A new class being offered at New York University will teach students how to better market themselves to potential employers and clients much the same way that direct marketers market their products to consumers.
Andrea Nierenberg, who has worked in the direct marketing industry for nearly 20 years, created the material for the course, “Self-Marketing from A-Z.”
“I have always seen classes for motivational skills and even some for representation,” she said, “but there has never been one that covered all the aspects that would help a person learn how to make themselves the complete package.”
According to Nierenberg, the 10-week course will provide the tools to become “more well developed as a professional.”
“They will walk out of there and be able to market and present themselves and negotiate in the best possible way,” she said. “We are going to focus on helping people learn how to put their best foot forward.”
Nierenberg has been teaching the ideas behind the course for the past 4 1/2 years. It was only recently that she decided to condense the material into a 10-week class. Some of the features that will be taught are relationship building, presentation skills, customer retention strategies, motivation, networking, negotiation and selling skills. Nierenberg said the class will be interactive and oriented on class participation and role playing.
It is a credited course and is part of NYU'S Management Institute of the School of Continuing Education. Classes begin Feb. 9.
Nierenberg is the principal of The Nierenberg Group, which was founded five years ago and is a consulting firm that specializes in sales training, motivational techniques, presentation and interpersonal communications.
“We work with people to develop their soft skills, which impact the bottom line,” she said.