Knowing more about your personal interests, motivations, and abilities will be helpful for you once you begin connecting with others to market your unique strengths. Having this information readily available can also help your informational interviews with your network to feel more productive. This can also be a good tool to develop your response to interview questions like “Tell me about yourself” or “Walk me through your resume.”
Preparing Your Introduction
Make a positive and lasting impression in a short time by preparing your own personal introduction. Introduce yourself by talking about your strongest skills or leadership experiences. Mention your major if you feel it is clearly related to your career goals. Have some questions prepared so that you can engage the other person after your 30-second personal introduction conversation. For example, ask for clarity on what you read in the internship/job description, or talk about a new product or development you noticed on their website or in the news.
Example
I’m a first-year here at UVA, planning on majoring in Psychology. (Personal) I’ve always enjoyed roles where I can serve as a mentor or a teacher, as well as work that focuses on communicating with a diverse group of individuals. (Passion) I think that my work as a tutor with Madison House (Past experience) helped me hone those communication skills as well as mentoring skills. (Portable skills)
I hope that I can further develop those strengths as a [position] with [organization/ company] where I can make a real impact on residents serving as a mentor and someone who can listen to their concerns. (Call to action)
Components
Use a job title, organization, or field of interest when developing your personal pitch. Examples of questions to consider:
Personal |
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Passion |
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Past Experience |
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Portable Skills |
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Call to Action |
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Sample Outreach Plan
- Ask if now is still a good time.
- Tell them you are researching careers, and that you know that talking with people in a variety of fields is the best way to find out what the jobs are actually like.
- Say you are looking for names and people who might know of professionals in the [INDUSTRY] doing [KIND OF WORK]. Ask contacts to suggest additional people to connect with.
- When you are given a contact name, send a note saying that you appreciated the referral. If they could not think of anyone to refer you to, your note could say that you appreciate their help and that you will contact them again in case they think of someone who has the kind of experience, job, career, or contacts you need.
Practice Your Pitch
Start improving your networking and interviewing skills with VMock’s Elevator Pitch review tool. Gain insights on critical interview elements such as body language, enunciation, and content.