By: Drue Watkins
From 1 – 2 p.m. on Feb. 5, the Office of Student Development hosted their Elevator Speech event at North Shepler 312 as part of the week-long Aggie Professionals Series.
Once a semester, Student Development hosts the Aggie Professionals Series. It is comprised of different events per day; for example, Resume Rev-Up parts one and two; how to ace your interview; and a job shadow meet and greet.
The Aggie Professionals Week is part of the overall Cameron University (CU) Succeed Workshop Series—all of which are open and free of charge to CU students, faculty and staff. The Elevator Speech revolved around helping students prepare a quick, catchy overview about themselves that will impress prospective employers.
Career Services Coordinator Paula Merrifield led the class, along with Inclusion and Student Success Coordinator Olivia Polynice, who participated in the activities with the attendees. Merrifield began with an introduction around the table. She said the overall goal of the Elevator Speech class is improving students’ marketability. “It’s important to know what to say to those who you want to work for or with,” she said. “The elevator speech was originally designed to be said in about 15 seconds, within an elevator.
“The real goal is for serious students to learn how to take everything they’ve learned, everything important about themselves, and condense it.”
Polynice introduced herself to the attendees and said the main goal of Aggie Professionals Week was to get students actively prepared for beyond college. “This helps get students to be more out-going and interactive with the people they want to be involved with,” she said. “We’re here to assist students in achieving their career goals.”
After the introduction to the hour-long course, Merrifield gathered up the attendees and led them to the elevators; every individual then filed inside and, one at a time, gave their best shot at an impromptu elevator speech as the lift carried them from top to bottom, and back again. Merrifield said it was a good way to get the attendees’ feet wet. “This gives everyone a general idea of the speed you should talk in,” she said. “It’s a more hands-on way to establish what we’re doing here today.”
Following what Merrifield called the event’s “field-trip,” the group re-entered room 312 and began constructing each person’s version of the Elevator Speech. Merrifield passed out a few sheets of paper: an Identifying Your Transferable Skills paper; a Creating Your
Elevator Speech format sheet; and a paper showcasing different professional examples of speeches.
The group started with the examples, reading through each one individually and discussing the pros and cons their authors presented. Next, Merrifield led the discussion over the Identifying Your Transferable Skills sheet. Each attendee went over the skills they learned from their major and how those skills are important to market themselves successfully.
Merrifield said it’s important for students to not be afraid of talking themselves up. “Experience is experience,” she said, “and that will be valuable. You want to mention things you’ve achieved so people know the things you can bring to the table.”
The transferable skills paper broke down into several categories that pertained to different departments on campus: Communication; Research and Investigation; Organizational; Information Management; Design and Planning; Human Services; and Physical skills.
From there, the attendees underlined single skills they believed to possess from the categories and transferred them to the basic format sheet, where they wrote out their final draft speeches with help from an action-words-list.
Merrifield said there’s a right way to end an elevator speech.
“You want your potential employer to answer right away,” she said. “So, the best way to finish your speech is to ask them a question about whether or not they’re interested in you, or what you can contribute to their business.”
To end the event, each attendee read their completed Elevator Speeches to the group before filling out a survey about their experience.
For more information on the Aggie Professionals Series or the CU Succeed Workshops, contact the Office of Student Development at student_development@cameron.edu.