So far in 2025, around 90,000 tech employees have been laid off across 200 tech companies. I’ve worked with three clients who, unfortunately, contributed to this statistic, hailing from Amazon, Google, and a startup.
And guess what? Being desperate for a job bleeds over into their ability to function at 100% in an interview situation. To partially remedy those interview jitters, I guide my clients on nailing their elevator pitch. If you’re in the same boat, I guarantee you’ll be asked a variation of “so, tell me about yourself.” The question seems innocuous on paper. However, when you’re on the spot and have to say it out loud in 30 seconds, it’s flub city the majority of the time.
Four years ago, I wrote an “elevator pitch” chapter in my book Clicks, Tricks, & Golden Handcuffs. It was based on overcoming my own brain chaos when I started on the speaking circuit for Dress for Success during Covid and the Women in Tech Network annual conferences. I’m not a natural when it comes to public speaking.
I’ll share, via an excerpt from my book, how to manage your jitters and actually enjoy pitching yourself, as one of my clients mentioned. There’s a 3-step process for:
- defining the components,
- creating one for job interviews, and
- gaining confidence in your delivery.
Describe Yourself
As a career consultant, I collaborate with tech executives on their professional brand for the next big-impact role. The majority of the time, my clients currently hold an executive role, but even then, it might have been a minute since they were in an interview situation. Net, net, they’re rusty.
A VP of Business Strategy told me the following when I asked him to describe himself in three concise sentences:
“I developed a deep level of expertise on the E2E business SaaS model—understood business processes, technology solutions, key business metrics, organizational impacts, and customer journey implications from marketing, through sales, contracting, fulfillment, provisioning, deployment, services, support, and ongoing customer success.”
Would you consider this an Emmy-worthy performance if you were an executive recruiter? How about this one for a Demand Generation Director?
“I am a farmer. Not in the traditional sense of growing crops from seeds, rather planting a marketing digital construct to boost the sales leads funnel for customer acquisition.”
“About those marketing seeds… They germinated in high school with the DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) initiative. The program prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in high schools and colleges worldwide. It unleashed a massive entrepreneurial hunger.”
“My expertise is driving revenue for early-stage startups and SMBs.”
“Across the past four years, I collaborated with five startups from Series A through D with over $300MM in VC funding. The results? After deploying custom GTM strategies and scaling marketing engines, around $50MM appeared within their sales funnels.”
I gave a standing ovation for candidate #2 because it made me lean in. Who knew there were farmers in tech that drove results? Tell a story and people will listen.
Defining the Components
Philip Crosby, a technician and author who contributed to quality management practices, suggested “individuals should have a pre-prepared speech that can deliver information regarding themselves or a quality that they can provide within a short period of time, namely the amount of time of an elevator ride, if an individual finds themselves on an elevator with a prominent figure. Essentially, an elevator pitch allows an individual to pitch themselves or an idea to a person who is high up in a company, with very limited time.”
My formal training in creating elevator pitches occurred a decade ago at a Miller Heiman Strategic Selling course, when I was a CenturyLink sales executive. Miller Heiman is well-versed in solution selling training, which ultimately is what you need to position yourself for your next career opportunity. You are positioning yourself to meet the corporations’ needs with your unique skills and background. Each of my Miller Heiman classmates had to create and deliver their elevator pitch to the class. We practiced 1:1 with another classmate before the epic room revelation. Of course, I had high anxiety the night before returning to my junior high school brain freeze, but I felt I nailed it on the actual day. Truth be told, the instructor and colleagues mentioned, “nice job.”
Creating an elevator pitch is challenging, since it is not a routine task to talk about yourself as a personal commercial within a 30-second timeframe. Well, unless you are a consultant like me. Initially, it feels very uncomfortable, but once you master it, it is absolutely empowering. I recite mine on every initial and closing consulting call. I just did it this week, twice!
“I have arrived full circle from corporate brand consulting at Coca-Cola, General Motors, and the U.S. Army to personal brand consulting for technology executives. After 18 years as a marketing and sales executive at Fortune 500 companies, I retired early. I got bored, so I made a pivot, going back to school and becoming a certified career coach. I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with tech executives on their career journey.”
This pitch, coupled with an overview of my services and process, closes the deal for client engagements.
An elevator pitch succinctly defines who you are within the business environment. After my client develops their elevator pitch, we incorporate key components into their résumé and LinkedIn profile; this is essential for networking events and job interviews. The first question a recruiter or hiring manager will ask you is to summarize who you are. This astute preparation enables you to respond without a rambling answer.
In summary, an elevator pitch is a concise description of your personal brand, explaining who you are, what you have accomplished, and why you are the ideal candidate for the job. This is your opportunity to communicate your brand to any listener within a short time period. Add enthusiasm and personality so recruiters will lean in; you will thank me later.
Creating a Pitch for Job Interviews
Remember, within the career environment, the idea of an elevator pitch is to provide a compelling glimpse of yourself, so the other person wants to know more. It is about engagement and connection. Think of it as a speed dating introduction within the business context. From a résumé and LinkedIn profile perspective, it starts with your headline. What title best describes you? Next, let’s layer three components that succinctly summarize you:
- explain who you are from a career perspective, starting with an intriguing hook,
- place your experience into context with the years of success within a niche, and
- highlight the intangible strengths you deliver to a hiring company, accompanied by success metrics.
And here’s when you don’t want to use AI. I’m not kidding. Write this from your passion versus the word slop of Chat GPT or Copilot. If your pitch has “at the intersection of” or an em dash (─) in it, it’s merely a clone of others. It’s time to be genuine for the recruiter to connect.
Here’s a list of questions that should prompt your thought process when it comes to your elevator pitch:
- What would be your ultimate job title upon retirement, and at what company?
- Why did you want to pursue a career in technology?
- What motivates you to go to work every day?
- Ten years from now, what do you want to be known for contributing to the world?
- Which of your core values would align with hiring organizations like Google, Comcast, Microsoft, and AWS? e.g., collaboration, continuous improvement, customer commitment, diversity, ethical AI, innovation, integrity, passion, sustainability, teamwork, transparency, and trust
- What person(s) do you admire at Google, Microsoft, and AWS? What are their most valued strengths?
- How do your skills align with what the company rewards for promotion and compensation? e.g., incremental revenue, operational efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, and improved employee satisfaction.
- If you could swap places with a person (dead or alive), who would that be and why?
- What’s your favorite hobby?
- What’s your professional motto?
Here are some samples; feel free to clone and own them for your pitch.
- Headline: Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | Cyber Security Thought Leader | Speaker
“For 19 years, I have been spearheading the organizational understanding of the ever-changing threat landscape. I work with cross-disciplinary research teams at AWS, mapping data and intelligence into actionable insights. I am an award-winning speaker, author, blogger, and mentor at the Cyber Security & Cloud Expo and Gartner Security & Risk Management Summits. I am continuously wearing a white hat.”
- Headline: DevOps Engineering Director | Systems Thinking
“I’m an unconventional thinker. My experience is grounded in Linux and Unix Administration. For over 15 years, I have designed, implemented, and managed cutting-edge deployment automation for cloud resources. I am proud to be an acclaimed troubleshooter in development, testing, and production environments. I am excited about building the future at the confluence of agile, data, and cloud computing.”
- Headline: VP Engineering | Software Product Lifecycle Executive | ITIL & PMP Certified
“I have more than 15 years of IT management experience at two Fortune 200 companies, Microsoft and AWS. As a result, I am a recognized leader in technology product management. I am fortunate to have a team builder mentality delivering technical project requirements on time; in turn, my direct reports tend to follow me when I join different companies.”
- Headline: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | Fortune 500 | Technology Hardware
“I am an evangelical business marketer and product strategist transforming the way corporations attract B2B and B2C clients. I offer 25 years of CMO experience at Fortune 500 and IT startups, bringing a thoughtful perspective and branding savvy. I am entrepreneurial at heart and a Forbes speaker recognized for my impassioned approach and colorful ideas.”
Gaining Confidence in Delivery
I took a Dale Carnegie speaking course. Went to a speech therapist. Read umpteen books on public speaking. Observed the best speakers. My biggest revelation is listening to comedians unraveling punchlines. They know storytelling and command a laugh, starting with a premise, a personal experience, and a summary thought. It flows throughout their comedy set, and I admire the stand-up comedian George Carlin for his brain droppings. Yes, he published a book with that title, which speaks to me in many ways.
It all boils down to structure and practice. If there is one takeaway I have learned about being a successful technology executive, it is developing and delivering a great story. Storytellers win.
In 2021, I had several opportunities to create an elevator pitch for myself for various projects. A homework assignment in my writing class was to create a 20-second book spiel for Clicks, Tricks, & Golden Handcuffs. Then our instructor sponsored an author debut salon session. My brain chaos flashbacks zipped through my mind, so I got busy.
For my 5-minute book debut, I read class notes, replayed former author debuts, and watched dozens of YouTube videos about book readings.
Since it was winter, I had migrated from Seattle to Austin, so my daily 3-mile walk was around Lady Bird Lake. It is where I practiced delivering my 5-minute speech out loud, looking ahead, and not caring if anyone thought I was a mental case. When I got home for dinner, my husband heard my speech.
After two weeks straight of hearing my pitch, Pat threw up his hands and said, “Stop, I can’t take it anymore.”
I continued to carry on and then grilled him, “How did I do? Do I still pause? Any words sound off? What are your thoughts on using my hands like an Italian?”
All the effort paid off in two ways. First, when I watched the replay of my 5-minute book debut, I smiled since it went off without a hitch, with even my instructor saying I didn’t look nervous. I was calm, yet excited.
Exercise: Put it into practice
It is time to create your elevator pitch. Limit it to 3-5 sentences and time it for a 30-second delivery using a video or phone app. Here are several for your consideration:
- www.finalroundai.com/interview-questions
- https://grow.google/certificates/interview-warmup/ > free, no video recording
- https://yoodli.ai/pricing > select “Starter” for 5 free role plays with video recording
Practice makes perfect. Say it out loud, let’s target 20 times, to a colleague or family member who certainly will provide feedback.
- Who are you from a career perspective?
- Place your experience in context.
- What intangible strengths do you bring to the hiring company?
Key Takeaways
I am the poster child for brain chaos when it comes to public speaking, but with practice, I landed as an uber-confident elevator pitchwoman. Okay, maybe uber is a bit much. Be sure to know the components and understand that it takes practice; I am confident that you, too, can hit it out of the park.