Elevator Pitches and Recruitment

If you are meeting new contacts for the first time one of the questions they may ask you early on is "So what do you do?".   In order to get the most from this fabulous opportunity to sell yourself you should create an Elevator Pitch or "personal branding statement" (a 30 second to one minute answer to the question).

You should create something clear (jargon free), concise, obviously representative of yourself and engaging.  It's the start of a conversation so should encourage the other person to ask further questions (without leaving big questions around what you do) rather than say "that's interesting" and then sidle away.  You don't need to repeat the same thing verbatim to every person you meet but having a structure in place will ensure you get the key points across.

There are loads of resources on the web to help develop your elevator pitch including a well recommended one at Wikihow .  The best place to start is probably with 20 Outstanding Links to Answer “What Do You Do?” from the Successful Blog.

For a long time, when people asked me what I did, I'd say "oh, it's sort of a website and newsletter thing for recruitment people on the internet".  Now, I have something much more professional, and accurate.  As to how engaging it is.... you'll just have to catch up with me at our next networking event.

By the way, you don't just need a personal elevator pitch, you should also have one prepared to describe the company you work for.  You may also find it useful to create one for the business associates you most frequently talk about ("Alan? He's a internet recruitment guru who has an enormous knowledge and passion for online HR and recruitment. You know, his willingness to share his knowledge and his positive attitude makes him a pleasure to work with").  Finally, as a recruiter you probably ought to also be encouraging your candidates to develop one for that first interview question of "tell me about yourself". 

Comments

[Surya]

Adding to your post, I thought of replying with few good posts on elevator pitch..Here goes the links

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6331_11-5054120.html

http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=76035

[Louise Triance]

Surya

Thanks for these. I especially like the example in the ecademy post.

James Parr (www.omnirms.com/blog) has also dropped me a note with an additional link. However, this one is with an opposing view. http://remarcom.typepad.com/remarkable_communication/2007/10/build-a-better-.html. I get what is being said here but I think that it's not having something prepared that leads people to say dull/switch-off things. Well, that's my opinion anyway. You don't need to sound like you a scripted you just need to know how to talk about yourself in the most positive and engaging way.

[James]

Thanks for the hat tip Louise. Think that link might be a dud now for some reason but here's one that should be ok:
http://tinyurl.com/yvh5rx

It's certainly an interesting topic, and you're right, there is no harm in preparedness if it helps your overall ability to communicate the right message to people. As I say to my colleagues, clients etc, 'Be Remarkable', because everyone will then remark upon it. A recruiters personal 'brand' could be the most effective weapon in her armoury