Here’s the 3 questions I asked myself to craft the pitch that secured my role at Apple

Working in Marketing and the Creative industries ‘pitching’ is a pretty common occurrence. Agencies pitch clients regularly to secure new work. 

So you’d think in our industries we’d all be pretty well versed at ‘pitching’

Errrrm no. 

Outside of agency-client pitches, most of us really suck at it.

And nowhere is this more evident than in job-hunting. Out there in the market, trying to secure our next perfect role, the majority of us have NO IDEA how to pitch or sell ourselves for the jobs we want.

Why is it we can pitch for work in our jobs but cannot sell ourselves for our next perfect role?

Well there is ONE common misconception I see that holds people back:

Most people believe job hunting is about THEM. 

What THEY have done with their career

What skills THEY have

What brands THEY have worked on

So they try and pitch themselves based on, well…. themselves.

When in actual fact, pitching is NOT about you. 

Pitching is about you solving a problem for the company you want to work for. 

Pitching is actually about THEM.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you studied at Harvard.

Would attending Harvard be part of your pitch?

Most people would say ‘yes’

I would say ‘it depends on the company and the role’

Attending Harvard is not a good thing or a bad thing. 

It depends on the context. And the context in this case is about whether or not attending Harvard is something that the company you are interview with needs and values.

So if you are interviewing with a start up in a brand partnerships role and because you attended Harvard you have a little black book of contacts that will assist in your brand partnerships role - then in this case, attending Harvard is very important and should be a key part of your pitch.

But what if you are interviewing for a role in the culture and influencer marketing team at Adidas? Is going to Harvard still the lead headline?

I doubt it.

Im sure no one at Adidas would think its bad you attended Harvard, but it wouldn’t be the experience that I would be leading with for this role. I’d be talking up your experience in sneaker culture and understanding the youth market.

Make sense?

If you want to craft an amazing pitch for your next perfect role, here’s 3 key questions you can ask yourself:

1.‘If I was the Hiring Manager, what would I need from the person Im hiring?’

Put yourself in the shoes of the Hiring Manager. Try to imagine what their job is like and how this role might support them day-to-day. If you can understand them better, you will better understand what skills and experiences you should be pitching to them when you interview.

2. ‘What problem does this role solve for?’

Take the time to work out what the role you are applying for is solving for in this business. Go deeper than the surface level of the job description and try to understand how it fits into the wider business and what challenges it might help to solve

3. ‘So, what?’

For every bit of experience you write on your application or focus on in an interview, ask yourself ’so what? - why should they care?’. This will help you to narrow down the experience that is relevant AND know how you are going to sell it in the interview. If you cant answer ‘so what?’ with a good answer, chances are you shouldn’t be focusing on this experience.