Office of Career Services (OCS), University of Management and Technology organised a training workshop titled “30-second elevator pitch”, under their “OCS Funtabulous Career Drive’ in collaboration with Career Karwaan, on Wednesday. The workshop was third in the series of sessions organized by OCS-UMT and was conducted by Senior Corporate Trainer and Experiential Learning Specialist Saad Tariq, who steered the audiences through different interactive exercises, with the aim of helping young students to stand-out in the marketplace by getting a know-how of their unique selling prepositions.
Addressing the students, he said every individual possessed a unique set of talents and abilities which made them different from their competitors or other potential employees in the job market. He advised students to think out of the box to challenge the prevailing hindrances in their career path-ways, securing a stable job in the ever-competitive market place. “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t know it well enough,” he added.
Talking about 30-second elevator pitch, Saad said, an effective elevator pitch was a personal branding statement, the one that would force the potential employer to call you for a personal meeting or interview. He said, securing a job in these 30 seconds was not the right approach towards the problem at hand, but the main objective of the candidate should be to impress the employer forcing him to consider the applicant worthy for the opening.
“A good elevator pitch should identify the goal or objective of the applicant, it should explain what the applicant intends to achieve through the prospect, should engage the employer by raising interesting questions and should be delivered with conviction and confidence,” Saad added.
He also advised students to practice their pitch wisely, without sounding monotonous and nervous. Saad also conducted interactive activities with the audience, in order to instruct and guide them the right way of developing their personal branding statements.
Talking to the students, UMT-OCS Director Khalid Naqi said disruptive innovation and changes in the marketplace had evolved the demands of potential employers. He advised students to be marketable graduates through developing the ability to architect solutions to multifarious problems, by expressing and communicating clearly, by projecting a pleasing personality and developing the right set of employability skills to excel in their respective careers.
OCS Funtabulous drive offers a series of fun-filled, interactive, musical and informative activities for students with the aim of helping them to stand-out in the market place. This drive will encompass 26 interactive sessions, catering the diverse needs of students, helping them to survive in the ever-changing and evolving workplace order. This drive is a project of ‘Innovation Capital Development Forum, one of the leading think-tanks administered by OCS, with the aim of helping students in their personal branding endeavours.
The objective of the Office of Career Services (UMT) is to enhance and develop professional portfolio and skill-set of students and graduates by conducting a wide array of career-oriented activities, workshops, training sessions and recruitment drives, along with providing young and enthused students the prospects of interacting and engaging with leading industrial professionals, career counselling services and comprehensive job offerings in leading organisations .
