Hesitation – Elevator Pitch

Today I hesitated when asked “Well…what do you want to do here?” I worked my way through a reasonable answer, but it could have gone a lot better. I’m not sure why the words didn’t flow out of my mouth eloquently this afternoon. I spend a lot of time thinking about where I’m steering my career. I definitely knew the answer today, just not the best method for explaining and selling it.

This falls in line with my previous post about having a brief elevator pitch about what you are doing and where you are going. There is no need to have a memorized script, but having practiced at least saying the main points would have helped me a lot today.

To expand on this a bit, it is important to think through a few different pitches that you may need one for influential co-workers, networking situations and friends and family. Most of these people already have an interest in you and a quick exciting answer can spur some help for your cause. However, in a networking situation if you stand there stumbling through a rather boring answer you may miss a great opportunity.
Luckily today when I went back to my desk I realized my mistake, re-thought my answer, and went back to my co-workers desk to clarify and got a much better response, “That’s good, that’s very good.”

aaron.berndt