Explains the process of creating a self-promotion! Includes what to prepare in advance and example sentences!

2024.04.01

  • Career Advice
自己PRの作成手順を解説!事前に準備しておくべきことや例文も紹介

When you are looking for a new job, you will write your self-promotion when you prepare your application. Some of you may have problems such as "I don't know what I should write in my PR," or "I don't know why I was not selected for the job. Some may feel that they can express the strengths and attractiveness of others, but have no strengths or attractiveness for themselves.

In this issue, we will explain self-promotion and introduce what you should prepare in advance and the procedure for creating it. In addition, we also introduce some example sentences that can be used for self-promotion at the end of this article, so if you are interested in this topic, please read to the end.

What is self-promotion?


自己PRとは?

Before creating a self-promotion, it is necessary to first understand its purpose. To begin with, the purpose of a self-promotion is to appeal oneself to a company.

Although it is obvious, there is no benefit to the company if it hires someone who does not have strengths and attractiveness. Therefore, it is necessary to appeal to them through self-public relations.

The key to self-promotion is to convey how you can benefit the company that is hiring you, based on your strengths and achievements. Create your personal PR statement with an understanding of your objectives and what the company wants to know about you.

Difference between self-promotion and strengths, self-introduction, and motivation for application


自己PRと長所・自己紹介・志望動機との違い

Similar to the self-promotional statement, there are such things as strengths, self-introduction, and motivation for applying for a job. If you lose sight of the difference between these and the purpose of self-promotion, you will inevitably end up with similar content and will not be able to appeal yourself well, so care should be taken. Here, we will explain the difference between self-promotion and each.

Difference between Self-PR and Strengths

Some people may think that strengths are the same as self-promotion, since strengths are also about appealing one's good points. However, the perspectives of self-promotion and strengths are different.

Self-PR should be presented in a way that is beneficial to the company, so when writing a PR statement, the basic idea is to explain the advantages of hiring you from the company's perspective. On the other hand, strengths are the points in which you excel from your own point of view.

For example, if you are appealing your personality, temperament, or way of thinking, this is a strong point. On the other hand, if you are introducing your skills and experience that can be utilized at the company you are applying for, this is your self-promotion. If you want to use your strengths in your personal statement, it is important to show how you can apply the skills and experience you have described in your strengths to your work.

Difference between Self-PR and Self-Introduction

Self-PR and self-introduction also have different purposes. As mentioned earlier, the purpose of self-promotion is to show how you can apply your abilities and skills to your work and explain how they will be beneficial to the company. However, the purpose of self-introduction is to explain basic information about yourself.

It is in self-introductions that you give the other person information about yourself, such as your name, hometown, education, work history, hobbies, and other information about you as an individual. The purpose of having a candidate introduce himself/herself at an interview also includes the ability to convey information about himself/herself in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner, which leads to an evaluation of communication skills.

Difference between Self-PR and Motive for Job Application

The purpose of self-promotion and motive for applying for a job also differ. The purpose of a personal statement is to explain "why I want to work for this company" and "what I want to do after joining this company.

By looking at the applicant's motive for applying, the hiring manager can determine that the applicant "really wants to join the company" and "this person will be able to work with me. In other words, no matter how beneficial a person is to the company, if the applicant's motivation does not convey his/her seriousness or if it is judged to be different from the company's values or the corporate culture it is seeking, there is a high possibility that he/she will not be hired.

Thus, there is a difference between self-promotion and strengths, self-introduction, and motive for applying for a job. Since each is an important item in the documentation and interview process, it is important to understand the differences in purpose before writing them.

Advance Preparation for Preparing a Self-Promotion


If you try to create a self-promotion letter out of the blue, you will not know what to write. So, before you start writing your PR, let's start with preparation. Here are some preliminary preparations you should make before creating your personal PR.

Conduct a self-analysis to understand your strengths and skills

First, conduct a self-analysis to learn about your strengths and skills. Self-analysis is a means of learning about your personality, values, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. Self-analysis will help you find strengths and skills that will appeal to the company.

Self-analysis will also help you clarify your values and what you want to become, which will be useful when choosing a career. It will also help you find the right company for you, so conduct a self-analysis before you start looking for a company.

There are various methods of self-analysis, including the method of digging deeper by identifying events and activities that have occurred in the past, and the method using the "Johari Window" framework. Both methods allow you to verbalize your skills, strengths, and values by delving into the content.

Thoroughly research the company

Once you have conducted your self-analysis, you should also research and analyze the companies to which you are applying. Find out what kind of business the company you are interested in operates and what kind of abilities and skills they are looking for. By gathering this information and incorporating it into your personal PR and motivation for application, you will be able to promote yourself more effectively.

The first step in researching a company is to learn basic information about the company. In particular, if the corporate philosophy resonates with your approach to work, there is a high likelihood that you will be able to work comfortably. The corporate philosophy may also give you an idea of the kind of people the company is looking for, so it is important to understand it.

Next, we will examine the nature of the business the company is engaged in. It is important not only to find out "what kind of products and services" the company provides, but also "to whom" and "how" it provides them. Once you have done this research, you will be able to understand the company's business model and structure, and you will be able to get a concrete image of the company's work.

It is also important to understand the company's position in the industry and its future prospects. In many cases, future prospects can be found in newspapers and information websites, but it is important to imagine them yourself based on existing data.

Summarize what you want to convey in your personal PR

Before creating your personal PR, it will be easier to make it smoother if you have a summary of what you want to convey in advance. For example, if you have three strengths that you want to emphasize, summarize specific episodes and achievements for each strength. This will make it easier for not only you but also others to understand what you want to convey.

At this time, we recommend that you create headings, which will help you decide what you want to write and make it easier to summarize. If you have more than one thing you want to promote, create a heading because it will make it easier for the other person to read.

Steps to create a self-promotional statement


自己PRの作成手順

When creating your personal PR, follow the steps below.

1. Write down the abilities and skills that the company is looking for

The first step is to gather information from job descriptions and company websites, and write down what abilities and skills the company is looking for. The reason for writing them down first is that even if you have many skills and achievements, if they do not apply to the abilities and skills the company is looking for, it is difficult to be evaluated.

For example, if a company is looking for a clerical position and you say in your PR that you are good at sales, this may not lead to a high evaluation. Since self-publicity is an item for companies to evaluate whether or not a person has merit to be hired, it is important to write it down first so that you can appeal that you are the kind of person the company is looking for.

2. Self-analysis to identify your strengths and achievements

Next, conduct a self-analysis to identify your strengths and achievements. When identifying your strengths and achievements, write down what you have experienced and accomplished in each type of job, and dig deeper into the details of each. Once you have a clear picture of the specific tasks and positions you held at the time, you will be able to see how your contributions led to your achievements.

For example, "As a team leader, I was entrusted with the planning and execution of a project, and as a result, I led the project to success," or "My efforts to provide courteous customer service led to a 20% higher customer satisfaction rate than in other areas. If the achievements are not directly related to the company's profit, look for achievements that can be demonstrated with concrete numbers from the perspective of efficiency, progress, and management.

3. Scrutinize your strengths and achievements that match those of the company to which you are applying.

Now that you have identified some of your strengths and achievements, the next step is to select the actual content to be included. Be aware that if you try to introduce everything, it will be difficult to understand what you are selling. In order to sell yourself to the company, select strengths and achievements that match the abilities and skills the company you are applying for is looking for.

However, it can be difficult to scrutinize. If you cannot find any strengths or other skills that match the abilities and skills sought by the company you are applying for, try to understand the skills that are likely to be sought regardless of the type of job, and create a versatile self-promotion.

4. Describe "concrete episodes that support" your strengths and achievements.

In self-promotion, be careful not to talk too much about ideals and lose reality. Therefore, provide specific episodes that support your strengths and achievements. Concrete episodes will help convince the hiring manager.

The episodes do not have to be large in scale, but can be about how you tackled a small issue. What is important is how you tackled the issue, how you made improvements, and how you used your strengths in doing so. When explaining your efforts to resolve issues, it is easier to understand if you follow the order of the PDCA cycle: plan to resolve the issue, execute, evaluate, and improve.

5. Describe specific achievements that support your strengths and accomplishments

Once you have written out specific episodes that support your strengths and accomplishments, the next step is to describe specific results. The episodes are only about the process, and you are interested in what the results were. Even if you tell them the results, if you only tell them in the abstract, they may suspect that you did not actually achieve the results.

Therefore, you must also put forth concrete results to support your strengths and achievements. Try to convey results using numbers as much as possible.

For example, rather than saying "sales increased," you can say "we achieved a 15% increase in sales over the same period last year," so that the reader can grasp how much was achieved. It is important to try to convey the results in figures as much as possible, even if they are not directly related to sales.

6. Describe how you can play an active role in the company you are applying for.

While extracting strengths and achievements that can be utilized in the company to which you are applying and describing them in your personal PR, you should also emphasize again how the strengths and achievements you have described so far can be utilized in the company to which you are applying. Simply writing only about your strengths may not convey to the hiring manager how you will make use of them. Explain in detail how and in which jobs and situations you can utilize your strengths and achievements, and why you think you can make use of them.

7. Include a closing statement

The closing statement should be included at the end of your PR. Your closing statement should be prepared in conjunction with the reasons why you believe you can utilize your strengths and achievements at the company to which you are applying. Examples of closing statements include the following.
 

  • After joining the company, I would like to contribute to your company by further utilizing my skills.
  • After joining the company, I would like to make use of the skills I have cultivated so far and produce results as an immediate asset.
  • Based on my past experience, I will learn new tasks and strive to contribute to your company as soon as possible.

Introducing examples of self-promotion


Although creating a personal PR statement is difficult, identifying your strengths and accomplishments will make it easier to write. Use the following example sentences as a guide to creating your own personal PR statement.

Example of a self-promotional essay for changing jobs in the same industry

When changing jobs in the same industry, you have the advantage of being able to utilize what you have cultivated so far, making it easier for you to become an immediate asset. The following is an example of a self-promotional essay that also takes advantage of this merit.

【Example of self-promotion】
My strength is my ability to improve systems.
I have been in charge of the implementation of a sales support system in the automobile industry, from customer interviews to requirement definition and design. At that time, I received comments from the customer such as "I want to strengthen the cooperation between sales and administration" and "I want the system to be usable from outside the company". We have successfully created a development environment by repeatedly designing and improving the system to reflect these customer requests. We also provided coding guidance to make it easier for members to modify the system, thereby reducing the man-hours required for modification. As a result, we have contributed to a 25% year-on-year increase in sales productivity for customers who have implemented the system.

Self-PR examples for changing jobs to a different industry

For example, some people may want to change jobs to a different industry within the same IT industry. Here are some example sentences of self-promotion for changing to a different industry.

【Example of self-promotion】
My strength is that I not only work to solve problems, but also have the ambition to improve.
In my previous job, I was the leader of an IT team as an engineer and was also involved in the promotion of DX within the company. To resolve this issue, we developed and implemented a basic IT plan and aimed for centralized management by the in-house IT department. As a result, we have improved operational efficiency by more than 50 hours per year for the entire company. Furthermore, in order to achieve a better state, we also tried to discard tools, and were able to reduce the annual cost of IT tools by approximately 1.5 million yen.
Although we are in a different industry, we would like to apply our analysis of the situation, problem solving, and ambition to make things even better to your system development environment.

In summary: Create a personal statement that conveys your strengths!


自分の強みが伝わる自己PRを作成しよう!

In this issue, we have introduced the steps for creating a self-promotion letter, what you should prepare, and example sentences. Self-promotion is one of the most common stumbling blocks when preparing an application. It is important to first understand what you need to convey, as it differs in purpose from your strengths, self-introduction, or motive for applying for a job.

In addition, when creating a personal PR, advance preparation is also necessary. First, conduct a thorough self-analysis and company research, and describe your strengths and achievements along with specific figures and episodes.

At United World Inc., dedicated career advisors work closely with each individual to support your job search. We will also support you in preparing your personal PR, so please feel free to contact us if you want to conduct your job search in an efficient manner.

Talk to United World about 
career change.

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