Your elevator pitch is a quick way to introduce yourself and your background in a professional setting. An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that is used to quickly and effectively explain who you are, what you do, and why someone should be interested in you or your idea. It is called an "elevator pitch" because it is meant to be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator, typically around 30 seconds to two minutes. The importance of an elevator pitch is that it allows you to quickly grab the attention of your audience and effectively communicate the key points of your message in a way that is clear and compelling. This can be useful in a variety of situations, such as networking events, job interviews, or business meetings, where you only have a short amount of time to make a good impression and get your message across.

In this section you will learn:

• The importance of an elevator pitch
• How to craft your own

Resources for this topic

• Elevator Pitch Worksheet
• Elevator Pitch examples: https://zety.com/blog/elevator-pitch

How to craft an elevator pitch

There are two basic structures you can use for your elevator pitch:

• WHO you are + WHAT you do (and why!) + WHAT you want to do (and why!)
• Present + Past + Future OR Past + Present + Future

The more you know about the audience you are delivering your pitch to, the more you can tailor it to be effective. Example:

• Who you are: Tell the parts of your background most relevant to the role they are hiring for
• What you do (+why): Talk about who you are as an engineer and how it would add value to their team
• What you want to do: Talk about your interest in their company/role, the unique perspective you see yourself bringing, and how you would be a great culture add

4 steps to build your elevator pitch

• STEP 1: Mind map/brainstorm everything you think you should mention or want to convey in your pitch. Think very rough draft. Don’t censor yourself. Just get random words down.
• STEP 2: Circle/star/highlight the most important parts of your brainstorm. Decide on a format/structure of your answer (depending on which makes most sense to you) and then plus those pieces into where they fit best.
• STEP 3 Tailor it to the company research you’ve done.
• STEP 4: Practice! With yourself, friend, coach….anyone who can offer feedback.

<aside> 💡 Use our elevator pitch worksheet to build your own

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