Do you need an elevator pitch?

I have always taken for granted that people could perfectly understand what work I do without needing to give any further explanation to those few words that I’m used to say: I am web developer.

Just recently I’ve reflected on the fact that I am so used to hear people asking me if I can design them leaflets or fix their computer that it even doesn’t surprise me. But it should had surprised me, and it should had made me think much more time ago that the problem is me not helping this people understand what kind of job I do.

How much do other people, who are not in my same working industry, understand what my job role is involves? A few days ago I decided to ask my family and close friends to give me a brief description of what they think my technical skills and daily tasks are, and so I could have a better idea of how they think I spend a big part of my time. Well, I must say some descriptions where quite amusing, others went more close but still inaccuracies and lacks.

The different feedback that I have received made me understand where the lacks are and above all made me understand what level of language I must use in order to give an effective explanation.

I am not a big fan of elevator pitches, they seem to put limits on the creativity and the passion of the intuition of the moment, but I have to admit that it can be used as a guideline. I find it a good idea to have a few sentences that I proved to be effective so they are ready to be adapted and used whenever the situation requires it.

There are many resources on blogs about how to write a successful pitch, if you are interested visit the following resources. My only advice is to avoid whoever sponsors the tips stating how they can make you sell more/earn more, think only about quality tjhat you can provide and how you can be useful for clients and employers.

By the way, this is how I like to describe what I do:

I’m a web developer – which means I help people turn ideas and needs into web applications able to perform powerful functions and manipulate information. My role goes beyond building for the front end view: I also take care of making web sites and applications easy to use and access by all users, secure and simple to maintain.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Web development, en. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.