The concept that led to the creation of the so-called elevator speech is dead. Thank goodness.
As most of you know it was a favorite term, a tool, a recommendation that career coaches liked to pass along to those who were thinking about, or actually looking for a new job. The problem with this elevator speech concept is that it is based on the candidate’s chronology of experience and the concept of quantifiable value is nowhere to be found.
Today, the language of finding a job has changed fairly dramatically.
Candidates need to speak in the language of getting things done versus what I was responsible for. The former reflects value, the latter chronology.
My colleague Nancy Swain is an expert in helping candidates define their value proposition. Her approach to transition coaching is that focusing on defining and understanding one’s value proposition is far more important than just rewriting a resume.
What Nancy is really doing is helping candidates understand the language of finding the right job, not just the same job in another city as is so often the case in outplacement.
Candidates who can speak confidently about the value they can deliver, interspersed with mentions of their experience versus the other way round, stand a far better chance of finding the right job.