[MUSIC] Welcome to week four in the job interviewing and resume writing capstone project. Your learning goals this week will be to develop your pitch repertoire based on selected positions from your marketing plan. Your pitch repertoire includes two minute and 30 second pitches for each position, as well as just cards. These pitches form the backbone of your search. You'll use them in interviews, while networking, and in your cover letters. Your first step in this milestone will be to review the lessons from course two on crafting your pitch. Remember, the secret of strong elevator pitches consists of grabbing the attention of the listeners, convincing them with the promise of mutual benefit, and setting the stage for a follow-up. Don't forget that the benefits of elevator pitches extend beyond persuading your audience or a hiring manager. They can help focus your thinking and writing. That will help you in the later stages of this capstone. Your next step is to go through the organizations you've identified in your marketing plan, and identify three positions that you're going to target. You can select more than three for your own purposes, but concentrate on three here so you can get focused, high quality feedback from your peers. Once you've selected the positions, research those as you learned to do in course two. Use the list of core competencies and competency dictionaries attached to this lesson together with your own analysis of each job description to identify the top competencies for each position. Prioritize these into the top three competencies to focus on in your pitch write ups. You'll use the remaining competencies next week when you work on your resumes. Based on your analysis, work up pitch worksheets for each of the positions you've identified. Taylor your pitch to each organization. What does your analysis tell you a hiring manager would be most interested in? Use the pitch worksheets and templates attached to this lesson to develop both two minute, and 30 seconds pitch for each position. You will provide both written forms and recorded forms for peer evaluation. Evaluation rubrics are attached to this lesson. These two minute pitches form the keystone of your job search. They give you the answer to the tell me about yourself question. Think carefully about your fit with each organization and position. What do you offer that others do not? How does the position align with your deeper purpose? The stronger your pitch, the more relevant it is to the hiring organization, the more likely it will be successful for you. The last element in your pitch repertoire is a marketing tool that wasn't covered in previous lessons, but the pieces that go into it come directly from elements of your resumes. The tool is called a JIST card, or J-I-S-T card. Or if you prefer, a mini resume card. It was originally developed by an Indiana-based company, known as JIST Publishing. The JIST originally meant Job Information and Seeking Training. But I've co-opted the idea and adapted it to a competency based approach. So I've renamed it a Job Information and Search Target Card. As I said, you can think of it as a mini-resume, or as a business card on steroids. The idea is simple. Start with a standard index card which, in the US, is a 3x5 index card. Anywhere else in the world, it's an ISO standard A6 card. On the front of the card, you provide your contact information and a skills summary. If you're relatively new to the workforce, or changing careers, or returning after some time away, you can use an objective. But normally, just a skills summary, using exactly the same strategies that you learned for writing your resumes. On the back of the card, provide a list of your key competencies. Those you've prioritized according to the specific marketing objective of the card. Of course, those will align with the specific marketing objective of the resume, as you learned earlier. You can also include any other information that would be relevant to a hiring manager, awards or honors if that's appropriate, and the global market languages are always relevant, specific programming languages, software tools. Again, whatever information you judge is most relevant to the marketing objectives of the card. Here's the front side of an example JIST card in U.S. format. You might recognize this summary section. It's taken directly from one of the sample resumes included in the resume writing course. Attached to this lesson is the word file with this sample. The word file contains the sample both in US format and in A6 format. Here's the backside of the example JIST card in US format. The competencies correspond to the elements in the list of core competencies from the resume writing course. I reposted the competencies resources from that course in this lesson as well. Basically, JIST cards are mini-resume that can be used in many creative ways. They are like a 30 second elevator pitch that goes anywhere and is easily remembered. By presenting your JIST card to someone, takes less than 30 seconds to make a strong positive impression. You can probably think of many ways to use a JIST card, but here are a few. Take them to all of your interviews, job fairs, and networking events. Anywhere you would use a business card, use a JIST card instead. Give them to business friends and contacts. You can even give them to friends and relatives, anyone who might help you make contact with a potential hiring organization. Enclose them in thank-you notes, and follow-up letters you send to interviewers and employers after your interviews to remind them of how valuable an asset you'll be to their organization. Send your JIST card as a digital scan or in the body or e-mails you send, and ask others to send it on to anyone they know that could help you in your job search. Post them on your website or to a business social networking site. Attach them to your resume and any applications you distribute or fill out in order to catch the interviewer's eye with a quick summary. They'll appreciate this, especially if you have good information on your card. It will give you an advantage over applicants that don't know about JIST cards. Display it at home and in your car as an affirmation to your good character and skills and to memorize it fully so that the words will come out smoothly and easily. You could even frame it on the wall. Keep yourself motivated by remembering the contributions you've had to make in this world. So that's this week's milestone. Identify three positions, research them, and then work up pitches and JIST cards for all three. Take heart, and do the best to enjoy your work. You are, after all, creating your future life. [MUSIC]
