How to Persuade People to Hire You
Learn the discourse of the professional workspace

Academics have a pretty specific way of talking about what we do: we teach classes, publish papers, and work with students, advisors, professors, and PIs. Universities are run by deans and provosts. The professional workforce uses its own, different, type of language to talk about projects and people. Companies have managers and CEOs. They work to support clients and customers. They measure efficacy by key performance indicators.

That’s why a major component of effective job searching is persuasive communication. You need to be able to talk about what you do in language that makes sense for the employer you hope will hire you. For example: if a company wants to hire someone who can form strong partnerships with clients, they are unlikely to be especially excited by a resume that talks about the work you’ve done with students.

Instead, you need to carefully translate what it is you’ve been doing in academia into the language of nonacademic employers. This lesson will show you how to read advertisements for specific career fields and translate what you do so that you can persuade employers to hire you. This lesson builds off the work you did in What Do You Do? and What Will the World Pay You Money To Do?.