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Join our Student Affairs Co-Chairs for a fun and interactive training on how to introduce you and your research interests and career goals in a concise manner!
Join our Student Affairs Co-Chairs for a fun and interactive training on how to introduce you and your research interests and career goals in a concise manner!
About Our Trainers!
About Our Trainers!
Elizabeth Meisman
Lizzi grew up in rural Colorado and moved to Northern California over a decade ago to attend Humboldt State University where she completed a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation Biology. She has researched habitat use of mesocarnivores, impacts of anthropogenic landscape change on osprey nesting success and nest site selection, and blood parasites in osprey nestlings. She is dedicated to mentoring early career professionals and students whenever possible. Lizzi works as a wildlife biologist for Dudek, an employee-owned environmental consulting firm. She is also currently an NSF Graduate Research Fellow joining the Johnson Habitat Ecology Lab at Cal Poly Humboldt to continue one of the longest running raptor projects in North America, the Butte Valley Swainson's Hawk project, for her graduate studies.
Being a big sister is deeply ingrained in her and she is dedicated to mentoring early career professionals and students whenever possible. She is an active member of the Raptor Research Foundation (serving on the Early Career Raptor Researchers Committee and Code of Conduct Committee) and at The Wildlife Society (serving on the California North Coast Chapter board, as well as on the Western Section board in a number of capacities including leading monthly virtual workshops for students and early career professionals, and is a recent graduate of TWS's Leadership Institute). She is always eager to share resources and collaborate, so feel free to reach out at any point.
Katie Rock
Katie Rock graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2021 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences. During her time in college she was an officer of the Cal Poly SLO student chapter of the Western Section of The Wildlife Society for three years. In her senior year she was the Cal Poly SLO student chapter representative and was thus able to act as a member of the section board. After graduating, she had to step down from her student representative role, and began working at HDR as a biological consultant where she has been able to broaden her experience working as a wildlife biologist. After a year break settling into her post college life Katie has rejoined the section board as a student affairs committee co-chair. She hopes to help students find their place in the wildlife field just how the section helped her when she was still a student. Katie has a particular interest in herpetology and has two pet snakes herself named Udon and Soba (after the noodles). She hopes to continue to broaden her knowledge of herpetofauna while also gaining experience with a wide variety of wildlife including, bats, fungi, and mosses. She plans to apply to wildlife conservation Master’s programs in the near future once she feels ready to take that next step.
Use our ELEVATOR SPEECH WORKSHEET to follow along and practice at home!
What is an "elevator pitch"?
An "Elevator Pitch" is a concise, carefully planned, and well-practiced marketing message about your professional self that your grandmother should be able to understand in the time it would take to ride up an elevator. It should contain a “hook” or “theme” and go no longer than 60 seconds; resonate with your unique personality and interests and contain a follow up request for a business card, a referral, or future meeting.
Why do you need it?
It helps get your foot in the door with potential employers/major advisors whether on the phone, e-mail or in person at a conference, chance social networking event, or through an informal face-to-face encounter through a friend or relative. The “ready-made” two sentence answer to the question “Tell Me About Yourself” or “What are you hoping to do when you graduate?”
It forces you to figure out what your primary skill sets are and what makes you valuable.
It helps you do the hard work needed to deliver an effective “cover letter” that entices an employer to read your resume and grant the interview.
Common Mistakes by Recent College Graduates
Lack of confidence in what you have to offer. - “I don’t have a lot of experience yet.”
Lack of focus or goals. - “I have a lot of interests and don’t want to limit myself.”
Inability to articulate the learning and skills gained from one’s academic major. - “I know my major has nothing to do with my interest in starting my own business, but…”
Using Career Labels to Get Started
Begin with your education or areas of career experience and follow up with your primary “soft” skill in your strongest area of expertise. Examples:
International Wildlife Policy; advanced multi-lingual skills
BS Biological Sciences; aptitude for field identification of plants
BA Environmental Policy; strong writer
Student Chapter Officer; organization and communication skills
Wildlife Policy Advocate; program development
Developing Your Elevator Pitch
Note "Hard Skills" (your academic, volunteer, internship and work experiences).
Note "Soft Skills" (describe who you are and how you operate).
What is the Purpose of Your Elevator Pitch?
This short 15 – 30 second sound bite concisely and memorably introduces you. It allows you to succinctly and positively position yourself in the mind of the listener.
Your first objective during an elevator pitch is to get them to like you-would you want to be in an elevator with this person again?
Content
Profession - what you do - your professional identity. Consider stating your true profession rather than your job title Ex: Develop Wildlife-Habitat Relationship Models or Public Land Management Program Coordinator; Wildlife Biologist (students-aspiring wildlife/plant professional after graduation). “I teach, create, develop.'” People who do are just seen as doers; people who inspire, teach and create are seen as experts. State this in the present tense (“I am”, not “I was”).
Expertise - the competencies or skills you use to perform your work. "Competency" is a set of behaviors that describe excellent performance in a particular work context; a bundle of skills. A "skill" is something you can do well.
Types of Businesses - name the environments in which you have worked or want to work in. Ex: nonprofit, municipalities, private industry, State/Federal/local agencies, etc.
Special Strengths - the things that make you different from others who perform the same work (your competition). Do you have a special certification, unique approach to a problem, or exceptional technical knowledge? Connection to groups such as TWS, AFS, CNPS, SRM?
Delivery
An elevator pitch isn't much good if first you don't come across as a credible, likeable individual. To achieve that, remember your business etiquette. The first thing you have to do is introduce or re-introduce yourself. Stick out your hand, and put your face and name back in context for them. Only then should you explain how they can help you. And after you deliver a pitch, try to give a really brief review of your talents, education, or skill set.
30 seconds - 60 seconds in length
Practice so that the delivery is natural, conversational, and effortless.
Sound the part - show confidence and let your passion show through.
Look the person you’re speaking to in the eyes.
5 Summarizing take-aways
It should take about 30 seconds to say in a conversational tone. Brevity is key, and every word matters.
It should start with a memorable hook, the first impression of your first impression. The phrase “I study the biogeography of small mammals.” stands a better chance of catching somebody’s interest than “temperature and substrate are important components to the distribution of mammals under 30 grams, and the divisions for geographic disparity are magnified.”
It should lay out the problem in a sentence or two, and explain why you want to work with the researcher or if you are looking to find a good fit but don’t know who to work with.
It should say why this is important, to you, to the world, or both.
It should conclude with where you are in the process. Have you graduated? Did you complete a senior project? Have you taken GRE’s and other pre-requisite exams? Each of those gives your listener an opening to continue the conversation (“That sounds interesting, tell me more about your senior project?”, “Have you thought of…”, “Sure, I have a pot of money but, up to this moment, no idea of how to spend it…”).
References
UC Santa Barbara Career Services web page. Retrieved 21 December 2017 from http://career.sa.ucsb.edu/students/job-search/creating-elevator-pitch-two-minutes-or-less
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