How to Craft an Effective Elevator Pitch

What IS an Elevator Pitch?

- 30 second introductory spiel

- Designed to spark interest in continuing the conversation

- Made of four parts1. Introduce yourself personally2. Provide a brief history of your experience3. Apply your experience to potential positions4. Request an interview

Craft strategically

- Don’t pack your entire resume or all your experience into these 30 seconds.

- Don’t assume civilian recruiters understand your military experience.

- To you, saying 11 Bravo paints an entire picture of what you did, what you’re qualified to do, and how it’s applicable to the civilian job force. To civilian hiring managers, it just reminds them that they never memorized the entire phonetic alphabet.

Hypothetical pitch for Jonathan

- Jonathan served in the Army for 8 years

- MOS was 13E

- Transitioned out 2 years ago

- Worked as a data administrator during those 2 years

- Completed his associate’s degree while serving, working on his bachelor’s in business now

- Wants to break into the marketing field

How would this translate into an elevator pitch?

- Four parts of an elevator pitch:

1. Introduce yourself personally2. Provide a brief history of your experience3. Apply your experience to potential positions4. Request an interview

How would this translate into an elevator pitch? (cont.)*Shakes hand* Hi, my name is Jonathan Williams. I’m interested in learning

more about the career options in your company. I served in Army artillery units for eight years, where I led a small team and managed data in fast paced and high stress environments. I ensured that we completed our mission in a very efficient and exact way to support other members of our unit and allow them to carry out their mission.

Since exiting the Army 2 years ago, I’ve worked as a data administrator with Acme Co. and have been pursuing my bachelor’s degree in business. I’ll complete my degree in May. At Acme, I’ve recently led a project team of 3 to reconfigure our data management, and this reduced costs in the department by 12%. Through my work in school, I’ve developed a great interest in using my attention to detail and analytical abilities in a marketing analysis related role. My background in data management, analysis and computation in fast paced environments, combined with the passion I’ve developed for marketing while operating a growing blog, provides an exciting potential match for your marketing team.

Final notes- Use Jonathan’s elevator pitch as a template

- “Led, carried out, managed”

- You DO need to research the positions (or at least the type of position) if you want to be able to translate your military skills and personal history into an effective hook in your elevator pitch

- If you’re not sure how your military experience translates into civilian job skills, check out our webinar “How to Translate Your Military Skills into Civilian Language” at http://rmvets.com/TranslateMilSkills

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