Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring: Take Charge of Your Career, Find a Job You Love, and Earn What You Deserve

Chapter 34. Verbal Presentations: What to Say and How to Say It

The next two tools in the Job Search Survival Toolkit are very important: your Positioning Statement and Departure Statement. Preparing these in advance, and memorizing them, will keep you from getting into trouble at the interview. Just as an actor would not dream of going out on stage before learning her lines, you should not begin your job search until you're prepared and memorized your verbal statements. Once you've written and incorporated these statements, your confidence will improve dramatically—and so will your results.

Here's What You'll Need:

1. Prepare and practice a Positioning Statement (also known as a 30-second commercial) about who you are professionally, the industries you've served, and the particular strengths you can contribute to a new employer.

2. You'll also need a prepared statement that explains why and how you departed from your previous employer, or why you're seeking a new position (even if you're still working). This verbal presentation is called your Departure Statement.

Tips:

1. When you write out these verbal tools, keep them brief and then memorize them so they will always be on the tip of your tongue.

2. Both of these statements can and should be used in any and all situations—with friends, colleagues, networking partners, on job interviews, and later in the search process. Here are a few examples:

   Example: Positioning Statement #1

   My background is in Project Management. I have 10 years of experience ...