Share Your Swagger

Not big on gloating or people who are? We feel you. But! Thoughtful self promotion is the secret to career success and mental well-being. Learn how to turn bragging into a skill

- Georgie Lane-Godfrey and Marissa Gainsburg

There’s nothing like a quick scroll through Instagram to fuel your annoyance with other people. Even if you’re an upbeat, everyone’scheerleader type, all it takes is one ill-timed “Pinch me! I scored my dream job!!!” post to make you roll your eyes and secretly hope, at least for a second, that the position isn’t nearly as sparkly as the punctuation suggests. Bad karma, but we’ve all been there.

“In many situations, bragging is not socially acceptable,” says Dr Karen North, a professor of digital social media in the US. “Boasting about yourself tends to offend other people, especially on social media, because you’re making an announcement rather than disclosing information as part of a complex conversation.” In other words, as long as someone is going out of their way to talk about their greatness, they risk a degree of disapproval and, worse, discouragement.

It seems those negative reactions are amplified when the person doing said bragging happens to be a lady. Women who self-promote were viewed as less likable (and thus less employable) than their male counterparts, according to research from Rutgers University in the US. In fact, it’s avoiding the “masculine” trait of assertiveness, rather than channelling it, that will help us get promoted, a Stanford Graduate School of Business study suggests.

But other research – and many career coaching experts – tell us otherwise. Flaunting your strengths goes hand in hand with knowing your worth, something every empowered woman from Sheryl Sandberg to Meryl Streep broadcasts regularly. And on top of that, “so much of our day-to-day mental health depends on our social interactions, whether in person or online,” says Dr Liz Tenney, an assistant professor of management. “Getting the credit you deserve from your peers and bosses is crucial to a positive self-image.”