Career Benefits: Advancement

Career Benefits: Advancement

Public speaking can be a great way to advance your career. No matter what your goals are, showing your boss that you deserve a raise, advertising your “personal brand,” or finding new career opportunities, public speaking can help you achieve them.

Impressing the Boss

Success in public speaking is a good indicator of valuable professional skills. Composing an effective speech demonstrates creativity and critical thinking. Holding an audience’s attention demonstrates a talent for leadership. Maintaining confidence and poise during a speech and Q&A session demonstrates professionalism under pressure. If you’re trying to impress your boss, public speaking can be a great showcase for your professional abilities.

Self-Promotion

If you’re looking for publicity, speaking engagements are a great place to start. Look for opportunities to discuss your area of knowledge, and present yourself as an expert. One caveat: you still need to do a thorough audience analysis. If you don’t connect your personal story to bigger issues that affect the audience, you will seem self-centered and irrelevant. If you spout opinions without establishing credibility, you may come across as a charlatan. Even if your goal is self-promotion, remember: the world doesn’t revolve around you, and neither should your speech. You want good publicity, not bad publicity!

Networking

Public speaking is a great way to connect with people who share your interests and goals. You can get more mileage out of speaking engagements if you initiate conversations with other speakers and audience members. Find out more about their interests, and take those interests into consideration when you write your next speech.

In terms of professional networking, public speaking can help you gain an edge over the competition. A speech will show more of your personality than a resume or cover letter. You can control the content and tone of a speech more easily than you can dictate the content of a job interview. The primary elements of the typical job application--the resume, cover letter, and interview--are tough to ace, since rigid formatting makes it difficult to stand out from the crowd. When you have public speaking opportunities in a professional context, take advantage of them! Try to be memorable, make connections, and follow up afterward. If your professional connections know you as a speaker, you will be more than just another faceless resume and cover letter.