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Day 114 - Elevator pitch

Last week, at my 56th networking event of the month, I met a recruiter that I somehow hadn't met before. I'm going to be honest, I thought I had talked to every staffing agency in the area at this point, but apparently not.

Anyway, he asked me, "So what's your elevator pitch?"

And with all the eloquence I could muster at 8:30am, I said "Um, me?"

Of course he was talking to me. We had just met, and there was only one other person in our vicinity, but I was unprepared. Despite the fact that I've been job searching for 114 days, I don't have my elevator pitch ready. I've only really ever thought to have elevator pitches ready for projects I'm on for when management asks what I'm working on, and I've never had one ready for myself.

So, I've been thinking. Here are a bunch of elevator pitches for myself. Pick the one you need for right now.

  • Most recently, I was a Scrum Master, and I loved it. I'm a Certified Scrum Master, and a Certified Scrum Product Owner, and I have 5 years of experience working with Azure DevOps. Although my title was Business Analyst at GEICO, I wore many hats in that role including business analyst, product manager, and scrum master. I think one of the things that made me successful at these roles is that I worked hard to understand the people I was working with and the tasks expected of them so I could help clear any obstacles that came up.
  • I am an educator by nature. I back this up by having a masters in Education and being a Board of Education member for my local city school district. Ever since I was in Girl Scouts, I've been sharing what I know with others. At that age, it was only songs for camping, but the point stands. When I notice an issue with my teams that I'm working with, I look for what information they may need to continue to be successful. As an RA in college, sometimes that was a refresher on safety protocols for my residents and other RAs. As an office manager, it was lessons on how to use the time clock. As a Scrum Master, it was taking screen shots of Azure DevOps and sharing them with my team so they had examples to follow.
  • I am an unemployed job seeker who ate ice cream for lunch the other day. I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but would love a job where I could earn lots of money where I stay home with my dogs on the couch. I'm rewatching the Great British Baking Show for the umpteenth time, and I would be a better baker if I practiced baking more than I watch baking. When I'm not laying on the couch, you can find me listening to Pod Save America and NPR while walking my dogs.
  • I'm a dog owner who spends most of her time following her dogs around, asking if they have to go potty and then wiping their toes off when they come inside from going potty. Juniper, who is already very food motivated, is currently on steroids for an infection, so I'm also following her around to prevent her from eating every weird object she finds. In order to keep the household happy, we have blankets everywhere for them to burrow into, and we let them have access to seeing out the windows so they can protect us from the mail carrier.
  • I am whatever the exact opposite of a homemaker is. I do not care about dusting, and will frequently leave dishes in the sink for a couple of days. This was not a problem when I was single and didn't own any pets, but now that there are multiple beings that bring dirt into the house, the kitchen needs sweeping more frequently than I would like to do it. Luckily, we have people stay at the house once or twice a year with the dogs when we go on vacation, and we host Christmas, so we do get down to deep cleaning a handful of times each year.
Take what you need, and leave the rest for someone else. Like the next recruiter I talk to.

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