Craft Your Story - Building Your Personal Brand and Elevator Pitch

What sets student applicants apart from each other? Beyond your resume and growth mindset, your personal brand is a key differentiator. What is your personal brand? What do you want to be known for? Your personal brand is essentially how you present yourself to the world professionally. You should aim to lead with this brand on your resume, in interviews, on LinkedIn, and across your social media profiles.

A crucial tool for communicating your personal brand is the Elevator Pitch. An "Elevator Pitch" is a metaphorical way of describing a very brief spiel about yourself. The idea is that if you were in an elevator ride and only had about thirty seconds to a minute to sell your qualifications to someone, what would you say? Research indicates that within just a few seconds of meeting someone, a determination is made about whether they like and trust you. This brief pitch can also be valuable for framing your college personal statements and cover letters. Let's work on perfecting your pitch with a framework and example.

Here is a framework for your elevator pitch:

• Start with a brief sentence or two giving your name, what your current occupation is, and why you're there. For instance, if you're a student, you might say, "Hi, my name is [name], I'm a [grade] student at [name of high school/college], and I am very interested in [name of position or college]".

• Highlight 2-3 interests and goals that could make a hiring manager or college consider you as a candidate or simply take notice. If you're interested in becoming a doctor, your interests might be related to medicine, and your goals could involve getting a bachelor's degree, an MD, and doing research/clinical work.

• Include at least one past experience or example of how you've pursued your interests and worked towards your goals. The pre-med student example suggests mentioning shadowing a doctor or working in a lab.

Think about these questions when crafting your pitch: Where are you from? -> Where are you going? -> Who do you want to be?.

Showcasing your skills can be challenging if you have limited work experience. Ask yourself: Do I have any non career-related work experience that provides valuable skills to an employer? You should consider if they have won any awards, have leadership experience, participated in volunteer or community work, possess technical knowledge, know a foreign language, have attended workshops, hackathons, or innovation jams, learned outside the classroom through online learning or certificates, or started a project or start up idea. Even a hobby might be relevant to your search.

Here is an example of an elevator pitch for someone with limited work experience: "Hello, my name is Jane Doe. I’m a sophomore at the San Jose State University who’s interested in state-of-the-art applications in the Information Technology major. I’m interested in expanding beyond my academic background in the field of mobile applications for a graduate degree in Applied Informatics. My current skills in information sharing and online collaboration would be a perfect start to further grow as a mobile application developer with your company. Do you have more information to share on potential internship opportunities?"

Take five minutes to draft your own pitch and practice with your peers. You got this!