the job, that makes the client comfortable. When I bring in a resume, a reel and dress similar to my clients (good thing to find out before hand) and give the most details I can about my work, good things happen. I don’t necessarily get the job every time, but it opens doors on many levels. In fact last year I was up for a bid on a project and the client ended up taking someone else. I was bummed at the time because the client would have been not only great for my reel, but they seemed like a lot of fun. They told me they liked me, but it wasn’t going to work out. They wanted a bit more experience. Well this year that same client called me again because they had remembered my enthusiasm for what I do and I guess they thought I presented myself well. I don’t know if it will turn into anything, but I sure hope it does.
The whole mess with “The Tonight Show” has me thinking about this sort of thing. When given the opportunity to say anything, Conan O’Brien leaves us with an inspirational thought. I want to leave that as my close. If you haven’t seen it, enjoy. Make the best of your new meetings and future clients.