With the Smith Career Fair and Marketing Employer’s Networking Night (MENN) coming up UMD AMA has invited Joseph Deluna, Talent Acquisition Manager at PwC to teach our members how to create an elevator pitch using their personal brand.
What is an elevator pitch? It’s a 60-second introduction to someone in any professional networking situation. These pitches are a quick and effective way to introduce yourself to recruiters and other professionals.
What to Include in your Elevator Pitch
Who you are - name, major, and class
Relevant work experience
Relevant extracurricular activities/accomplishments
What job you are looking for or your interest in the company
A leading question about the company, position, or next steps
→ if applicable provide them with your resume or business card
Members are asked to turn to someone they’ve never met before and answer one of the following questions. These questions are meant to start the conversation about your story and help you get started creating the brand.
Questions to Stimulate Personal Brand and Storytelling
One area of life that inspires you?
What is a favorite hobby of yours?
From your personal life, who would you talk about your goals with?
If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Answering these questions means you’ve already started the research and development step of the creation of your personal brand. Below are the steps in this process.
Personal Branding Process
Research and Development - What do you want to be known for?
Branding / Go to Market - Who needs to know you and are you reaching out to them in a meaningful way?
Strategic Planning - How can I reinforce my brand message in each interaction?
If you want more in-depth information about personal branding, check out the blog post from Samaura Steele’s Personal Branding Bootcamp.
How do Personal Brand & Storytelling Relate to an Elevator Pitch?
You need to know who you are and what you bring to the table. Storytelling is the most effective way to get your point across and share who you are, and why you are a great fit for a company or position. Stories are more memorable, we are wired to remember stories more than facts. Messages delivered in a story are 22 times more likely to be remembered than facts.
The Elevator Pitch Formula
Many people know the rule of three, a powerful storytelling tool used to create an impact. This can be phrases, lines, chapters, processes, etc. When thinking about how to incorporate this into your elevator pitch you can use the structure: problem, and resolution, outcome or beginning, middle, and end. These will ensure your pitch is organized and effective.
Formula
Who you are
What you are pursuing
Why you're interested and the next steps
→ Think about how you want to be remembered.
Joseph offers advice and insights on approaching recruiters and networking. He says that recruiters are people too and they want to learn about you and why you fit in their company and roles. He says that initiative goes a long way, and remembering a part of the conversation and bringing it back into a follow-up is a great way to show you care. Another recommendation he has is to ask recruiters why they chose their current company to show your interest in not only the company but also them.
AMA wants to thank Joseph for his time today teaching us how to perfect our elevator pitches!
About PwC
“Our purpose—to build trust in society and solve important problems—is at the core of everything we do. It guides how we serve our clients, our people and the world. To help our clients build trust and deliver sustained outcomes, PwC provides professional services across Audit and Assurance, Advisory and Tax. We bring a range of capabilities to help organizations solve faster, solve more and realize more value. These capabilities include cloud and digital, deals, ESG, cybersecurity and privacy, governance/boards, risk, transformation, and much more. Across our global network of nearly 328,000 professionals in 152 countries, we are committed to advancing quality in everything we do.” (PwC)
Career Areas at PwC
Assurance - audits
Tax
Advisory - consulting
If you would like to learn more, reach out to Joseph Deluna, Talent Acquisition Manager at PwC on LinkedIn or at joseph.deluna@pwc.com.
-Maeve Smarick
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