Elevator Speech – G. Brint Ryan College of Business

An elevator speech is a 30 second commercial about you. You will need to succinctly share your major, relevant skills, and career goals. It is important that you practice this “speech” so that it sounds natural and genuine. One key point to keep in mind is that the information you share should be relevant to your audience. An ideal time to share your elevator speech is during introductions at career fairs, expos and recruiting events.

A typical elevator speech will sound like this:

Now is another great time to reiterate the importance of ensuring that the content of your elevator speech is relevant to your audience. If you are meeting with a smaller company, you don’t want to share how you are interested in working in a large corporate environment.

This brings us to another important point. When preparing for any career events, be sure to do your research on companies that you are interested in. That way you can tailor your elevator speech to include facts that you have researched about the company to demonstrate your interest and ability to take initiative.