Introducing the elevator pitch — Jessica’s Career Tip of the Week

The Fulton Schools Career Center had our first Virtual Career Fair last week, and while I was monitoring the individual rooms and the exchanges in the CareerEco platform, I realized that the introductions (or what we consider the elevator pitch) could have been stronger and utilized more in each of the sessions.

Afterwards, I got to thinking… what can we, at the Career Center do to assist our student population? I then asked my wonderful team of peer career coaches to come up with some examples. Here are four really great examples of what the elevator pitch entails:

“Hi! I’m Aarya, nice to meet you. I’m a senior studying biomedical engineering in Barrett, the Honors College and _________ has been my dream company since freshman year. I’ve worked on tens of projects outside my course curriculum, most recently an automatic chlorinator with the nonprofit 33 Buckets, and last summer I was an R&D Intern at Medtronic, where I was on their sensor team within diabetes and developed a software tool to streamline the data inspection process for algorithm engineers. _________’s mission statement and values really align with mine, and I would be so proud to work for a company that is responsible for so much positive innovation within healthcare. I’ve already applied online — do you have any advice for next steps I can take?”

Aarya Mecwan, Peer Career Coach 

“Nice to meet you! My name is Siena and I am a senior in chemical engineering at the Honors College at ASU. I am really interested in your company for ______ reasons. I previously have had two engineering internships both structured around R&D. My last internship at ____was a major success as I was able to increase the profit margins on a process tool I was designing by over 50%.  In addition to that, I am extremely involved on ASU’s campus where I hold multiple leadership positions geared towards helping fellow engineering students. I am very passionate about helping others which is a reason why I really resonate with ____ at your company.  I have already applied online to ____ position and was wondering what next steps I could take to land an interview.”

Siena Storino, Peer Career Coach

“Hi, how are you? (Exchange pleasantries) My name is Keene Patarakun, a junior in mechanical engineering involved with Barrett, the Honors College. I really appreciate your time to talk about (the company or specific division) and your opportunities! I believe I will succeed in your company with my experience working in product development teams that heavily emphasized a “customer first” mentality alongside engineering. For example, I participated in a summer program at Arizona State University that challenged students from across the U.S. to design a product for local sustainability issues; after a month of hard work, my team won second place in a pitching competition for our product! Furthermore, I am heavily involved on campus as a president for a student organization and peer coach for the Fulton Schools Career Center. I enjoy (company)’s work in [interest area], and I would love to become a part of that team. I’ve already applied to (position) online, and I was wondering what my next steps are?”

Keene Patarakun, Peer Career Coach

“Hi, my name is Prashant and I’m currently a senior studying computer science at ASU. I’ve been very excited to speak to (company) because (2-3 reasons). In the past summers, I’ve had internships at Symantec and American Express. During my time there, I was able to develop skills in areas such as front end development, API development using C#, and working with large amounts of data. I have also worked on problems the company is having and I understand how it impacts the overall business. Just this past summer, at my internship with American Express, I worked on a tool that recommended self-help articles to colleagues in order to cut down the cost of submitting case tickets. These skills and my experience in working on real business issues would help me succeed in the (position) (at your company). I have already taken the time to apply online, and was wondering if you could let me know what the next steps are and how I can prepare for them?”

Prashant Mokkapati, Peer Career Coach

I’m hoping that these four examples will assist you to move forward with a GREAT elevator pitch at our upcoming Virtual Career Fairs. Lastly, I would like to remind you to go ahead and upload your resumes into the CareerEco Platform — employers are accessing your resumes prior to the event. I’m hoping that everyone has a great experience at all of our upcoming Virtual Career Fairs!