How to Prepare Your 3-Minute Pitch: Tips for Mom Corps L.A.

  

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Today's blog is a guest post from Mom Corps Los Angeles.    They offer some great tips on how to prepare your 3-minute pitch.

“Walk me through your resume.”

While it may seem like a simple question, the first question you are asked in an interview is often the most important. Since candidates often prepare answers to more specific questions, the open-ended “walk me through your resume” or “tell me about yourself” can cause stammering, surprise, or even stunned silence.  Here are some tips to make sure you successfully respond to this important question.

• Tell a story and create a narrative for your career, starting from the last job listed and work up to your present position.

• Include a takeaway or valuable lesson from each job – “Although I eventually moved on to X, this job was valuable because it taught me how to Y.”

• How you present your story is just as important as the story itself.  Recruiters can tell what kind of employee you are by how positively you discuss your boss and duties. Keep in mind that one of the key criteria for any job is cultural fit and being negative might give the recruiter a reason to think you won’t be a good fit.

• When telling your story, keep old experiences concise (unless they are relevant to the position) and spend more time emphasizing your most recent jobs.

• Tailor your narrative to the position for which you are interviewing. Clearly illustrate how your experience has directed and prepared you for this position.

• Keep your walk-through timely.  Interviewers may give you a timeframe, but as a general rule aim for a three-minute overview.

You can interview confidently and start off on the right foot by preparing your three-minute pitch.  By telling your story with clarity, your interviews will feel more like natural conversations than Q & A’s.