Elevator Pitch - An Overview

• When asked on an application form, 'Tell me about yourself'
• When writing a covering letter
• When asked interview questions around 'Tell us about you' or 'Why should we hire you?'

• High level introduction – tell them what you do, what you are studying, what you are passionate about
• Your specific career interest
• How you demonstrated your interest
• What makes you unique from other students studying same degree or how want to be remembered (specific skills, qualifications, background)
• A conversational question
  • Can you tell me more about yourself?
  • How long have you worked at [insert example company]?
  • What do you enjoy most in your job?
  • What tips or advice would you give to someone applying for a role within your organisation?

• Hello, my name is [insert your first name] and I am studying a [insert degree level] degree in [insert degree name] at University of Birmingham Dubai.
• I am interested in a career in (or position as a) [insert career/position you are interested in] in the [insert field/industry you are interested in] field (industry). I have a particular interest in [insert your interests].
• I have been involved (during university) in [insert your activities].
• And developed skills in [add skills you have developed]. I have also had an internship position (employment) as a [insert internship position] with [insert internship company name] and discovered that I really enjoy [insert what you enjoyed].
• Could you tell me more about [insert question about company you are interested in]?

[doors closing]

For most people, the thought of giving an elevator pitch is really intimidation, for some, downright terrifying. The thought of giving 30 seconds on why you or what value you’re going to add to an organisation can be a little scary, so I’ve created some tips to be able to help you to break it down, simplify it to be able to create an effective, personalised elevator pitch.

[doors open]

Here are my three top tips

Tip number one – don’t’ try to give them everything.

It’s a lot like a movie trailer, if you show me everything in the whole film I’m going to get a little bit bored in that 30 seconds and I’m going to miss the really key important bits. So just like a movie trailer, give them the exciting bits you’re not trying to sell yourself all in one go, you’re just trying to get into an interview. So ultimately, all you’re trying to do is just give them the highlights. Give them two or three key things that help you standout that will make them want to pursue the conversation further. Just like a movie trailer for a film.

Tip number two – if you can’t give them everything, then what do you give them?

It’s research, research, research is going to be the answer to that question. So you want to use LinkedIn, you want to speak to people, have conversations with people, the more research you do about trends, what’s going on in the industry, what’s going on with that company, and ultimately finding out what are they really looking for that you’ll never really be able to figure out in a job description. So if you do your proper research then it will make it really easy to know what are the two or three things that you’re going to be able to put into your pitch to keep it simple an effective.

Tip number three – don’t state the obvious

Recruiters and hiring managers they don’t make it easy because sometimes in the job description they give you everything they’re looking for every skill known to man and they’ll emphasise the really obvious ones. So for example, perhaps you’re going for a global data analyst role and the job description’s going on and on and on about your analytical skills and your data; of course you want to emphasise that, but everyone who applies for that role with have those types of skills. So you’ll need to be a bit more specific. What is it about you that makes you good at data? Perhaps it’s your curiosity? You’re constantly learning? Maybe you’ve taken three online courses in addition to your normal degree, off your own back, in order to learn more. Perhaps you’re involved in societies. There are lots of things that potentially can add value. But what is it that makes you a little bit more unique; because if you’re just going on about how great you are with data, that’s not going to help you stand out from the crowd.

So those are my three tips, but that alone isn’t necessarily going to help with all your fears and intimidation, it’s not giving you all the knowledge. There’s a lot of online resource but we have people here to help you so I definitely urge you to reach out to the careers service, setup an appointment and we can help you fine-tune your pitch to your situation and help you stand out from the crowd.