Welcome back, as I was getting ready to put today’s blog together I noticed that the last blog was titled “Feeling Sick and Headed To An Interview”, it was quite comical because I was sick last week! But I’m back baby and I’m ready to help a sista’ (or brotha’ ) out! Today is all about the elevator pitch and why you need to create one. So many people have such a shity answer to the interview question “Tell me about yourself”. People don’t know what to say, they don’t know how much to say or they word vomit all over the place. Last month I had someone tell me more about her personal life than I probably would have ever found out from an employee after working with them for 6 months. It was way too much word vomit. I also hear a lot of, “I don’t know what you want to know,” and they just wait for me to say something. THIS, this is exactly why having an elevator pitch is perfect. There are four main points to an elevator pitch:
1- Who are you
2-What do you do
3- How are you unique
4-Who does it affect
Obviously, if you’re in a job interview, you don’t have to say who you are. What do you do, this could be a simple as your job title. How are you unique, here is where you can add an additional sentence or two to show them how you are unique. Lastly, who does it affect, who does your work affect? Only your work, only your coworkers or your patients/clients, your whole company or a company that you want to work with? Example of an elevator pitch for someone in an interview. “I am a registered dental assistant, I currently work with children and special needs and I love what I’m doing. When I was a kid I was terrified of going to the dentist, so I can sympathize with the patients and help them stay calm. My whole goal as an assistant is to create an environment that is safe and fun, one that the patient or patient’s parents will tell their friends so that we get more referrals.” This captures all four of them easily and quickly. I added that my goal is to help get referrals which will also generate more cash for the business. I’ve also described the perfect dental assistant that every patient wants to have. Some tips when you’re creating your own elevator pitch is to keep it short, sweet and to the point, you want your pitch to be under three minutes usually. Have fun with it, don’t worry about keeping to a script. If you need help remembering just remember 1-who 2-what 3-unique 4-affect and you’ll be golden. One additional tip that I have for you can really put a cherry on top of this answer. Go to the job description, website or work moto and pull keywords from there and use those keywords in your elevator pitch. This will make them think “she really gets us here, I think she could really fit in here”. No more need to sweat the interview question “Tell me about yourself”, you’re going to knock it out of the park. Feel free to let me know what your elevator pitch sounds like, send it to me in an email, text, Facebook message, I’d be happy to listen in and tweak it if needed. Until next week, enjoy your day and keep living your best life!
