Quintessential Careers Press:
The Quintessential Guide to Storytelling that Propels Careers
Chapter 4: Networking as Storytelling
Page 40
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- Job interviews where the Elevator Story can provide the answer to at least two common interview queries: “Tell me about yourself” and “Why should I hire you?” (See Chapter 7, Storytelling in the Interview).
Wide variation exists among experts as to the ideal length of an Elevator Story. Some experts say as few as 15 seconds; others say up to three minutes. There’s no reason, however, that you can’t employ both short and long versions. Different situations, after all, may well call for diverse approaches.
An Elevator Story is a story-based introduction of yourself used in situations where you are meeting a lot of people and probably not spending a great deal of time with any one of them. The trick is to make your introduction so intriguing – by using story – that people will want to spend more time talking with you. The speech also might be incorporated into an initial phone conversation with a prospective new member of your network.
At its most basic level, the Elevator Story’s structure is:
Hi, my name is ___________. I’m in the _______________ field, and I’m looking to_____________________.
The last blank would be filled in with your current career aspiration, whether it is to stay within your field and move up or move into a different career. Here’s a slightly more embellished example:
Greetings. My name is Indra Ghee. I’m an accomplished, published, senior-level scientist with 12 years of experience in molecular biology.
A college student or new graduate might add the following to the basic structure.
Hi, my name is ___________. I will be graduating/I just graduated from ____________________ with a degree in _____________________. I’m looking to_____________________.
These bare-bones structures don’t tell much of a story, though, and are not terribly memorable, so consider adding meat to the bones of your Elevator Story with additional details about your background and what you can offer, as in these examples:
Hi, I’m Joe Fredericks. I’m a versatile project/program management executive with 15-plus years of leadership and business management expertise gained from positions of increasing responsibility in both the U.S. Navy and the private sector. I recently reduced my employer’s costs by 35 percent through leading a hardware and software redesign of the access control system, which also resulted in improved performance, increased reliability, and additional features.
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