Prepare your Professional Pitch. – tell me about yourself is often the first question any employer, manager, recruiter or new acquaintance will ask you. It is just a common question and most of the time we don’t even worry about it. But, then comes the day of your interview and the question arrives and you wing it while clumsily bumping your way around the answer – starting with things like “Um, I’m from Wisconsin…blah, blah, bore”, or worse you say “Well, what would you like to know?” Yikes…your interviewer is thinking “what is this person doing wasting my time”? You’re outta there. Never make the interviewer work to pull information out of you.

Preparing your professional pitch is an important part of your interview, as well as your branding message. Employers want to know who you are and how you will add value to their organization. And they ‘expect’ you to be prepared to answer the ‘tell me about yourself’ question quickly (within 30 seconds) and succinctly, as it relates to ‘what’s in it for them’ if they continue the interview and/or hire you. Your professional pitch is your value proposition in brief. Not a history of your upbringing, hobbies and dreams (save that for a date).

So, just what should you include in your Professional Pitch?

1. Your opening statement – who you are and why you’re there.

2. Next, focus on the context of your work (or course work if new grad) and how it relates to the employer’s needs.

3. After that, point out your strengths as they relate to what you can bring to the employer.

4. Finally, end with a professional connection question.

Creating your pitch and practicing it until it flows easily and naturally is a key to networking and interview success.

Posted by Robin Ogden – FiredUP Careers

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