By Laura Hill http://www.careersinmotionllc.com

I attend a lot of business events that include networking. When meeting someone new, one of the first things we ask each other is “what do you do [for a living]?” It’s an easy question, right? Providing a clear, direct answer is SO important to build our personal brand, help us find jobs, and facilitate new business. And yet I almost never get a good answer to this basic query.

Common Elevator Pitch Mistakes

1. Humor: “I help push drugs” instead of “I do product marketing for a pharmaceutical company”, just isn’t funny and makes a bad first impression.
2. Too broad: “I work in technology” or “I’m a consultant” is useless. “I work for XYZ Company where I manage the help-desk group” is good. “I’m an independent marketing consultant – I specialize in developing sales promotion and direct marketing programs” is good.
3. Underselling: “I’m just an order-taker on the fixed income trading desk”. Way better to just say “I work on the fixed income trading desk”.
4. Too vague: “I help companies unleash hidden value”. What the heck does that mean?!
5. Life story: Your pitch is not the time or place to give the chronology of your career or explain your career decisions. Monologues are bad.
6. Jargon: beware of company/industry jargon until you know your audience.
7. Uptalk: that’s when you’re making a statement but with rising inflection so that it sounds like a question. “I work in finance?” makes you sound weak and flighty – like a Valley Girl?

Best Practices for Your Elevator Pitch

Here are my rules for a good elevator pitch – which by the way is nothing more than your self-introduction or answer to “what do you do?”

1. Say what you do at the present time. You may also want to mention what you want to do next. If your job is hard to explain, keep working on it till you find an easy way to convey key information that is consistent with your networking and branding objectives.
2. If you are in transition, be clear about your target job/employers and mention your recent and noteworthy former employers (or clients). Example: “I work in pharmaceutical marketing, most recently as VP for a startup biotech company and previously for Bristol Myers-Squibb. I’m in transition; my search is focused on mid-sized biotechs, including late-stage startups.
3. Build your brand. Be thoughtful about what makes you distinctive and for what you want to be known. This should be reflected in your pitch.
4. Test your pitch. If your pitch generates appropriate questions and relevant conversations, it’s a good one. If your listener’s eyes glaze over or silence ensues, you missed your mark.
5. Always reciprocate. “And what do you do, Mark”? Even better: ask what he does first, so that you can optimize your returning pitch.

Laura Hill is a founder of Careers in Motion LLC (www.careersinmotionllc.com). She works with professionals and executives on career strategy & planning, personal branding, and all aspects of job search including resumes, interviewing, networking and salary negotiations.

1) Women who want to move up must take professional risks before they feel ready for them. The day when you can say “Now I feel ready” is usually too late – others have claimed the opportunity you wanted. Get in the habit of asking yourself, “What do I need to be comfortable enough to do this?” Perhaps the answer is a mentor, an advisory council, family support, or training.

2) Use emotional intelligence to read people and situations, but don’t use emotions to make a case for something. When building your argument or making a case, keep things fact based ― not innuendo or hearsay based ― using phrases like “The data shows…” and “The facts are…,” rather than “I feel…”

3) Those women that make it to the top continually ask for what they want at work, rather than waiting to be noticed, rewarded, or promoted. They’re not afraid their requests will inconvenience someone or that they will look pushy for asking. When making requests, figure out where you have leverage ― the value you bring to your employer and the extent to which you’re relied upon for your skills.

4) Don’t be naïve about the extent to which politics govern the workplace. Find ways to proactively learn the culture and political climate of your organization, learning how people like to be communicated with, and how and when people have launched initiatives that have been successful. Solicit information from several parties as you accumulate information, never just one. Play in the politics or perish!

By Guest Blogger: Annabelle Reitman, Ed,D, Career Management Consultant and Author of Talent Retention,” (ASTD Press, 2007), 

It is imperative in today’s competitive job market to know YOU – that is your professional savvy. By knowing what you have to offer and then marketing and branding yourself as the person with that information, allows you to stand out from your competition. How well you promote yourself depends on your ability to write your powerful story via your résumé.

A résumé’s overall purpose is to serve as your marketing tool.  It is your advertising piece (think “company fact sheet”), designed to attract a pre-determined targeted audience.  You need to remember, you are the product being sold and this is your marketing and advertising material!  What is the buyer looking for?  How can I showcase myself to match and fulfill the organization’s needs?  A résumé’s primary marketing objectives are to present you in a powerful, targeted, and concise manner in order to:

• Grab a reviewer’s attention quickly and to sustain the interest in you.
• Demonstrate that you have the experience and background they need.
• Show in an easy to read manner how and why you can be an asset to an employer.
• Create a professional image that evokes a “wow” reaction from the recruiter. 
• Enable you to make the first cut and be contacted for a first level interview.
• Guide an interview, keeping it focused, on your expertise, successes, strengths, and the data supporting your case for being hired.

In the job search process, a résumé is your initial contact.  Be consistent with your professional branding; recruiters are look for the most proactive and powerful results-producers.  You want to be noticed and have that interest sustained through several reviews of the pile of résumés.  Develop a unique professional niche – everyone’s experience and background is different – this is your individualized combination of assets and savvy – that is distinctive and coherent.  Create a demand for your professional brand. 

A targeted résumé positions you in a specific way so that your information, your image will be relevant and grab the reader’s attention. Ask yourself the following questions posed by Arruda and Dixson (Career Distinction, Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007).

Is my résumé -

• Up-to-date?
• Compelling?
• Written in my unique voice?
• Does it communicate my brand message?
• Would others in my field be unable to use it?

If you can “yes” to these questions, your resume is branded and ready to promote and market you for your next career opportunity. .Annabelle also co-authored, Career Moves: Take Charge of Your Training Career Now! (ASTD Press 2006, 2nd edition), and High-Level Resumes: High-Powered Tactics for High-Earning Professionals .

Guest Blogger: Andrea Kay, Author of “Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 steps to get out of our funk and on to your future” andrea@andreakay.com

There’s never going to be a convenient time to change your career. If you’re waiting until you have no obligations, the economy is right or the moon and stars are perfectly aligned, you may as well forget it. Stop listening to the negative collective, which is saying: “This is not a good time to change careers.” Why would it be the wrong moment to change your direction? A time when thousands of jobs–maybe yours–has been lost and are never coming back. Why would this be a dismal time to search your soul for work that’s more fitting to who you are, where the world is headed and where you can be more employable?

Why, when you may not have even liked what you did all these years, would this be a deplorable time to listen to that restless gnawing in the pit of your gut that’s been nudging you to change? To take stock of what you’d like to have more of in your work.  Things like challenge, more meaning or more of a life.

This moment might be the perfect juncture for a career change. You’ll never know if you don’t ask yourself some practical questions like: What might a career change cost you in terms of time, money and relationships? Once you answer that, then you can decide if you’re willing to do what it takes and whether it’s a good time for a career change.

No one can guarantee how successful you’ll be. You may make less money than before. But it’s possible you’ll make more. You may get rejected 100 times before someone wants to hire you. Then again, one “yes” could change your life for the better.

If I sound impatient, I am. And you should be impatient with yourself too. Because I know you want more out of your life, and you have the ability to go after it. When it comes to making a career change, now is as good a time as any. And possibly better.