Your Personal Elevator Pitch

Can you highlight your resume in an elevator ride?

Marketers and public relations specialists know that in many situations you have just the time it takes for an elevator ride to grab the attention of a reporter. Hence, the phrase “elevator pitch”, came to explain the amount of time you have to explain your business or pitch your story. Can this correlate to your personal elevator pitch when it comes to sharing the key aspects of your career with someone?

A career coaching company in New York suggests a two-minute pitch. That isn’t how long it should take to “get to” your point, but it should take no longer than two minutes to share the best points of your career with a tiny bit of embellishment. Richard Skaare, a communications specialist, suggests that your resume should be able to be boiled down to the 140 – 160 characters you would use in a text message. Now, those two concepts work in concert with each other. To verbalize and expound on the 160 characters could take about 2 minutes.

Unless you are in that dream situation - sitting on the Metra next to someone who just happens to need someone with your exact skill set - the concept of using a 160 character resume is reserved for Twitter or a text message. The principle behind both thoughts mentioned above is you need to know exactly who you are, what skills you own, and how you have used them. Better still you need to be able to communicate those same things in a short, cohesive, cognizant statement if time is limited.

A couple of situations where your elevator pitch will work perfectly are networking events or job fairs. Yes, you may hand someone your “real” professionally prepared resume, but, what will you say to that job fair representative that will make him/her put your resume in the “second look” pile. What will you say to those you meet at a networking event that will pique their interest and entice them to spend more time with you, finding out more about you in greater detail?

Creating your Personal Elevator Pitch

You want to include a few key statements about yourself:

1. Your position – I am an architect – This is your key statement
2. General Experience – in commercial development for 10 years – this gives listeners an idea of what level of expertise you have.
3. Your sub-pitch – I’ve supervised over xx projects ranging from 10,000 square feet to 130,000 square feet in 20 major metropolitan areas
4. Add interest - including Singapore, New York, Chicago, and Little Rock.
5. Apply it to your listener – My concepts attract new business from companies like …. – if you are using your pitch in a cover letter or interview, direct this last portion of your pitch to create a comparison to the business situation, perhaps their direct competition if possible.

Let’s go back to the 160 characters. Forced brevity sharpens the mind. Work with a trusted friend or counselor to keep your pitch brief. Just as in creating new marketing ideas, you may need to brainstorm ways to keep the word count down.

Using your Personal Elevator Pitch

You have created your personal pitch, but if you don’t memorize it, practice it and know how to modify it depending upon your audience, you could end up stammering and jabbering just as if you didn’t take all the time to create your pitch in the first place.

Tell me about yourself is a typical question you will be asked on any interview. When asked, you want your personal elevator pitch to just flow. To do that you need to write out your pitch, memorize it, practice it in front of a mirror, a family member, your employment and training rep, your dog, or the car in front of you in line at the drive-through. You want the words to just flow.

You want your message to be crystal clear. Refer to it enough throughout the interview, that if the interviewer is asked to tell their boss about you when your interview is done, you know how they will position you after you leave.

Remember that when you are speaking, use a personal level. Standards today are based on the medium of TV, using a conversational style that is friendly and one-on-one. Speak as if you are speaking to an acquaintance and tell the interviewer something in your pitch that they won’t read by going through your resume.

If you need assistance with your resume, your elevator pitch, or anything else with your job search, KCDEE has Career Resource Professionals in the Illinois workNet Centers to assist you.

How DO you answer?

A recent post on Veteran Careers at military.com was entitled "Handle the Stress Interview".  There are many tacts that interviewers take to determine whether a candidate will be able to handle the new position.  Reading that article lead to this thought - How DO you answer the tougher interview questions like - Why were you fired? OR Have you ever been convicted of a felony? What is this gap in your employment?

If that firing lead to the gap in your employment because of an intimate relationship with the penal system, you need to know how to handle an interview effectively.  KCDEE offers a workshop to help with that. 

Not everyone is as fortunate as Martha Stewart, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, former politicians, or Robert Downey Jr. to have enough money or talent to pick right back up in a position that they held prior to being incarcerated. Most individuals who have an offense on their record will have to start over in the job market, let alone at the bottom rung of a career ladder. Often there are certain jobs that ex-offenders may no longer hold depending upon the offense they committed. Once you have established the types of jobs you will be seeking, you may want to review and attend some of the other career skills workshops offered by KCDEE.

When you are ready to begin filling out job applications and, hopefully, going on job interviews, here are a few tips to help you overcome the obstacles related to your previous offense.

1. Always tell the truth on your application. The truth, however, can be stated in the best possible way. For example, a question on the application asks “Have you been convicted of a felony in the past 5 years?” Your conviction was 7 years ago, you can truthfully answer NO. If it was, then you need to answer YES, but provide an explanation that includes your regret and what positive things you have done with that time.
2. Don’t leave unexplained gaps in your resume. Employers look at consistency in employment to find a potential employee who will help them meet their goals. Any gap raises a red flag and can often cause your resume or application to be put in the “reject” pile. Learning how to properly word a period of incarceration can make all of the difference between being seen for an interview or being bypassed.
3. Use a Functional resume approach. When you use this type of resume, you are able to highlight your skills rather than the chronology of your employment.
4. Offer a letter of Explanation. If you are fortunate to have an interview scheduled, you will need to explain your offense in person. If you don’t have an interview but are asked for more details about your offense, you should have a letter of explanation available that may be provided to a potential employer. The letter should include information about benefits the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service offer to employers who hire ex-offenders.
5. At the interview. Offer, at the appropriate time, a three minute incarceration speech. The speech should key on three points – the mistake you made, why you exhibited poor judgment, and assure them of the changes you have made.

One of our biggest success stories is about a gentleman who was convicted of trafficking marijuana. After he served his 6 ½ year sentence, he returned to society with a high school diploma and no marketable skills. KCDEE provided the mechanism and funding for tuition that allowed him to start over. He has since completed an expedited computer related training, a Bachelor’s degree, and a Master’s degree. Throughout his education, he was progressively moving forward up the career ladder. Today he has experience and most importantly a future.

If you would like to register for our workshop please email (for Elgin, IL) elworkshops@kcdee.org (for North Aurora, IL) naworkshops@kcdee.org .

Top 25 Jobs with an Associates Degree

I recently read an article that listed the top 25 jobs that you can have with an associates degree.  The following jobs were listed with the national median wage average for 2009.  I thought I would expand on that list for this blog and share some additional information.

Illinois workNet has a component that explains about the 5 Key Sectors in which employment will be in a high-demand high-growth situation.  They include Agriculture (AG), Healthcare, Information Technology (IT), Manufacturing (Man), and Transportation, Distribution and Logistics (TDL).  Green jobs are included on the list but are found in all of the key sectors. Find out more here.

Additionally, there is a great deal of information on jobs and career paths on O*NET.  You can find Standard Occupation Codes (SOC) to describe or associate with any job or career path.   All of this information is especially helpful if you are trying to determine what career path you want to follow if you are in the midst of a career change.

Also listed is the wage - hourly and annually for our more localized area.  LWIA stands for Local Workforce Investment Area which, for our definition is bounded by Kane, DeKalb and Kendall counties in Illinois.  EDR is for the Economic Development Region that is the Northeast quadrant of Illinois.  Some of the occupations could not be found within a reasonable geographic area so I included the State wages.  I can't imagine commercial divers in the middle of an agricultural zone.

And if you notice as  you look over the numbers, there are only a couple of the jobs that are rapidly growing on this list that are not high paying or included in one of our other Key Sectors. But sometimes you just need to go with your passion.  If you love your job, is it really considered work?

#	Occupation	Illinois Key Sector	SOC Code	Median Wage Illinois or Local 2009			Median Wages National 2009
		SECTOR	CODE	Hourly	Annual	Area	Hourly	Annual
1	Computer Specialists, All Other	IT	151099	$35.53	$73,915	LWIA	$37.02	$77,600
2	Radiation Therapists	Health	291124	$34.13	$72,668	EDR	$35.66	$74,200
3	Nuclear Medicine Technologists	Health	292033	$34.94	$72,668	EDR	$32.65	$67,900
4	Dental Hygienists	Health	292021	$34.61	$72,000	LWIA	$32.38	$67,400
5	Nuclear Technicians	Green	194051	$41.32	$85,947	EDR	$32.37	$67,300
6	Commercial Pilots	TDL	532012	N/A	$76,179	LWIA	N/A	$65,800
7	Fashion Designers		271022	$8.03	$16,704	LWIA	$30.90	$64,300
8	Registered Nurses	IT	291111	$30.03	$62,446	LWIA	$30.65	$63,800
9	Diagnostic Medical Sonographers	IT	292032	$38.49	$80,074	LWIA	$30.30	$63,000
10	Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay		492095	$21.13	$43,952	LWIA	$29.94	$62,300
11	Engineering Technicians, Except Drafters, All Other	Green	173029	$30.26	$62,952	LWIA	$27.66	$57,500
12	Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians	TDL	173021	$20.20	$42,012	state	$27.39	$57,000
13	Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers	Man	492022	$28.90	$60,100	LWIA	$26.71	$55,600
14	Insurance Appraisers, Auto Damage		131032	$23.43	$48,722	LWIA	$26.63	$55,400
15	Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians	Green	173023	$25.78	$53,619	LWIA	$26.36	$54,800
16	Funeral Directors		119061	$31.09	$64,680	EDR	$26.14	$54,400
17	Respiratory Therapists	IT	291126	$24.85	$51,676	LWIA	$25.64	$53,300
18	Geological and Petroleum Technicians	AG/Green	194041	$30.98	$64,430	EDR	$25.60	$53,200
19	Radiologic Technologists and Technicians	Health	292034	$30.81	$64,092	LWIA	$25.59	$53,200
20	Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians	TDL	493011	$25.14	$52,295	LWIA	$25.39	$52,800
21	Commercial Divers	AG	499092	$14.48	$30,108	state	$25.26	$52,100
22	Electrical and Electronics Drafters		173012	$28.91	$60,139	LWIA	$25.04	$52,100
23	Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment	Man/Green	492094	$18.69	$38,881	LWIA	$24.39	$50,700
24	Avionics Technicians	TDL	492091	$30.07	$62,540	LWIA	$24.31	$50,600
25	Occupational Therapist Technicians	Health	291122	$37.71	$78,453	LWIA	$24.16	$50,300

Let me know what you think.