5 Elevator Pitch Examples for Students + Quick Tips
Take your student elevator pitch from robotic and canned to genuinely interesting. Make relevant connections and land your next career.
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Let me guess… you’re here because you’ve got an important networking event coming up, you got an assignment to craft an elevator pitch, or you’d just like to learn how to introduce yourself in a professional manner when the moment comes.
Regardless of why you came here (and I’m glad you did!), let me just get one thing straight: elevator pitch is a nightmare. At least, the kind of elevator pitch old-school career advisors recommend.
I mean, a careers site of a college I’m not going to name claims an elevator pitch “should sound like an advertisement of you.” Um, no, it definitely shouldn’t, unless you want to come across robotic, awkward, and full of yourself.
The good news is that there is a perfectly easy formula for a great, conversational elevator pitch that will make whoever you’re talking to genuinely interested in your qualifications and skills.
Just give this guide a 5-minute read and you’ll learn it. Plus, you’ll get actionable examples of elevator speeches for different scenarios you can use as a point of reference to build your own.
What is an elevator pitch for students?
An elevator pitch for students (AKA elevator speech) is used by individuals during career fairs, networking events, or job interviews. An elevator pitch is about getting a potential employer to want to learn more about you and the value you can bring to the table. 99.9% of the time it will not land you the position, but rather get you the opportunity to apply.
The name elevator pitch comes from the idea that you should be able to deliver it while on an elevator ride—roughly, in 30 to 60 seconds.
A 30-second student elevator pitch is hard to get right—unless you’re an Ivy League prodigy and a superstar in your field already (in which case I want your email and I’ll be launching my elevator pitch to you very soon).
For all of us mere mortals, sharpening a killer personal elevator pitch, like writing a CV, will take a systematic approach and some practice. Lucky for you, there is a system you can follow to make your value shine bright. We’ll get into that in the next section.
How to create a good student elevator pitch?
A student elevator pitch has to communicate something. And communication is never a one-way process (hey. That’s why the end goal of your pitch should be to start a conversation, because you don’t have any professional accomplishments to brag about yet.
See how your diploma and studies apply to what the workforce market is looking for.
Of course, depending on the situation, you’ll want to modify your elevator pitch a little bit, but the main ingredients remain the same.
Below are the core priciples that tie together a killer elevator speech:
1. Introduce yourself, say what you do, and how you do it
There’s no going around that part. Say your name, tell them what you study and what relevant experience you have. But, don’t stop there. Instead of just detailing what you do, focus on how you do it and what it is about it that you find particularly interesting.
2. Add some captivating details about you
Mention something that makes you unique. It can be a quick story about how you got into your field, an interesting finding you uncovered recently that might be relevant to the person you’re talking to, or a pain point related to your industry that they’ll immediately understand.
3. Provide examples of your past achievements
If you’ve had internships or part-time work experience in your industry, do talk about what you learned, the skills you developed, and results you helped achieve. This way, you’re presenting yourself as a potential asset to an organization or a good partner for collaboration, if speaking to a peer.
4. Use the ending of your pitch as a conversation-starter
At the end of your pitch, ask a question. Depending on the situation, it might be an invitation to talk more about how you could help them, asking them to share some of their knowledge with you, asking about their professional challenges and how they tackle them, or even just asking what they do!
The critical thing, after you deliver your pitch is to keep the conversation alive!
Alright, I know. The theoretical parts often sound pretty vague.
Let’s have a look at 5 different student elevator pitch examples for different situations and scenarios and break down each of those to see what makes it work.
How and when to use your elevator pitch
Okay, so enough of theory. Now what?
1) Perfect your draft
If you got the gist of it – start crafting your elevator pitch. The first draft is rarely the best draft.
2) Practice
Once you have a good 30-60 seconds speech, practice speaking it in front of a mirror.
3) Simulate
Then, if you have solid friends that don’t mind some role-playing (and won’t make fun of you), simulate the elevator pitch in the context of a back-and-forth conversation.
Start with – “hey, you’re [person of interest] right? I’d really love to join your team”, and have the friend start by asking “can you tell me a bit about you?” then let it roll from there.
4) Look for opportunities to bump into your person of interest
You can wait a lifetime for an opportunity to meet the person to set you on your career path. Finding out what you want to do early on makes it much easier for future you. Changing careers later on may prove to be difficult, though not impossible.
If you believe in destiny then you’re all set… but if you don’t then it’s best you plan for such an event. Make sure to be consistently in the right place and time to meet and have at least 30 seconds with your person of interest.
5) Apply your elevator pitch to sharable documents
The untold truth is that you may or may not get the opportunity to ever give your elevator pitch. But where your elevator pitch really comes in handy is when you proactively add it as part of your CV, application letter, research proposal, digital flipbook or design portfolio. A 30-60 seconds pitch should be 100-300 words, if you are struggling to get it short enough you can use an AI-enabled word counting tool that will adjust your elevator pitch to the target length.
Where to use your elevator pitch
Go ahead and use any of our free interactive templates below. Nothing you can do will help you stand out like these templates.
Interactive CV
Personal elevator pitch (cover letter)
Research proposal
Design project
Student elevator pitch examples and why they work
Career fair
Let’s start with, arguably, the most “standard” scenario. You’re at a career fair, wandering around different companies’ booths (or doing it in a virtual setting). All of them are offering internship opportunities or even entry-level positions for graduates. But there are these few amazing employers you’ve wanted to work for since you started your studies!
How do you approach them? Well, see what Jane did:
What’s so good about it:
- Adds a bit of personal branding that will help distinguish her from other attendees: “I’m a strong believer in creative storytelling.”
- Sparks immediate curiosity by referring to her own research that could be very relevant to the potential employer.
- Promises to add value instead of just asking for a position.
- Ends with an engaging question that encourages meaningful conversation.
Job or internship interview
Now, let’s imagine a similar scenario in an even more formal setting: a job interview. During job interviews, your elevator pitch is, in essence, the answer you give to that dreaded “Tell us about yourself” question. This type of a student elevator speech is the one with least room for creativity. There are rules of the interview game, and you need to follow them.
Like this candidate did:
What’s so good about it:
- Quickly establishes her academic qualifications as well as professional experience.
- Instead of just saying what she did, this candidate briefly explains how she did it and what results she achieved.
- Turns an elevator pitch into an offer to help the employer achieve desired business results.
Casual networking event
Now, not all elevator pitches are about a current employment or internship opportunity. For example, if you’re passionate about mobile technology and meet a representative from a custom mobile app development company at an industry event, your elevator pitch could focus on your keen interest in their work and how you believe mobile apps are revolutionizing various industries.
Sometimes you’re at a conference or an event dedicated to networking and you meet other people from your industry.
See how this student, we’ll call him Jack, approached an editor of one of his favorite journals:
What’s so good about it:
- Opens with an emotional and captivating intro: saving humans from robots, wow, sounds scary AND exciting!
- Identifies an issue relatable to the person he’s talking to: all those half-spammy headlines about “AI writers already being more efficient than human beings.”
- Shows how his knowledge can make life easier for the person he’s pitching and backs it up with numerical data.
- Doesn’t want anything immediately out of the conversation, ends with a call to exchange experiences.
Elevator pitch with no experience
Did those elevator pitch samples above still sound too intimidating? It’s true, the people from the examples had at least some work or internship experience and were nearing the end of their college studies. But—
Even if you have zero experience and are only starting out on your degree, you can still deliver a head-turning elevator pitch. What you need is to center it around your passion and enthusiasm. Like James did here:
What’s so good about it:
- Starts with a personal story. And all humans love stories.
- Uses the story to highlight his genuine interest in his field.
- Talks about specifics: healthcare mobile app development, wow, this guy is not kidding, he’s really into this niche!
- Uses the elevator pitch as a learning opportunity, asking one of his gurus to share some of her expertise. Who would say no to that?
Semi-personal introduction
Finally, an elevator pitch for the least formal scenario: an introduction to a peer in a semi-personal setting such as a university event. Almost like something you’d say when introducing yourself to someone at a party. You’ll want them to quickly understand what you do and encourage them to tell you the same about themselves.
Like in this example:
What’s so good about it:
- Sparks curiosity by referencing an element of our pop culture. I mean, who doesn’t recognize David Attenborough?
- Presents her area of professional interest in a casual, easy-to-grasp way.
- Asks a creative question at the end, steering the conversation away from generic cliches of “I’m an X-year student of Y with a minor in Z, you?”
The “Elevator Email”
Now a couple of years into a global pandemic, a lot of opportunities and connections are made online. Networking post-pandemic has changed the way we typically connect and communicate with each other. For students, this means shifting elevator pitches to “elevator emails” or messages that state your value proposition in a quick and simple email.
Although it might seem daunting, being able to write a strong elevator email is an essential skill for showing your ambition and eagerness for a role or opportunity. Once you create your first elevator email template, you can continue to work and improve your message, much like how you refine your thoughts when putting pens to paper.
Here is a great example of an elevator email:
What’s so good about it:
- Opens with a personalized message that shows your experience, qualifications, and relevance to the role.
- Introduces your interest, industry, job title, or previous experience.
- Highlights your accomplishments, skillset, and related history.
- Includes prepared assets and resources.
- Provides a call to action or next step for you to meet in a more personalized setting.
Wrapping it up:
Before you go, here are a few extra tips to help you deliver a great student elevator pitch:
- To keep your elevator pitch as natural as possible, try not reciting a rehearsed formula. Use an outline but adapt the exact wording every time.
- Always end your pitch with an engaging question. The ideal outcome of “pitching” is starting to chat with the person, not just hearing “Oh, nice to meet you.”
- If you’re passionate about something, don’t tone it down! Your genuine enthusiasm is one of your strongest assets at this stage of your career.
- Avoid cliches and meaningless buzzwords: “go-getter,” “A Player,” “hard-working,” “attentive to detail,” and the like.
- Practice your pitch in front of someone who knows you well. Ask them if you sound the way you do when you normally speak. If not, adapt your tone and wording.
And that’s all from me today! Thanks for reading my guide and I hope the whole idea of an elevator pitch is now less scary and intimidating than it used to be. Keeping my fingers crossed for your pitch!
