ELEVATOR PITCH FOR A FRESH GRADUATE AND JOB SEEKER

When you sit before an interview panel or stand before a prospective employer and you are asked the million dollar question ‘tell us about yourself’ do you suddenly lose your voice and hear yourself saying ehem …ehm …ehm, do you turn red and start to have fever?

Sometime ago, while doing a CV critic for a couple of fresh graduates, I noticed that 80% of the group had the same thing written as their strengths and career objectives, then it occurred to me that they all had gotten into the pit fall of copy and paste – a situation where you pick up a CV sample and just edit the personal details.

The fact however is that your competencies,
strengths and career objectives are equally personal details.

While pondering on how best to solve this problem and explain it to the group, I had an insight that every product has an elevation speech/pitch written by a marketer. The elevation pitch captures the details of the product, its unique features and ultimately, what problem the product is meant to solve. This saves the marketer the stress of racking his brain every time he needs to talk about the product.

Just like the scenario painted above, you are a product and you are supposed to have an elevation speech, something I call a PERSONALITY STATEMENT that captures your individual uniqueness and the problems you believe you have innate competencies to solve.

Here is a simple template of what an elevation speech or personality statement as I call it should look like:

1. I am *your name* a graduate of *your institution* where I studied *your discipline*
2. I am *skill and competencies that you have tested and can defend*
3. With these skills and competencies, I have *a bit of the things you have done/achieved in light of the instant job you seek*
4. My values are *a list of two to four values that guides your life* and I try to work within these pillars as they form the creed within which I work and live.
5. I hope to *your aspiration*

Let me add a bit of life by filling in the space as in a real life situation.

I am Michael Jordan, a graduate of Covenant University where I studied Industrial and Labour Relations
I am a people’s person, a team player and self-motivated goal getter. As a result of these skills, I was made the president of the school’s club where I led a team of 15 executives and at my graduation, I was given the award of The Most Tenacious Graduating Student.
Over the years, I have cultivated a value of honesty, timeliness and responsibility which guides every of my activities.

I hope to work in an environment where I can contribute meaningfully to the organizational success and build a lasting career for myself in Human Resource Management, with specialization in on-boarding and staff retention.

Please note that this is not cast in iron, it is just an example so feel free to tweak it to suit your purpose. The most important thing is to be sure you are writing your truth.

When you are done writing, read it out to yourself severally until it starts flowing out naturally. If you believe it, others will.

Until later, live fully and stay in charge.