With so many people out of work these days, competition for every opening is fierce. You need to seize every advantage and be as prepared as possible for every interaction that may lead you to your next opportunity.
When you’re on a job hunt, clear communication with lots of people is the best way to speed the process along. To do that well, you have to plan and practice. That is what the two minute drill is for. It is also called an “elevator speech” or “elevator pitch” which comes from the idea that you might get an audience in an elevator and you have a very short amount of time to pique someone’s interest to call you in for an interview or meeting.
The two minute drill is a concise summary answer to the question: “Tell me about yourself”. This is a well rehearsed, organized explanation of your life focusing on your professional experience and attributes.
Why is this important? Developing a good two minute drill will be useful in:
• Networking meetings
• Interviews
• Casual conversations with friends and others who say “how can I help?”, because before they can help they have to understand your professional value proposition.
How well you deliver this one answer can determine whether or not a contact passes you along to their contacts, a friend thinks of an idea for you or a first interview leads to a second. So many things in a job search are out of your control. Here is one thing you can control – take the opportunity!
Here is an outline of a standard two minute drill:
I. Pre-professional (growing up, school, college, etc.) 10-15 seconds
II. Early career (First few years, what did you do, etc.) 15-30 seconds
III. Recent work history & key accomplishments 45-60 seconds
IV. Reason for leaving, 5-10 seconds
V. What’s next / where I’m going, 10-15 seconds
Total: 2 minutes, 10 seconds if you max each of these, so don’t. Keep this to 2 minutes or less. Practice! If you can, video yourself. You’ll pick up things that may distract from your message. (I haven’t done that, but should – I’m a plague of tics!)
It’s not great, but this is an example of my two minute drill. I've bolded the things I consider key accomplishments / highlights.
________________________
RUSS KNIGHT'S TWO MINUTE DRILL:
PRE-PROFESSIONAL
My family moved to Oklahoma from Chicago when I was 10 and I was heavily involved in Boy Scouts, where I earned my Eagle and other awards. In college I served in student government and won a campus wide election to serve as the vice president.
EARLY CAREER
Out of college I worked for a bank as a credit analyst where I found creative ways to dispose of special assets and volunteered at my church and with Young Life ministering to high school students. I left the bank to pursue vocational ministry where I organized, recruited and led a volunteer team, took some seminary classes and decided I could serve better as a volunteer. From this experience I developed a belief that sales is a service. In 1999, the president of the bank recruited me to come back to work for him as they had started an electronic payment company and he needed some help.
RECENT WORK HISTORY
I served at ChoicePay for five years in several roles, promoted to sales and landed $1MM in sales before I left after a management change to work for Fort Knox National Co. out of Louisville. (1:05) At Fort Knox I developed a system of grading client relationships to reduce meeting time and improve management communication. My role was to shore up existing client relationships, primarily with HSBC in several locations and was especially proud of a turn around with Credit Acceptance in Detroit, where they were threatening to leave and with consistent attention and some minor system modifications, I was able to turn them into a strong reference and won a contract extension. I worked from my home and traveled to see clients extensively.
REASON FOR LEAVING
On the front end of the recession, I was let go along with 55% of the company. I was hired for a short time by Certegy and spent some time with a mobile web startup, before joining NorthStar in the summer of 2009 to sell our collections services. I have strong recommendations from many former employers and co-workers.
WHERE I’M GOING
My current focus is to sell primarily to banks and grow existing revenues. I volunteer with and have started a new employment ministry at my church. (2:00 on the number).
__________________
Some experts advocate for 12-14 accomplishments and mine is a bit lean in that department. Some additional polishing here would probably draw out a few more.
If you’re pursuing your search correctly, you are out connecting with people every day. This summary overview of you will help your audience connect with you and better understand where you come from, what you offer and where you are going.
Blessings to you in your search today. I hope this is of some use.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment